Hiring bloggers to write positive for you – pros and cons
By Palin Ningthoujam on Nov 25, 2009 in PR2.0, social media marketing
Recently one of our clients mentioned a recommendation by an online marketing agency on how they can hire 4-5 people who will start blogs and comment among one another to strike up a positive conversation in the blogosphere (different than having a ghost writer to write for you).
The idea is tempting and you might just even get sold on it, if you are a newbie on social media marketing. You control the message. The bloggers are yours. Yet to the outside world, the effort is going to be seen as passionate fans of your brands/ organisation writing positive about your brand or organisation.
Clandestinely hiring people like this is also often perceived as one of the many shortcuts that companies can implement when they are faced with negative reviews, complaints, etc. on an online forum, where the hired bloggers can challenge the complaints and write positive comments to counter the negatives.
The option to neutralise negative criticism for an organisation without getting involved directly sounds good. There is no risk of flaring up criticism after a direct involvement.
The bloggers might already have established profiles and therefore the chances of their initiated discussions taking as normal customer reactions are high.
However, having said all this, we should not forget that one day people will find out what your organisation has been doing. For instance, one of the bloggers/ writers is not happy working with you anymore due to payments, working style, etc., and he decided to tip off some other blogger or newspaper.
Paying bloggers/ writers to write positive about you might not be an ethical way of dealing with your customers and other stakeholders, and in a way is cheating. One also needs to see the impact that it will have on the brand/ organisation when people actually finds out what has been happening. The damage such short cut methods can cause is too much to ignore.
Hiring bloggers, if at all, should be done transparently and people should be told what their roles are. However again, this could have its pros and cons, which we will discuss next time.
What do you say? Leave your comments.
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On Nov 25, 2009, Ajay Jain said:
Such blogs will also have one characteristic: The only readers will be the ones writing and commenting. Don’t forget, in the content business suffering from an overload, we often follow writer brands. That is why we have our favourite columnists. A paid blogger can NEVER come across as PASSIONATE about his subject – and without that, readership will not follow.
Of course, there are the pitfalls like you mentioned Palin.
On Nov 25, 2009, B.N.Suresh Mangaladurai said:
Well said, Palin! I have been part of a similar experiment of this nature here in Chennai and it is frankly cheating the gullible consumer. Moreover the chances of such a method backfiring are 99% since bloggers are after all human.
An organisation that can use such unethical methods to garner support also is found unethical in the way it handles the blogging crew and this causes resentment amongst the bloggers.
On Nov 25, 2009, Shveta Singh said:
Agree completely with you. Several companies have tried this in past and have been caught as well. Wal-mart is a good example. In India however, companies still find this a short and effective route. Little do they know, that the negatives far outweigh the benefits.
On Dec 3, 2009, prashantn said:
I look at this way. Every activity in this world has a positive reflection and negative reflection.
If the positives are more than the negatives, than the decision can be implemented.
On Dec 6, 2009, sheriyar said:
This is a good article. Once you start to get bloggers writing you can’t get them to stop.
On Jan 14, 2010, srivikas said:
Absolutely against companies to hire bloggers. It is bogus and fundamentally has got nothing to with social media. social media is also about user generated content, viral campaigns and word of mouth. Hiring ppl to write for you is a complete no-no.
two things i would like to suggest :
- it is ok to send sample products to prominent bloggers who enjoy considerable influence in the blog arena to use and review the product.
- it is also ok to hire freelance content writer, brief her/him on the product and ask them to write in company blog. a professinal content writer will know how to use keywords to optimize content and help in search ranking and be good enough to invite comments from other bloggers.
On Nov 25, 2009, FeedLinks said:
PALIN Hiring bloggers discreetly to write positive for you – pros and cons: http://bit.ly/5qlmAB
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On Nov 25, 2009, FeedLinks said:
PALIN Hiring bloggers discreetly to write positive for you – pros and cons: http://bit.ly/5qlmAB
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
On Nov 25, 2009, IndiaPRblog said:
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On Nov 25, 2009, palinn said:
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On Nov 25, 2009, bhanukaran said:
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On Nov 25, 2009, guibenitez said:
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On Nov 27, 2009, Alexandra_A said:
RT @IndiaPRblog: Hiring bloggers discreetly to write positive for you – pros and cons http://bit.ly/5gEbOu
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