My 2 cents on ‘Irish blog posts for sale’
Published August 9th, 2005 in PR in IrelandYou can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. - Abraham Lincoln
All of a sudden Irish bloggers are talking about (here, here, here and here) ‘paid’ blog posts. That is to say, companies and PR agencies asking them to lend them their ear. I’m in a semi-unique position to comment, in that I’m an Irish blogger, I work in PR and I used to get freebies for doing film reviews for Kikizo.com and video games for Gamers Europe.
Here’s a quick reality check - there isn’t that many Irish blogs out there at the moment that warrant being pitched. By that, I mean that there isn’t that much scope in the Irish blogosphere. On top of that I don’t want to hear Tom Raftery or Michele Neylon telling me about the latest film, that’s not why I read their blog. If it’s an IT related product or service then fine, but I don’t want to read about bad service in a hotel in an IT blog unless it’s linked back to your core content (although in that case I think it warranted the post 
)
There are three reasons behind this rant
1. PR practitoners should know their blogs
2. Bloggers need to keep their posts on topic
3. Irish bloggers need to learn how the game is played
1. Know your bloggers
One of the golden rules in PR is ‘know your media’. I don’t expect to see Karlin Lillington to be writing about how Manchester United fared last weekend, so therefore I wouldn’t send her a press release about it or pitch her about some new soccer podcast. That’s why PR practitioners are getting a blog-bashing at times.
I haven’t pitched any bloggers yet, but when I do I’m not going to pitch inappropriately. While the practice of sending a press release to a hundred journalists may slide, if you whisk off a generic piece of garbage to a thousand bloggers then karma is going to give you a giant kick in the backside (Is it any wonder that there’s talk of a PR blacklist)
2. Keep your posts on topic
In a recent conversation with Ed Byrne, he chastised me somewhat for posts like this. His point was that as blogging continues to take off he’s going to subscribe to more and more feeds. He’s already at the point where he’s had to unsubscribe to a few because he simply doesn’t have time to read them. So when blogs he subscribes to start to go off topic more often he simply deletes the subscription because it means that he’s missing out on something else. I agree with him and will follow the strategy of not posting instead of posting for the sake of it.
3. Learn how the game is played
Bloggers are going to also have to learn the ‘game’. There’s all this talk of getting paid to post, getting freebies in return for a post and God knows what else. Blogs aren’t the first websites to receive freebies - over two years ago I started to contact PR agencies and got freebies from Akklaim, Take 2, Microsoft and others for Gamers Europe - a non-profit website (i.e. I wasn’t getting paid, instead I did it because I like video games.)
I haven’t worked on any freebie accounts during my PR career, but when I give a motoring correspondent a car he knows that he’s getting it for a week and that’s it. He also knows that if I give out to him for a bad review that he can choose not to review my client’s products in the future, thus reducing their share of voice (It’s rather unlikely that would happen, but he could definitely make life unpleasant for me.)
If Irish bloggers are going to take freebies like a trip on a Boeing airplane then you should say so, if not I’ll unsubscribe. If you’re just a 4/5 reviewer then I’ll unsubscribe. Notice the pattern?
On the other hand, it’s developments like this which will see blogging flourish as bloggers begin to refine themselves by adhering to standards and becoming more transparent.
At the end of the day we will see the effects of PR on Irish blogs eventually, but I wouldn’t get my knickers in a twist about it yet.
12 Responses to “My 2 cents on ‘Irish blog posts for sale’”
- 1 Pingback on Aug 9th, 2005 at 8:57 pm
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Hi Piaras,
thanks for this contribution to the conversation - it is good to hear from a PR person on this subject.
Maybe I need more coffee but I’m not sure I’m understanding what you mean when you say:
Do I take that to mean that if we take freebies, we should say so?
I think what Piaras means is if you’re pitched, take a freebie, and POST about it, you should note that in your post.
Basically common ethical sense should lean bloggers. I’d only love a few freebies, like the bottle of Stormhoek I got the other week - which when/if I post about, it’ll be relevant to my blog AND I’ll inform readers about the situation.
Hole in one Ed. There has to be an element of transparency to the whole thing.
Onne thing I didn’t point out is that in a lot of cases, espeicially the free bottle of wine example, it’s enough to give bloggers your product and not expect anything out of it. Bloggers are primarily opinionated, educated, tech savy males. I didn’t take the bottle of wine, but Ed did and he’s told me about it in the real world as well as a wine retailer. Forget the blogosphere and think about the real world impact of giving connectors your product.
I’m not sure I’d agree with that. But then many of the blogs I read are not tied to one topic or subject. Robert Scoble, Dave Winer, Doc Searls, David Weinberger etc. all have very loose blogs. They talk about IT, about social software, about their lives. I in fact quite like it that they do this as it gives me a better insight to where their views are coming from. I liked Tom’s rant about the restaurant because it lets me see his view on non-IT services and how he deals with other real world things.
Oh my. I don’t like that. Bloggers are entitled to post what they want on their own blog. I’m sure there are blogs out there created to talk about one topic but there are a hell of a lot of blogs out there that are about peoples views on things they are interested in. Whether that be politics, IT, life etc.
I’d class myself as a guest in Tom’s room, where he shares his opinions on things. It is his soap box, his two cents. As you say if I don’t like to hear his views on things I can walk away and unsubscribe. What I really don’t like though is the way some people threaten unsubscribing to make people get back on topic. Unless the blog is a commercial venture that you are paying for and investing in, I don’t think anyone has much of an entitlement to dictate editorial policy. You can somment and suggest things alright but the blogger is the conversation starter at the end of the day.
The idea that someones views and tastes on one area might also apply to another is the idea of OpenCola, a defunct P2P app where it would match things in your shared folder with other things people have. So it would suggest new music and new ebooks based on what you and others liked.
I think one of the issues here is that people think that bloggers are journalists or pundits or whatever. But blogging is very broad. You can be a PR person and a blogger, a Govt Minister and a blogger and a journalist and a blogger and the blog will be different for each job.
As long as you can relate your personal interests back to your topic of conversation that’s fine. For example, Steve Rubel is an American Football fan and relates this back to social media. Apart from the odd post about getting married, etc, the blog follows a path.
Let’s move away from this idea of editorial policy and think of it more like a train of thought. I susbcribe to people who I am interested in listening to. The most successful bloggers all tend to have a train of thought, even Boing Boing - there’s is random of course
Of course they are … but if they post crap, then no ones going to read it. Blogs aren’t private journals, fair enough, they are a persons soap box, but no one will listen if the blog doesn’t have a consistent style and type of post.
No one is ‘threatening’ anything … it’s a simple fact that good, interesting blogs get read, boring rants on irrelevant topics don’t.
Exactly. And each one will have a topical perspective that makes it interesting to some readers.
It’s a farce to say that bloggers are completely altruistic. Each blogger wants build readership so as to enhance their career / personal brand / whatever … their is SOME goal. Therefore bloggers do have to try and post things of interest and relevance.
I don’t think I’m the only one who won’t subscribe to a blog where only 10% of the posts are of interest to me. Am I?
I’d even dispute that.
Blogging is a conversation. Sometimes the audience is the blogger, sometimes it is to family, sometimes it is to the world. It doesn’t have to be to advance ones career or get oneself noticed.
Strangely enough one of my favourite blogs is BoingBoing. Cory Doctorow on that describes how he uses the site as a personal link storage device. He posts stuff that interests him and it is a bonus that other people are interested. He says that he posts to himself.
The main two reasons I blog are:
1) like Cory does, to use my site as a linklog and
2) As a braindump. I have loads of thoughts and opinions on various things and I find it is better to get them out of my head and express them on my blog or on paper and clear room for new thoughts that are forming and distilling.
Damien,
Let’s be honest … if you REALLY put down all your thoughts, I doubt you’d publish them to the world … personal privacy and all that
And don’t think that Boing Boing is either altruistic or not goal-oriented - it’s one of the most profitable web logs in the world (could be number 1 but I don’t want to quote things I’m not sure of). Admittedly they don’t have 1 topic, but Boing Boing’s appeal is it’s off-colour and weird posts (apart from Cory’s copyfight stuff) .. so it does have a certain consistency … I know what to expect from a Boing Boing post.
Let’s just agree to disagree … we both think Blogs are great, I just don’t believe most Bloggers do it with no motivations.
Let’s be honest … if you REALLY put down all your thoughts, I doubt you’d publish them to the world … personal privacy and all that
Do they still have that “Crimes Against Humanity” clause? Gits. So restrictive.
Up to very recently BoingBoing made no money but they started getting grief for their hosting charges. John Batelle came on board and “monetized them”. Up to then they were of the hippy persuasion when it came to money. I think the Gawker stable of blogs are the ones that make the most.
And sure, I can agree to disagree.
Once you get the last word in right? Woops … that was me!
Bluh. So many posts around lately all over the gaff about what bloggers should and should not do…
Surely it’s a case by case basis kind of thing.
I’m too lazy to rant on any more… (thank god I hear you say.)
Frank