Case Study: The Dangers Of Not Being Transparent
Friday, October 17th, 2008Sometimes you (aka the social media manager, PR person, whatever) may stumble upon a blog or forum that’s perfect for you to… “seed” your product or service (I really hate that term. Seed.). For example, you have this list-keeping tool that seems perfect for, oh, a productivity blog. The tendency may be to “casually” reply to a blog post about lists and mention “oh I use this app” in an attempt to make it sound credible. Maybe it might look a little like this (click for larger image):
Not Being Transparent
At first glance, it does sound like a productivity/GTD/insert-your-vertical-here enthusiast talking about his favourite app or service. Here’s the thing: if you don’t mention at the very beginning that you’re intimately associated with the product, this is what happens (click for larger image):
Getting Caught
Needless to say, this “outing” has serious implications for your credibility and you’ve probably just lost any chance of “seeding” at this blog again. (No, changing names or using an anonymous name is not the solution).
Have you had experiences like this before? What do you think someone like this could do to earn back some trust? Air your views!
Tags: Blogs, dangers of not being transparent, gtd, productivity, seeding bloggers, social media, transparency online
