This is an interesting space Chris. In short, I see it as a positive that corporates are beginning to recognise the power and reach of blogging and blogs. As you say, I just hope bloggers keep it real and stay transparent!

I think that there is an enormous divide with regard to product type. Carrying around a camera to a meeting and disclosing that Nikon sent it to you is very different than trying a health product that could cause side effects. As someone who blogs about menopause, I’ve wondered from time to time how I would handle product marketing. I espouse alternatives to HRT on a regular basis but not because I’m ’selling;’ rather because I’ve tried these products and they work for me. So I think that decision as to whether or not your blog is for rent depends on your tenant, no?

Completely agree about disclosure and expectations. I go a step further on the receiving samples side of the equation.

When someone e-mails offering to send me an “evaluation” copy of anything, if I agree to accept it, I always include the line, “please understand that I will do my best to use/read the product, but do not in any way guarantee or imply that it will be reviewed or mentioned in any particular outlet to which I contribute. If you are comfortable with this arrangement, please send the sample to…”

This way, if someone chooses to send me something, they know the deal.

Jonathan - good point. Sometimes, when I’m sent books to review, I get really pushy people asking me where the blog post is. That’s always when I forget to mention that I might *not* review the book, especially if I loathe it. I’m not big on negative posts.

One guy actually said, “Oh, we’d still love the blog post. Even bad press, you know.”

So, up it went.

I think that blogs have been for rent for a long time, but it’s deemed ‘OK’ now to admit it. And by it being out in the open, more companies are realising that sending you evaluation stuff doesn’t mean that you HAVE to blog about it, just that you may if it’s good enough.

I notice quite a few online products offering incentives if you blog about their products too - not all of them are as open about it though.

In some ways it’s just an advancement of affiliate marketing I guess.

Chris:

I enjoyed this article - it must be fun to receive nice products like Nikon camera and Garmin unit. I think I’ll start twittering about getting lost and wishing I had a Garmin unit. LOL.

Seriously, I’ve been using my Blackberry as a GPS unit. It’s a bit challenging to hold the tiny unit in one hand and drive with the other while flickering my eyes back and forth between the road the the GPS on the BB. But it’s gotten me to where I want to go.

A Garmin unit might be a bit more useful, not to mention safer.

To answer your question - is my blog for rent? Well, it hasn’t been made available for rent but I suppose I’d consider it - why not?

I believe your comments regarding transparency and disclosure are spot on Chris. We have tried to build that into our new social media marketing platform as much as possible and created a code of ethics around these principles.

I would love your feedback on how we can make the code of ethics better.

http://socialspark.com/code_of_ethics

If you hit disclosure head on there isn’t much room for fallout.

Hey Chris,

Why are bloggers different than TV Shows?

When I used to watch Alias, you’d see them zip around a fast corner, and then zoom in and linger on a shot of the (insert name of car company brand here) . When I used to see that, I’d say “Oh man. Product placement.” It’s obvious and I’m sure they disclosed it in the credits at the end of the show.

But, they didn’t interrupt the stream, and pop up and say, “This car furnished by ” in the middle of a car chase.

I’m in a number of blogger programs. I post that information on my main site, http://stevegarfield.com, so if people are interested, they can check over there. It’s kind of like my credits page.

In addition, I’ll disclose the relationship in certain blog posts like this one:

“Steve’s 2007 Most Memorable New Product Launch Picks: iPhone, Nikon D40/D80 (blogger program participant), NOKIA N95 (blogger program participant),”

In that case I’m honestly recommending the product, and also want people to know that the companies had sent me evaluation products…

Other times I might write something like this:

“Thanks to Nikon for sending me D80. That’s what made most of these photos possible. I love the aperture priority on it and the compact size of the 18-135mm …”

While other times I’ll post:

“The D80 has fine detail in the image with great color. … Benefits of the iPhone / N82 over the D80, is that you are connected via the cell network or WiFi …”

When in public, if someone asks me about a product I’m using, I’ll usually say that sent me this one, and them tell them my thoughts…

Sadly my D80’s evaluation period has expired and I have to send it back.

I really enjoyed the D80 and am thinking about upgrading to a higher model that is better in low light situations without a flash.

I’m still perplexed about which HD video camera to buy and haven’t had a chance to evaluate any of them. ;-)

Thanks,
–Steve

[…] Brogan raises an interesting take on the old “blog swag” issue. When is a review item a bribe and when is it just a review item? Most bloggers deal with the issue […]

Still not sure how a corp like Coke could ever do it *correctly*. Most consumer product corp. see blogs as influencers/individuals rather than media outlets. Are blogs *real* media? So, how could Coke do it differently? Is it possible?

Well if Coke want to send me pallets full of Coke Zero so I’ll blog about drinking it and how I couldn’t live without it i’d be happy to. :)

I remember a UK jobs website that used to tell their readers what Pot Noodle they were eating every day - eventually people started asking, if they weren’t told. They weren’t sponsored, but they could have been.

Danny Sullivan often Tweets saying he’s drinking Diet Coke - maybe he’s getting sponsored?

The other day I plurked and Tweeted about eating Pickled Onion Monster Munch - I’m sure I’d mention them more if I was sponsored and sent loads of packets :)

There are ways that Coke could do it, but they need to think a little more subtly than IN YER FACE!!!!!! as they do.

Great post as usual Chris. I’ve really enjoyed following your Social Media 100 project.

Your experience with the Nikon and Garmin products were very favorable. I’m curious how you might have handled your reviews if that wasn’t the case. Would you have blogged openly about your critique, or stayed silent?

I can see no problem in accepting an advertisement for a product ! If the product is reviewed honestly both parties benefit !

[…] Chris Brogan has some inteesting insights on how to incorporate the latter into our blog/newsletter without subscribers feeling they’re being taken advantage of. Click Here for more. […]

Boy this is a tough one for me because the line is so thin. The power of the net is that the little guy can have his say, but if everyone is touting stuff because they are getting “demos”, even with full transparency, it dilutes the credibility of the medium just a little each time. Sure if you watch a TV show you know that there is product placement, but when the car pulls up and stops and the camera holds *just a little* longer than it should because the logo *just happens* to be in the middle of the screen, doesn’t that make you roll your eyes? Let’s not kid ourselves here - the line is thin and you have to be very careful or people will be rolling their eyes as they read your blog, IMO.

It’s all about disclosure. Tell me the truth upfront and we’re cool. Don’t disclose it and I discover it, and you’ve lied to me.

Excellent post. Very timely for me as well.

This afternoon, I included a mention of someone else’s ebook in a post. The text I used was:

[Declaration - if you buy the ebook as a result of clicking the link above, I will receive a small commission. This does not affect the price you pay. Our policy is always to declare commission/affiliate links, but only to recommend products based on personal experience.]

Should I _also_ declare that I got a copy of the ebook as a “review copy” (and did, to be fair, come up with about a dozen typos and a few suggestions)????

Interesting point, I fully agree with disclosure as it shows your not trying to be deceptive.

I run niche communities where people can discuss the different niches and then I have affiliate programs to help the costs. This got me to add a disclosure in the footer about how the site receives a percentage of all sales. This way I can be more transparent and honest with people.

The question of what I would do if I didn’t like the product or service is a good one. My gut tells me that I’d probably not damn them as harshly, because they gave me the products in the first place, and yet, would that be doing a service to my community? If something I didn’t say influenced you to buy the product and come away unhappy, wouldn’t that be an issue?

I’m glad my blog isn’t often about reviews and criticism. I usually just like to point out things I like and that would be useful. Even this post, technically, is about programs like this and what they mean for folks.

What an interesting bunch of answers from folks. I appreciate your thoughts, and the conversation is definitely fascinating to me.

Have you looked at what others are saying? What would you say to the other people on the comment thread?

When we started working with influencers at Microsoft in the early days of .NET and later in my career at Adobe, we learned that the art of disclosure technically needs to be on both sides of the transaction. Developer and technical audiences are much more scrutinous of the “evil marketing” ways than camera or GPS intenders.

While it is good to have you indicating that you are a member of the “blogger” program, I think it would be even better if Nikon and Garmin openly published information about the influencer program and its participants. I actually think it would make good marketing, it would aggregate the participants so I can see into the world and it would move the burden of transparency off of the rental blogger.

I appreciate the example you give, Chris, for how to “hold” the request (whether overt or covert) to review a product or service - staying open, enjoying the product (or not), being transparent with the vendor and especially your readers, and not apologizing for your experience.

I’m often a little intimidated in this arena, e.g. when authors who’ve sent me books press for WHEN the review is going to be published, but your model helps me see another way of doing things.

Great post, and as always thoughtful and provocative comments.

Garmin and Nikon got the best advertising ever. I’m replying without having read any other comments first because I like to do that: I apologise therefore if I inadvertantly contradict anyone else or cover things already covered.

You demonstrated from what you wrote above the incredible power of the blogosphere: In the simplest terms: Company has product designed to do a job - Blogger needs that job done - Company supplies product to blogger - blogger reports that the product does its job well from first-hand practical experience: ‘Couldn’t be better if it wanted to: First rate…And those who read the blog know from the trusted blogger’s report that the product works well and word spreads: Blog readers buy product and tell friends who also buy product - Target neutralised!

The sooner corporate businesses; in fact any businesses, take the power of the blog on board the better for them. You’re getting them the deals that sell product directly or indirectly so At least 1 free product for you wouldn’t hurt a multi-million dollar company surely. I do think they’re being a bit tight…Then again if they realise your blog gets their product sold they should be back for more with some or better financial incentive: Again target neutralised. - Heads you win, tails you win; in fact everyone’s a winner.

And yet, isn’t it funny? If the company owned the blog, who’d care what someone said on it? Right?

I think this is a great topic that needs more coverage among the blogger community. So many websites and scams are about generating money through your blog that its become common place for new bloggers to think that its a guaranteed source of income. I’m also glad you covered the ethical side of it as well, that there should be shared expectations between company and blogger that allow genuine conversation and feedback about the product or service between the blogger and its community. This is the only way i see “word-of-mouth” advertising being useful-otherwise, it is just a rigged blog for rent. Thanks for the refreshing commentary-
Rebekah Lovell

I like what you are saying. I do feel that somewhere it needs to be stated that you have a connection to the product. On the other hand when you read a review in even Consumer Reports you do not know the full story on what they furnished. Much of this falls under the guidelines that journalists use.

Chris,

I come from both sides of this equation. I live in Orlando and see the whole Social Spark / IZEA thing as well as the situation you are in. I agree that full disclosure is the only way to go. And why should it be any different? The day I start deceiving my readers is the day they find another authentic voice.

On the Coke side, I did a recent idea session for some of their team members and hopefully they will get it. They cannot buy their way into the Social Media world. They are going to have to be authentic and speak about whatever culture they want out in the open and “be real.”

Advertisers should use bloggers as a way to guage interest in their product. Most bloggers are early adopters, love the new gadgets and products and frankly want to be the 1st to write about it. I’d love to test drive a new camera, and I love the fact that I don’t have to talk about it. But the fact that the option is there and hopefully the product rocks, well then, I most likely will talk about it and hopefully it returns on the initial investment of the advertiser and then some so more bloggers can participate.

Thanks for the post Chris!

Having worked the corporate side, there was always hesitation to have a product reviewed because we couldn’t “control” the message. That being said, I find it interesting that you (Chris) said you were reluctant to post a negative review; a cue from the old adage “If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all.”

Transparency is not only expected, it is required on blogs. Credibility is the blogger’s trump card. Bloggers are “everyman journalists”. If bloggers can’t speak freely but start as paid shills, then it destroys the essence of blogging.

Corporations are under the magnifying glass from so many stakeholders for transparency these days that a blogger requesting to disclose product review terms should not be an issue. From my perspective as a former corporate PR head, I would want bloggers to not only state that my company provided the product for review purposes, but also the company wished the review to be published good or bad. Good reviews are great. Bad reviews spawn discussion and suggestions for improvements and often new and better products.

@Greg - the weirdest part, to me, is that there are plenty of people out there who love Coke, and plenty of Coke lovers who’d try a new product without any hullabaloo.

I guess it’s just the disclosure stuff that confuses people? Not sure.

@Nancy - Great commentary. The whole point about transparency and credibility is 100% the core of this issue, I say.

I think that you’re right that my holding back is the whole courtesy thing. I can see where that would be hurtful to reviewing and to credibility, however. That’s why I brought it up. I wanted to surface the idea and think about it, too.

Instructive case studies, Chris. As many commenters have already said, you’re right about full disclosure and its role in maintaining trust both between company and blogger and between blogger and community members.

One question that crops up a lot when I’m talking to clients is “how do you contact bloggers?” - you skate over this in your post, but both Garmin and Nikon provided good examples.

If you’re a company, step one is to listen. There’s no such thing as a successful cold call in blogging. Garmin did a great job of this.

@Jason - great point. I like that. : )

@chris brogan - yea, you are right, there are plenty of people who do love coke, they just don’t want it pushed on them as with any advertising.

Interesting thought: Is renting out a good bloggers blog any different from them renting the homepage of Myspace, iMeem or whatever other Social Network lets you wrap their homepage?

thoughts…

See, the thing is, once it becomes an ad and not something like word of mouth marketing, it almost immediately falls into the toilet. Right? Or rather..hmm.. okay, because ads aren’t all bad. In fact, some ads get us started on a train of thought we didn’t initially intend.

There’s something there. There’s some value to advertising (hell, there’s a whole industry telling us there’s value there, right?), and yet, it doesn’t get us the WHOLE way there. It gets us to the “thinking about it” phase, and then we need someone or something to push us into the next step. Right?

Thinking.

It falls immediately to the toilet if the advertisement sucks. Just as with WOMM, it needs to be something worth talking about.

And yes, I agree that we need that 2nd step to push us into buying the product, using the service or whatever.

The quicker an advertiser can get us to make that step the more successful they become and the better ROI they get. Integrating advertising into an existing medium like a blogger’s homepage or the iMeem homepage gets you to think and well it got us talking about Coke, even if it was a bonehead move. Now I am in a cafe writing this response and my oh my does a nice cold Coke sound refreshing right now.

Mission accomplished?

[…] Chris Brogan har kommenterat händelsen på sin blogg och påpekar mycket riktigt att full transparens är A och O när man samplar produkter till bloggare. Det är oerhört viktigt att tydligt ange varför man som företag skickar en produkt till en bloggare och dessutom att man förväntar sig att bloggaren - om de nu skulle skriva om produkten - anger vad företagets ursprungliga intention var. Dessutom är det viktigt att produkten som skickas inte är en give-away, utan att den måste skickas tillbaka eller köpas efter en viss tid. på så sätt finns det en möjlighet för bloggaren att skriva om produkten samtidigt som trovärdigheten behålls. […]

[…] My conversations on the matter started when I wrote about the subject of approaching bloggers from the marketers perspective and linked to Chris Brogans “Is Your Blog for Rent” post. […]

Well, Nikon can count me as one of the people who was impressed by getting to play a bit with your D60 recently. It’s not just Chris who has gotten to play with it, but his friends as well-Chris let a bunch of us test it out at PAB, and I now have my eye on one for my next big camera purchase. So there are downstream positives as well.

I’ve gotten a few publishers sending eval copies of books to me, and once, some additional copies to give away on the show. I am happy to interview the author after I read the book. For my show, the LD Podcast, the books are all about making life a bit easier for kids with learning disabilities, and it’s a small market. If I really couldn’t stand the book, it might be a problem. So far, it’s worked out well, since the people who have come out with new books are people I wanted to interview anyway, and the books were great and helpful. If there was one I couldn’t stand or disagreed with, I would have to be honest and let the author know. I did have one interview with someone whose viewpoint i wasn’t sure I agreed with. It ended up being a fairly good conversation regardless, as by the end, I understood where he was coming from much better than before, even if I didn’t totally agree with everything he recommended.
It’s all about honesty in the end.

[…] Is Your Blog For Rent | chrisbrogan.com Blogging and social media are a great set of tools for promoting products and services by the digital version of word of mouth, but it’s a tricky situation. There are lots of opportunities to raise the ire of your community, and lots of ways that the ma (tags: blogging social) […]

For me Chris this was a really interesting post…I’ve been writing my blog for a number of years now - it started small and has grown steadily now to the point where I feel I’m probably ready to start making a bit of money from it etc. One of the things I’m considering is doing paid for reviews…so this was really interesting and especially to hear your readers comments. Will I go ahead with my plans? Yes probably (and any pointers as how best to approach companies would be gratfully recieved!!)but it IS all about the honesty factor isn’t it at the end of the day? :-)
Cheers
Freya

http://www.freyasykes.com

[…] que publicaram a respeito do tema seriam proprietários de blogues de aluguer. Até repercussão internacional já […]

[…] Chris Brogan reacted to Coca Cola’s “rent a blog” strategy and suggested how influencer’s marketing should work? “The secret weapon: disclosure” Chris says “The best of the word of mouth campaigns that I’ve seen, and the few opportunities I’ve had to be part of a promotion, are executed by using strong rules for disclosure, plus the opportunity for the blogger to take the product or service and do with it as they will (versus sticking very tightly to a message). By allowing the blogger to work within their community and communicate in a way that’s appropriate to the people around them, the campaign’s intent was still spread, but without any kind of degradation of trust or relationships” […]