REICH COMMUNICATIONS

# 500

 

This is my 500th post at my 2 cents.  Who would've thought?

I remember when I began to blog, nearly five years ago.  My friend CK (Christina Kerley), who got me started, had been an active blogger for well over a year, even though I had told her at first that she was wasting her time.  I couldn't have been more wrong.

So here I am... 500 posts and nearly 2,000 comments later.  Comments have come from people I know, from many I don't know and from some who I've come to know online and in person.  Comments have been from people throughout the U.S. and Canada, and from Europe, Australia, Asia, India, the Middle East and South America.  None yet from Africa or Antarctica, but you never know.

What I had called a waste of time when CK began has turned out to be a rewarding activity, in so many ways.  Blogging has encouraged me to look at things a bit more closely.  It's brought me several new friends who I sometimes engage with offline or even in person.  It's brought me some business, although that was not the reason I began to blog.

About a year after I began my blog, I was fortunate to participate in the Blogger Social, which was held here in New York.  More than a hundred people I had been communicating with online gathered to meet face-to-face and get to know each other.  I met friends from as far away as Australia and Oman and as close as nearby towns in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.  It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

A series of comments by Australian Gavin Heaton on a post by Des Moines' Drew McLellan led to a collaboration by 100 bloggers worldwide, and a book called Age of Conversation. I am proud to have been a part of that and the two succeeding volumes.  In addition to bringing together more than 200 of us who contributed chapters to the books, it also raised upwards of $15,000 for some worthwhile international charities.

Some of the bloggers who were active when I began have since stopped or migrated to other social media platforms.  I'm on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and a few others, but I still enjoy writing my blog most.  I'm not confined to 140 characters, first of all, and, OMG, I don't have to write in shorthand.

So I hope you'll stay with me here and maybe, with some luck, we can celebrate 1,000 posts together.

Thanks for all the comments and encouragement and, most of all, thanks for reading and letting me pass along my 2 cents.

David

 

 

 

 

 

Who's blogging?

With Twitter and Facebook getting all the attention these days, are people still blogging? 

A lot of us, according to a study reported in a recent research brief from the Center for Media Research.  

Blogging is still a younger person's phenomenon, with more than 53 percent of bloggers in the 21 - 35 age group.  Teens comprise 20 percent, and the 36 - 50 group makes up just under 20 percent.  My age group, the 51-plus, is only seven percent.

The report notes that many of the 21 - 35 group grew up during the "blogging revolution" that took off around seven years ago. 

Men and women are evenly split as bloggers, with women outnumbering men by about a percent.

California has the biggest number of bloggers in North America, followed by New York, Ontario, Colorado and Texas.  The U.S. has, by far, the biggest percentage of bloggers, at 29 percent.  Next is the U.K. (6.7 percent), Japan (five percent), Brazil (4.7 percent) and Canada (3.9 percent).

The study found similar breakdowns in the Twitter universe, except U.S. tweeters are much more active than tweeters in other nations. 

Here in the U.S., we account for more than half of the tweets worldwide.  I suppose that shouldn't be surprising, in this land of fast food, fast news and now, fast talk. 

Don't cry for Mommy Bloggers

I have a problem with Mommy Bloggers.  I know I'm generalizing, but it seems like too many of them, especially those with larger readerships, are all about money -- and blatantly so.

I do understand that for many it's a business or, at least, a way to supplement the family income while working from home.  But the idea of "pay or don't play" that many seem to use as criteria for what products and services they write about goes against the basic standards of journalism.

Many of these bloggers will write about a product in exchange for freebies.  I don't have a problem with that, since offering product samples has long been an accepted way of calling an editor's attention to a product.  Of course, way before blogging there were always a few editors who would take advantage by asking for an inordinate number of samples or refusing to return very costly sample items after the agreed-upon trial period was over. 

But some of the Mommy Bloggers have taken greed to new heights.  We've all heard stories of some who refuse to write about a product unless the company or the p.r. agency gives them expensive gifts or a free all-expenses paid trip to Disney World.

If they want to monetize their sites, take ads.  But no, they can't get big bucks for banner ads, so instead they try to hold up marketers for cash or booty.  But when they take cash in exchange for writing glowingly about a product and telling readers it has their personal stamp of approval, they are doing the marketers, themselves and other mommy bloggers a disservice.

They are blowing their credibility... along with the credibility of other bloggers who fall into the mommy blogger realm.  Over time, many readers will catch on and will ignore the glowing recommendations some marketers are shelling out for.

To me, it's about integrity.  If you get paid for a product review -- in cash, with freebies or in some other manner -- you owe it to your readers to disclose that fact.  If your blog posts are interesting, informative or entertaining, you'll hold onto your readers.  But without full disclosure, you are not being fair or honest.  Over time, you may lose readers, which will then diminish your ability to extort payments from marketers.

PR Newser had a story a few weeks ago about some of the bigger Mommy Bloggers who sell articles.  It seems some are complaining about smaller Mommy Bloggers who give away ad space in exchange for freebies.  That practice annoys the big guns who are trying to make money from their sites.

I say to those crybabies, suck it up and deal with it!  Startup magazines often give ad space away in their early issues, in order to fill space and to make the book look good so they can sell space eventually to paying advertisers.  If bloggers looking to build their sites want to give space away, that's their choice.

So you bigger Mommy Bloggers -- stop complaining and focus on making your own content as good and unbiased as possible.  If you so choose, then keep trying to sell ad or editorial space, as long as you clearly mark it for what it is.

And don't worry about what other bloggers are doing.  You have no control over them anyway, so why bother?

Remember blog-tipping?

When I first began blogging three years ago, I was impressed with how much so many fellow bloggers shared -- information, ideas, suggestions and also how to get your blog seen by more people.  I was introduced to the idea of blog-tipping, and I learned there was a tradition doing it at the beginning of each month -- pointing readers to other blogs you like.

Many people were kind enough to tip people to my blog, and I've done it several times for others -- although not for quite a while.

I haven't seen much blog tipping lately, although the blog-tipping spirit has moved over to Twitter, where FollowFridays has become a common Twitter activity.

So as it's the beginning of a new month -- and the beginning of my fourth year as a blogger -- I thought I'd do some updating of my blogroll.  I've taken a few blogs off the roll, since they've gone inactive.  In some cases, the authors seem to be spending more time on Twitter. In other cases, perhaps they've simply lost interest or lack the time.  I'm on Twitter and I've learned how to make it more useful and interesting for myself, but I still prefer writing and reading blogs, where you're not limited by 140 characters.

So here are a few blogs I'm adding to my blogroll this month.  I think they're worth reading, and I hope you agree.

Solo PR Pro   Kellye Crane in Atlanta, who I met on Twitter, has a blog dealing with issues facing solo PR practitioners. It's called, appropriately enough, Solo PR Pro.

Jules Zunich  I came across Julia Zunich, a PR pro based in Boise, in an online discussion on Twitter, called #journchat.  Her blog has some good ideas.

PR-Squared  This is a good blog authored by Todd Defren, a partner at Shift, an agency that spans the gap between traditional p.r. and digital work.  Worth a read.

Happy online reading.

Taming the Wild West

Sometime this summer, according to trade press reports, there's a good chance the Federal Trade Commission will extend its rules concerning use of testimonials and endorsements in advertising.  The change will have a direct impact on the blogosphere, which so far has been totally unregulated.

Blogger friend Scott Monty, manager of global digital communications at Ford, likens this space to the lawlessness of the old West.  In the Ragan public relations newsletter, he says, "Since blogging is relatively new and because there's no editorial insight, it can seem like the Wild West, absent any guiding principles."

Since there's been no oversight, some companies look to pay or otherwise compensate bloggers to write positively about their products.  In parts of the blogosphere, especially in the so-called mommy blogs, the combination of greed on the part of some bloggers and exploitation by marketers has gotten out of hand, to the point the FTC has been taking a closer look.

Stephanie Azzarone, who does p.r. for the toy industry, writes in MediaPost about how some of the mommy bloggers have become spoiled by all the freebies.  "What was once a $20 freebie toy," she writes, "is now an appliance, an automobile on loan, an all-expenses paid trip to Disney World. Some will turn up their noses at anything less.  Others will only comment on companies if paid to do so."

I remember a major uproar online about two years ago, when Nikon offered expensive cameras to a hundred or so "influential" bloggers.  Some who wrote about the camera and displayed photos they'd taken were open about the relationship with Nikon.  Others weren't, and got soundly criticized.  Much of the criticism seemed to come from within the marketing part of the blogosphere, where many talk passionately about authenticity and ethics.

For most bloggers, the new FTC guidelines shouldn't make much of a difference, although if you do include endorsements or reviews on your blog, it'll be your responsibility to be aware of the rules.  For most of us, it will simply mean continuing to be honest and open, disclosing when we've accepted a freebie or a sample that we're writing about.

For marketers who reach out to bloggers, it will be mandatory that they know the rules.  Honesty and disclosure are crucial from this end too.  You'll get best results if you allow bloggers to remain authentic and use their own words rather than pushing for them to be blatant shills for you.

Keep an eye on what bloggers are saying about your product and if you see something that's false or an overstatement, talk to that blogger and try to have it corrected.

Above all, avoid being sneaky in your dealings with bloggers.  Chances are you'll be found out and both you and the offending blogger will be called out in an embarrassing way.

As with life in general, honesty, clarity and integrity are the best guidelines.

It'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out as today's Wild West starts to get tamed.