Bloggers Are The New 30 Second Spots, Billboards and Advertisements
Monday, November 9th, 2009For some reason today it hit me how many tweets I read from the local Singaporean bloggers have become increasingly brand-focused over the last few months. And in many instances not because they are genuinely fans of the brand, but because they’re part of this programme or that outreach or whatever it is.
If Twitter (and social media) is a channel, then these brand-pushed tweets are no different from the ad in the middle of my magazine, billboard when I drive on the road or 30 second ad in the middle of my tv show. They’re disruptive and we’re back where the whole problem with traditional media began.
The problem here is twofold:
1) Agencies are lazy
I think it’s time to go beyond blogger outreach. This is a whole blog post on its own so I won’t get into it here. The other problem is
2) Bloggers allow it
I don’t even know if this is a conscious or subconscious decision, but how many bloggers are blogging about what got them started in the first place? I look at a couple of blogs who I used to follow and now the word “advertorial” is in every other post. I think we (bloggers) need to remember what got us those readers to subscribe to our blogs in the first place. What got the first 10, 50, 100, 200, 500 people to follow us on Twitter in the first place. I’m pretty sure 9/10 times the reason is not “so they could get messages from brands” and to be free walking breathing tweeting advertisements for them. As Jo from Flowing Motion put it to me today while discussing the topic: “what about your reputation?”
The whole promise about social media was that it would be a conversation. People would feel passionately (or not) about products and services and by communicating with each other, hopefully community is built and advocacy is developed. And yes, I recognise that it won’t always be organic and that sometimes a brand will reach out and we bloggers will respond, but really, let’s try to maintain some decorum of self-dignity and refuse to be the new marketing vehicles of companies because we have worked hard to build up our credibility and to be relevant to our audiences and have their trust.
Is that really worth that extra blog post just so you’ll get invited to that next event that has barely anything to do with your blog content?
You decide.
Tags: 30 second spot, advertisements, billboards, bloggers, Singapore, social media
