The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) is releasing a series of guidelines for interacting with bloggers. The guidelines are not 'official rules' by any stretch; they are merely meant to provide guidance for firms just learning about social media.
Of course firms are free to ignore them (and some will) but hopefully many will follow the guidelines since WOMMA reminds us: Consumers come first, honesty isn't optional, and deception is always exposed. The guidelines are listed below:
- I will always be truthful and will never knowingly relay false information. I will never ask someone else to deceive bloggers for me.
- I will fully disclose who I am and who I work for (my identity and affiliations) from the very first encounter when communicating with bloggers or commenting on blogs.
- I will never take action contrary to the boundaries set by bloggers. I will respect all community guidelines regarding posting messages and comments.
- I will never ask bloggers to lie for me.
- I will use extreme care when communicating with minors or blogs intended to be read by minors.
- I will not manipulate advertising or affiliate programs to impact blogger income.
- I will not use automated systems for posting comments or distributing information.
- I understand that compensating bloggers may give the appearance of a conflict of interest, and I will therefore fully disclose any and all compensation or incentives.
- I understand that if I send bloggers products for review, they are not obligated to comment on them. Bloggers can return products at their own discretion.
- If bloggers write about products I send them, I will proactively ask them to disclose the products’ source.
I like what I see so far. You can read all the details on the initiative at: http://www.womma.org/blogger/
While some argue that the markets and community will decide what is successful, i.e. PayPerPost, there are ethical issues at hand for PR professionals. Many of the colleagues that I work with are members of either FPRA, PRSA or IABC. Each of those associations strive to represent an industry which often is dragged down by less than ethical or professional behavior. It's that type of behavior that the professional associations are trying to stop.
When you join a professional association such as FPRA you pledge to adhere to a set of ethical guidelines. Those same guidelines apply to the blogosphere. As we've seen recently, if you don't follow the guidelines, chances are you'll be caught....rather quickly.
Visitor Comments
Great post Josh, as usual.
As an investor in PayPerPost who invested in the team's commitment to quality, I would share that PPP advertisers are and have always been welcome and able to REQUIRE disclosure in accordance with WOMMA or other marketing association standards. As such, sponsored posts can be labelled in the same manner as AdSense/banners, but they provide a much stronger online marketing mix ROI than CPC/CPM models.
Basically, marketers own their brand and bloggers own their blog, but their is powerful marketing potential where those intersect.
Kudos to WOMMA for providing additional marketer education. We are doing the same for bloggers and audiences with http://www.DisclosurePolicy.org/. In fact, DP.org and WOMMA should probably find a way to work together...
Posted by: VC Dan | November 2, 2006 4:17 PM
Josh -
Thanks for the post. For the record, PayPerPost and DisclosurePolicy.org are not WOMMA members and do not comply with the WOMMA Ethics Code.
Andy Sernovitz
CEO
Word of Mouth Marketing Association
Posted by: Andy Sernovitz | November 3, 2006 6:31 AM
On this note, is it possible to rationalize what TechCrunch is doing with these guidelines? What grade would you give Mr. Arrington based on his 'approach'? (http://www.crunchnotes.com/?p=300)
Posted by: jharr | November 3, 2006 7:03 AM
Andy,
I'll give you a call to discuss further. I would clarify that WOMMA members are able and encouraged to use the PayPerPost marketplace in ways that adhere to the WOMMA guidelines. Want a flashing light that says 'Acme sponsored this post' you can do that. Want a clear statement saying 'Acme provided free product for this review' you can do that.
Nothing in the PPP platform stops a marketer from doing business according to WOMMA guidelines and recommendations. In fact, the platform makes it easier to monitor blogger adherence than cutting multiple one-off deals with bloggers.
Separate from PPP, we also should chat to understand the alignment of my efforts at DisclosurePolicy.org and your efforts at WOMMA -- I think we're synergistic.
Posted by: VC Dan | November 3, 2006 8:31 AM
WOMMA made a great choice when developing a list of guidelines for bloggers. Even though the list is not 'official rules' of the blogosphere, the guidelines will hopefully help set a background for how to go about blogging.
Organizations need assistance when learning how to interact in the blogosphere and many people need to know how to properly use the communication tool.
Just as the 'old fashioned' public relations tactics are given guidelines and regulations (through organizations like PRSA), the emerging internet communication tools need guidelines too.
Overall, this will help the sometimes negative outlook on public relations and will show that there are organizations out there that care about practicing ethical public relations.
Posted by: Kristin H | November 6, 2006 1:16 PM