Here’s a hilarious video review – with disclosures aplenty – of the book “Inbound Marketing,” by Steve Garfield.
The FTC and blogola: here comes trouble
Last week, the FTC issued a ruling that will have the effect of cracking down on bloggers who write about free products without disclosing that they were, in fact, “compensated” for the post.
Disclosing payment is one of those “things you should have learned in kindergarten.” It’s common sense. It’s a basic component of the PRSA Code of Ethics, for example. Who would be against that? For example, here is how an article on Mashable framed the issue:
Certainly, it seems like this is an update that’s time has come. While most well-run social media programs already include appropriate disclosure, there’s still no shortage of unscrupulous marketers using deceptive practices to sell products. Now, with the threat of serious fines, those who look to push the boundaries of ethical blogging will be doing so at their own risk.
Yet, something about the ruling seemed wrong to me. Then I read an excellent piece by Eric Felten in the Wall St. Journal. Felten writes the popular column, “How’s your drink?” and he made my objections clear.
Specifically, he notes that swag is a part of life at even the most high-toned newspapers and magazines: “Jumbo are the shrimp and deep are the highballs at most media events,” he writes. No newspaper is going to pay for a book reviewed in the Sunday section. No food writer is going to pay for the unsolicited cookbooks that arrive daily, hoping for some ink. And no sports writer is going to pay for that great seat in the media deck at the ballpark. Yet a blogger writing about an unsolicited book could be fined for failure to disclose.
In the United States, we don’t license journalists. There’s no corral that safely keeps journalists in and bloggers out. In fact, while the business model for newspapers slowly dies, we’re seeing interesting hybrids, publications like the Huffington Post, Politico, and hyperlocals like the Chi-town Daily News and the Beachwood Reporter. Who’s a journalist? Who can say? And the FTC rules also cover other, unspecified “word-of-mouth” marketers, whatever they are.
I agree with Felten: this regulation has a potential chilling effect on speech, while failing to show a serious harm that the ruling might protect us from. Dear FTC, give us some credit for being able to assess the veracity of what we read.
Here’s a final question raised by the ruling. I serve as a professor at Loyola University Chicago. Let’s say a prospective student arrives at my office and I provide a tour of our facilities, pointing out good things about our program. Do I have to disclose my salary to the student? Have I provided an “endorsement” for which I am paid? Am I a “word-of-mouth marketer?”
Does the FTC really want to look that closely into, well, everything?
photo credit: ashe-villain, licensed under Creative Commons
In search of ethos online
Aristotle, the father of rhetoric, taught us about the three great appeals: logos, the logical appeal; pathos, the emotional appeal; and ethos, the appeal of reputation.
Who you are matters. And as we go through life, we create meaningful relationships with people, in large part based upon ethos.
But all that falls apart online. And as social media evolve, we need to fix this, or the communities will fall apart.
Arthur Frommer wrote last week of widespread shill reviews on travel sites, including popular sites like tripadvisor.com. Frommer reports that one travel site, beatofhawaii.com, says up to half of tripadvisor’s reviews appear to be placed by PR firms, restaurants and hotels – all on their own behalf. He further reports that Royal Caribbean Cruise lines has engaged in a “pay for play” scheme to “wine and dine” frequent cruisers, in return for positive reviews on social media sites (note: do this search to see the blowback from consumer advocates about this program).
Locally, at kansas.com, the portal for the Wichita Eagle, the comments on stories are filled with hateful, cloaked comments, cheapening the site.
So, what can we do about this?
- Require registration. Anonymous comments have no value. Only cowards hide behind anonymity.
- Registration is a start, but websites and news services should require people to use their real names. A newspaper wouldn’t publish an anonymous or cloaked comment, so why should a website?
- People who carry out discourse publicly should want to tell us who they are. If you’re a company or blogger, you can provide a link to your site. If you’re not, consider a suggestion by David Meeman Scott, author of World Wide Rave: create a Google Profile (here’s mine). A Google profile is free, easy to create, and provides basic contextual information about who you are.
You might use a LinkedIn or Facebook identity, but as Scott points out, you need to be a member of that network to see your page. Anyone can see your Google Profile.
Professionals should know better than to post phony reviews. As a member of the Public Relations Society of America, I am bound by the PRSA Code of Ethics, which includes the following:
- Avoid deceptive practices
- Reveal the sponsors for causes and interests represented
- Be honest and accurate in all communications
It’s not rocket science. Any professional should know that it’s wrong to lie or fail to disclose an interest. And still, people do it all the time. And drilling down to the level of comments left on an online newspaper, there’s no pretense of professionalism. It’s a literal free-for-all.
In the end, people will tire of this tainted marketplace of ideas. Maybe that’s what it will take to get people to pay for content online. Online communities that are honest, ethical and policed for trolls. Like a country club, you charge a fee to weed out the undesirables. And then say good bye to the public swimming pool.
In my daily life, I’m very selective about who I’ll call a “friend.” Online, I would also rather hang out with friends than people who won’t even tell me their real names.
Let’s raise our standards online, treasure our friends, and say goodbye to the trolls.