Blog
August 2008
Advertising: “Post Our Article”
A couple days ago, I posted about what I’m calling “post-our-post” advertisements: companies offer to send articles to bloggers, which the bloggers then post on their blogs.
The first email I received was only questionably horse-related, so I didn’t give it much thought. Yesterday, I received an email from a horse-related company that I have always heard good things about. My personal opinion of the company has dropped as a result.
The email I received was informal. Like the first, it said something along the lines of “I have these articles you might be interested in, on these topics.” Someone less suspicious than I am probably wouldn’t bother to check the sender’s email address, and might not have realized the proposed articles were coming from a company with a vested interest in the suggested topic.
I am a suspicious git, and I noticed. I emailed back and asked point-blank what the benefit for me was.
Bonus points: the representative responded quickly (on a Saturday, no less). They were honest about the content of the article (it would reference their own products, and other products--especially if the other products worked well in conjunction with theirs. And then I got some marketing speak about building a resource of health articles and blah blah blah.
Not buying it. If this was the case, why didn’t the first email I received say so? Why didn’t the first article have the company’s name and the representative’s contact information in the signature as the second email did?
Here’s the thing. If the company had built a knowledge base of articles on their own site and sent me an email saying, “Check this resource out. Here’s what we offer, here’s why we offer it; if you think it’s useful, would you post a review on your site?” I would have done it in a heartbeat. If the articles were as balanced and neutral as the company representative is claiming they are, I would have had no problems with giving everyone a heads-up about a company-run knowledge base.
I vehemently object to being asked to turn my blog into a knowledge base FOR the company. No matter how neutral and balanced the company thinks the articles are, they are written by people in the company, for the benefit of the company. Either they are selling the company’s products, or they are selling the company’s reputation. Either way: selling the company.
Now, the next logical response is “but there are sites out there that post third-party reviews all the time, and this is a sort of third-party review.” Yes, and no. Running a review site is hard, hard, hard work. The site is made or broken on the editor’s reputation, and the editor’s reputation is made or broken on the quality and fairness of the reviews. I don’t know any good review site that would post an article written by the product’s own company, unless the company had paid for advertising space.
I do know good review sites that will accept products for review and include quotes and extracts from the company’s pitch in their review, which is fine. The company’s perspective is counter-balanced by the reviewer’s stance. That’s why I would review a knowledge base posted on the company’s site, but I won’t post an article written by the company on my site. There has to be an editorial stance in there; you don’t just post what the company says and pretend like it’s neutral.
If the company really wants to break into the blogsphere (which I suspect is partly what’s going on here), they need to rethink their approach. They need to try building a relationship with bloggers instead of using them for marketing space. Build a resource, let bloggers know it exists, and let the bloggers respond to it in their own words. If the resource is good, the response will be good. Want product reviews? Pick some high-profile bloggers and send out products. I love product reviews. If products showed up on my doorstep, I’d review them. I’ve done that, actually (not with horse-related items, but I did run a site that did periodic product reviews, if someone pitched something especially interesting).
I really am not totally against advertising or relationships between bloggers and commercial entities; I’m just against companies that try to take advantage of bloggers, which is what I mostly see happening.
Off to write an email back to the company now, with the gist of this post in it. It’s unfortunate, because the company really does have a good reputation, and this tactic makes me think twice about them.
Olympic Equestrian Events begin
Definitely check out NBC’s online coverage of the equestrian events. I watched the eventing dressage riders this evening and the coverage was fantastic: my feed was great, clear picture of decent size (don’t bother with the “enhanced” view, because it’s grainy and not worth the increase in size). While watching live, I noticed they had someone typing in comments on the tests; the replacement for voice-over commentary, I assume.
I like eventing dressage. I watch the riders go and think, “Hey, I could do that!” Not right this moment, perhaps, but it doesn’t look quite so unattainable as the regular dressage tests.
Unfortunately, the schedule of events on NBC’s site was designed by a programmer, for other programmers. I know, because it has all the hallmarks of “clever tool that isn’t user friendly” that marks so many programmer creations. If anyone can figure out how to get it to display events for any day besides today, please let me know. I would like to know (for example) what is going on tomorrow and when it starts. Eventing stadium? Eventing cross country?
Eh… whatever. They’re archiving the events, so even if I miss them live, I can catch them later.
And for that, I can forgive NBC quite a lot--I can even forgive them the useless schedule. Whee!
Sitting the Trot
Last week’s lesson in the sitting trot: more weight in the stirrups + more relaxed knee = better sitting trot.
This week’s lesson: brace the ankle.
With a loose ankle, all the bounce dissipated at the ankle, which meant I could follow the horse’s motion (when I was lucky) but not really influence it. Brace the ankle, and the bounce goes back to the knee. So long as the knee was elastic, I had more control over what my seat was doing. Which meant I could actually influence the horse with my seat.
This all came together in the shoulder in. Usually I get the horse into the shoulder in ok, but we stall out. I can sometimes recover and keep the horse moving forward, but obviously tempo and rhythm become an issue. What I get is an uneven, messy sort of shoulder in.
This time, the horse started to stall, I was able to use my seat to ask him to keep going forward, and we had what was unquestionably the best shoulder in I’ve ever ridden. Pretty cool. The horse was moving better after the shoulder in than before, which is what lateral work is supposed to achieve.
Also: I’m done being complacent and I’m losing weight. I’m motivated but not really enthusiastic about this, and the whole thing would probably be easier if I had a work-out buddy, but, whatever. My initial plan is to cook for the week and freeze in meal-size portions so I can microwave dinner when I come home from work and not have any excuses to reach for, oh, french fries. Not that french fries are my personal nemesis, or anything.
My cats are entirely enthralled by this idea. They have never, ever seen anything as fascinating as me exercising, and will come running from wherever it is they are holed up to “help.” I tried giving them catnip last night to distract them, but this just caused them to tap my ankles repeatedly and give me the “Whatcha dooooooing, dude?” look. Later, I learned stoned cats have no sense of self preservation, and it’s generally not a good idea to attempt jumping jacks in their vicinity.
Advertising Redux
I love advertisements and advertisers. Mostly I love to mock them, but sometimes they do something clever and make me feel good about my consumeristic self. Ego boost = good.
And although I am not against advertising on all of my sites, or on anyone else’s blog, I am vehemently against advertising on this blog. As we know. I assume that any advertiser who solicits the blog deserves what they get.
So, the latest solicitation (it sounds like I get so many… I don’t, I promise. It’s just the ones I get are doozies) was an email offering to write a post for my blog on an incredibly random topic because the sender was sure my readers would find it useful. I thought that was bizarre in itself, because this blog is clearly a self-absorbed public journal, so I couldn’t figure out what about the “me, me, me” posts would encourage someone to suggest a guest blog, much less one on the incredibly random topic.
And then I saw the email address of the sender and things clicked. Sender works for a company that happens to be in the business of the incredibly random topic they were recommending for this guest post. Well, now I’m convinced: clearly it’s total coincidence that they read my blog and thought, “Hey, this blog needs a post about X! And I just happen to know all about X, thanks to the company I work for! I’ll write them a post out of the goodness of my heart!”
Those of you who are more tied in to advertising trends than I am, is this a new thing? Are companies abandoning pay-per-post and trying post-our-post instead? Is there some inherent value for the blogger in this? (I know the inherent value for the company, but what about the person displaying these “guest” posts?)
I thought I was brilliant when I wrote back and said “Sure, send me the post and if I think it’s relevant, I’ll post it.” See, I wanted to Google the article when it arrived to find out if it had been tailor-written just for me or if the same article was being spammed across multiple blogs. I was also curious about whether the article would be an honest article about various options or if it would only recommend the company. I might even have posted bits and pieces of it if I thought they were relevant, but the odds of the incredibly random topic being relevant to this particular blog are, well, not very good to be honest.
But it’s been four days, and I’m not patient enough to keep waiting for an article that may never come, especially with my curiosity bursting about this apparent new advertising technique.
Is this the “it” thing? Those of you who advertise, would you consider this sort of post? Why or why not?
Even more intriguing: is this better or worse than pay-per-post? Pay-per-post bothers me a lot, and not just on blogs. I am about ready to quit listening to my favorite morning radio show because it seems like they can’t go five minutes without the hosts saying “And I just love random product! Let me tell you why, in a way that sounds totally stupid but is meant to make you think I’m saying this spontaneously and have not been given a year’s supply of the product and a hefty check to sell my soul.” At this point, I don’t even believe the hosts when they tell me what the traffic is like ("Did the City pay you to say traffic is good? Do you get free access to the HOV lane for putting a rosy spin on the morning commute?").
Sorry. It’s just that this blurring the line between independent and paid content really does bother me, because I think it does (or should) raise questions about credibility in all areas where it is used. Bloggers have it easier, because they can (and some do) indicate which posts are sponsored and which are their own words, which means I can (and do) take what’s being said in the sponsored posts with a grain of salt. Radio hosts, not so much. ("Gosh, guest of the day, our conversation has made me so thirsty! Have you ever tried product-placed drink? We have a whole fridge of it and it’s awesome!” Bleh.)
So we know where I stand: I want to know where you stand, especially if you see some sort of value in this new-to-me tactic.
Convenience isn’t everything
You know, banks will try to tell you it’s a great idea to consolidate all your accounts in a single place, because then you can manage them easily from one website. Bank with us! Get your car loan with us! Get a mortgage with us!
Yeah, that’s nice.
Not so nice? Knowing you spent more money than usual on the credit card this month, logging into your account, and seeing an amount nearly double what you expected to see even after accounting for the extra spending.
Holy heart attack, Batman!
I was envisioning all sorts of identity theft scenarios when I realized I was looking at the car loan balance.
Ooooohkay. Much better. I am an idiot.
On the plus side, when I clicked the right link to view my credit card bill, the actual amount came as a relief.