The Motley Fool on Corporate Blogging Practices
The Motley Fool, an entity known for financial wisdom, discusses Wal-Mart’s use of bloggers for public relations following some negative press about the practice and how some bloggers potentially and perhaps intentionally misled some of their readers by not disclosing they were blogging for the retail giant. The Fool’s article has some great links and a paragraph about using bloggers for marketing worth pondering:
"Wal-Mart’s strategy to repair its public image through the blogosphere has resoundingly backfired. News like this makes the company sound sneaky and underhanded, out to launch the equivalent of a corporate propaganda campaign, which of course fires up Wal-Mart’s detractors even more. Meanwhile, bloggers who don’t disclose their relationships with certain entities or individuals lose a heck of a lot of credibility, tarring the entire blogosphere by association, and making blogs seem that much less reliable as a source of information."
Anyone considering using blogs for marketing should be reading gapingvoid, especially cartoons like this one: "blogging requires passion and authority. Which leaves out most people."
