Show me the money, Mummy

I've been tracking the UK parent blogging scene for a few months now, and one thing that really strikes me is how quickly the sector is commercialising – paid advertising, sponsorship deals, giveaways and competitions are now par for the course on many of the parenting blogs I’ve been tracking in the Tots100 index.

I’m starting to wonder whether the speed of this change means there hasn’t been time to agree on what is and isn’t acceptable when accepting goods, services or payment from third parties.

Following recent debate on whether Mummy bloggers should accept advertising, or receive payment for running competitions, I noticed this page on Violet Posy, one of my personal favourite Mummy blogs in the UK. What I found particularly interesting is the part where the blogger says:

“… compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content…. This blog does contain content which might present a conflict of interest. This content may not always be identified.”

I find this a bit alarming, really. Which is no reflection on Violet Posy - I applaud her for thinking about a disclosure policy, and I think more bloggers could follow her lead. 

The problem is that, for journalists, our professional code of conduct (and many contracts of employment) states that any commercial relationship that might influence content should be declared, and journalists shouldn’t endorse any commercial product or service, except their own work. Many media organisations explicitly forbid reporters from accepting any freebies over a nominal value. 

Now I accept that blogging and journalism aren’t the same thing – bloggers couldn’t cover many of the products and services they do without the benefit of freebies. What’s more, most bloggers aren’t journalists – UK parent bloggers have a wide variety of backgrounds and professions, and I wouldn’t expect them to come to blogging with an understanding of the ethics of balancing editorial and commercial content.

But I’m still uncomfortable with the idea of a blogger accepting payment for posts without declaring that commercial relationship. Aren’t you risking your credibility? If you’re openly admitting that you might write about something because you’re being paid to do so, but you won’t necessarily tell me, how do I trust your content?

But the risks, surely, are even greater for PR agencies and their clients. Imagine being exposed as having paid for a series of “independent” positive posts on a major blog. Or if a competing PR agency discovered your agency had provided freebies to certain bloggers in return for coverage of your client. Can’t be good, can it? Perhaps it’s naïve, but I wonder if it’s not time for PR agencies themselves to start considering the issue of ethics and blogger outreach.

Comments

[Matt Churchill]

As a blogger, I have no hesitation in sharing when a PR has apraoched me with a pitch or invited me to an event etc I think this is an honest approach that I think readers appreciate - Chris Brogan wrote really well about exactly this a while back: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/advertising-and-trust/

As a PR, I always ask that a blogger discloses that we got in touch if they proceed to write about a client - it's honesty from our perspective and honesty from a blogger's perspective.

Surely this is common sense and helps the blogger's community to remain objective!

[Sally]

Thanks for the link, and that's a really interesting approach Matt - I wonder how many other agencies follow your lead in actively asking bloggers to disclose relationships, though?

[A Modern Mother]

As Brogan says, the key here is disclosure. But I’m a bit disappointed that everyone automatically assumes that if you receive a free product to review, it dramatically changes what you write about it. Surely we are made of stronger stuff? You read a blogger because you relate to them and like what they say and trust their opinion. Would you continue to read a blogger that was obviously swayed by an £8 hand lotion or £10 lice product? What about a £300 vacuum? The bloggers that only give rose-tinted opinions will lose their readership. Full stop. But also we must get away from this idea that all products are bad until proven innocent. There are some great products out there and they deserve reviews.

[Sally]

Hi Susanna, thanks for commenting.

You make a good point that receiving review items doesn't necessarily sway someone's view - certainly most reviews you read would involve a freebie somewhere along the line and I'm not overly fussed by that.

What kind of surprised me about this specific instance, though, was that the blogger actually said "these freebies might influence what I write" and "I might not tell you when I'm getting freebies". To me those two things in combination? Would definitely make me trust someone less, whether it's a blogger or a journalist.

[SteveR]

Sally's right.

If I read a positive post on a blog I trust, then I trust that positive review is genuine. If I subsequently find out that the blogger has been accepting payment for reviews without disclosing that payment, I'm suddenly wondering why it wasn't disclosed and was the positive review an honest one?

[Chris Brennan]

Not so sure the PR company should be obliged to ask people to disclose if the reviewer got it for free. I never mentioned that I'd been taken to Kos for a week to see a new all-in-one and if HP had asked me to I'd probably have said no and the editor definitely would have. It didn't affect my review of the device. It did improve my knowledge of it, but that is all. I've based my reputation (such as it is) on the fact that I honestly test and rate everything I review. That's regardless of how many trips I've been taken on or if I've been told I can keep it later. I would expect nothing less of a blogger.

My view on this is that you should be honest, in fact if you're not you'll get found out. If you write advertorial or bloggertorial (see what I did there) then you should say so. You'll get more respect from the readers if you do and you don't have to worry about influence, perceived or otherwise. Don't write 'I might have been influenced' write 'I have been influenced by the fact I got it for free' in bold at the top of the piece if you must, but if you feel you can't give an honest opinion on something because you're being given a freebie then I'd advise you not to review it.

The 'I might not tell you' approach just encourages me to think 'I'll not believe any of it then'. I'd probably still read the review if I was interested in the product, but I'd be checking elsewhere too.

[Sally]

Chris

I agree PR agencies aren't (or shouldn't be) obliged to request disclosure - I'm just wondering whether it isn't smarter for them to do that to avoid the risk of subsequent problems? Just a thought, mind.

I also agree that taking freebies doesn't necessarily compromise a review. I suspect you and I have both accepted our fair share of free press trips, computer kit, mobile phone calls and the like, over the years.

Also: "Bloggertorial". Like it.

[Liz@VioletPosy]

Hey,

To be honest I was just covering my butt, I've read some horror stories on the US Mummy Blogging scene and I didn't want to be caught out. When I first started getting interest in my blog I was a bit naive and I wrote a couple of posts which I wish I hadn't done now I'm a bit more savvy. But anything I review always gets my honest opinion, there's no point in saying something is good if it's crap.

The other thing I'm now doing is outrightly saying I'll only take paid advertising, which means I've stopped getting millions of PR people mailing me with completely irrelevant and annoying press releases. I now only get contacted by genuinely interested companies.

So that's where I am at the moment, but I agree more UK Mummy Bloggers need to think about their position with this

[sally]

Hi Liz

Thanks for commenting - I've read the same stories about bloggers being liable for reviews and similar, and so now I see a bit better where your disclaimer comes from. And if it stops you getting dodgy PR pitches, so much the better.

I think my perspective is that this deluge of PR and advertising pressure on bloggers seems to be happening very quickly - and many, many bloggers either aren't thinking about the issue AT ALL, or don't know where to start in handling it and maintaining transparency and credibility. Which could create problems for all involved - readers, advertisers and bloggers.

I'm interested you're still getting contacts from companies that are happy to pay for advertising - are these good approaches? Should more bloggers be following your example, do you think?

Thanks

Sally

[Liz@VioletPosy]

I don't know about 'following my example', obviously it's up to the individual and I'm still testing how ads do. For example Google ad sense did nothing
so I took them off. I'm still testing the others, but I suspect the affliate advertising isn't going to do much either.

But one thing has occurred to me, at somepoint the Inland Revenue will catch on to all these PR freebies bloggers are being bombarded with and want a slice. So straight advertising I can declare immediatly whereas 'gifts' will be more problematic, so I try to avoid them. Just another thing to think about.

[Sally]

Cripes, you're right.

I remember a debate on a journalism forum I use about whether freebies are liable for tax.

I think the consensus view was that if you keep them for personal use, they're not - but if you sold them on eBay (for example) then that's liable for tax in a way that selling your own stuff wouldn't be.

You're right that it's worth thinking about, though, Liz.

[Natalie]

Great post and it's clear that if people are going to engage with PR's, accept money, and basically run their blog as a business, they need to be transparent. I receive hundreds of requests to be featured over the course of the year and that's just for one site. Now, more than two years in, I have over the past 6 months or so found that I have had to be really explicit about how I work not only to make it easier to deal with people, but to protect readers and my integrity. As the volume of pr driven content and competitions has risen over the past couple of months, I have seen some rather scary things and I think that people need to give some consideration to how this affects their 'authority'. I try to have minimal interaction with PRs although I have some really good relationships, and I have actually stopped running competitions over the past few months. This post reminded me to update my disclosure so thanks!