WOMMA took some time to blast PayPerPost after an article about one of their participating bloggers, Colleen Caldwell, made it to the Los Angeles Times. Her offense? Posting a disclosure policy generated by PayPerPost to disclose her acceptance of compensation for blogging about various topics.

Beard took a peek at the WOMMA statement, and at the LA Times article in question. He noted the participation of Jeff Jarvis and Jason Calacanis in the Times interview; their commentary subsequently made it into WOMMA’s piece.

There are some deeper issues in play, especially when it comes to disclosure. Beard found that Calacanis, and Jarvis to a lesser extent, have room to improve in that area. First, Jarvis:

Jeff is collecting email addresses every time you place a comment, so you would expect some kind of privacy statement, especially with the amount of tracking going on.

You would also expect some kind of physical mailing address, because in some ways his blog is performing WOMM for the various businesses in which he has involvement.

Beard’s issue is more with privacy at Jarvis’ BuzzMachine; Jarvis has a lengthy disclosure page, but it is not accessible from single blog posts.

Now for Calacanis’ site, where Beard finds much more to poke:

I can’t give you an example of Jason Calacanis’ disclosure policy, he hasn’t got one.

It is well known that he has financial connections with www.ThisNext.com which is present all over his website without disclosure.

Jason’s ThisNext connection is also important, because in many ways ThisNext is a competitor to PayPerPost, and online reviews sites are not immune to problems with shilling reviews.

When Jason attacks PayPerPost is it really just because of ethics and his concern?

Beard wraps up everything by going back to the WOMMA piece, and what he saw as a contradiction between their recent statement and point number 5 in their FAQ.

That section of the FAQ answers the question about why there aren’t specific rules about what people should say. But in their anti-PayPerPost commentary, they call for "strict guidelines" on disclosure.

It would be instructive if WOMMA could deconstruct the PayPerPost disclosure policy as Caldwell has posted on her site, and indicate what may be construed as deceptive, unfair, or unclear. Along with why WOMMA should be the ones qualified to do so.

This has become a hot topic as services like PayPerPost now offer a very real way for brands to purchase something that was previously only attainable organically — word of mouth. Alongside these services has been the debate about ethics, transparency and whether giving people free stuff can ever result in real authentic word of mouth. WOMMA is dedicated to answering that question. The journalistic approach is to avoid accepting any "gifts" as this could be seen as bribery. Governments and large NGOs often take the same approach.

Yet as we all know, the blogosphere is a different animal. Bloggers have opinions and unlike many folks in public corporate roles, most bloggers feel inclined to share their opinions. Good blog writing comes from having a personality and taking a specific point of view. Recently I posted about 5 brands that I believe in. Briggs & Riley, a luggage manufacturer, was on this list. After my post, the PR team from Briggs & Riley contacted me and asked if I would like to try out a few pieces from their new Baseline Collection – no strings attached. I accepted, noting that I would provide an honest review of them and disclose to my readers once I received them that the company did send them to me, and that I was not directly paid to speak about them.

Why did I accept? And more specifically to Karl’s point, if I hadn’t written about my love for Nokia’s new NSeries – how would I feel about being approached by Nokia? One of the points from a 7 tips piece I wrote some time ago to help PR folks more intelligently "pitch bloggers" was about how it’s ok to provide products to bloggers, as long as they are relevant. Taking these tips a bit further here are five principles I would suggest to marketers interested in getting a product into the hands of bloggers to talk about:

1. Be selective and choose bloggers for a reason (industry, subject matter, previous posts, etc.).

2. Tell bloggers why you chose them – and help them understand that it was exclusive.

3. Require full disclosure from the blogger about what you have given them.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask them to write about their experience with it (positive or negative).

5. If they don’t write about it, there is probably a reason – so just let it go.

For good pitches that meet all these criteria above, I am usually more than happy to help – whether it is testing out a product, reading a book, or reviewing a new website idea. I have done many of these in the past. As for the Nokia question – if I got one, tested it out and liked it … I would definitely write about it from a marketing point of view. If I didn’t like it, I would probably return it and not post about it at all. The best outcome of a good outreach effort to bloggers is that they will feel respected, honored and talk favorably about your product or service. This respect can also likely open up a communication channel where blogger will share negative feedback with you and your organization more privately rather than choosing to publicly declare all shortcomings. Seems like an upside either way, if done right. Any other opinions on this?

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About the Author

Rohit Bhargava is the Vice President for Interactive Marketing with Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide.

http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com

I’m looking forward to meeting up again with Philip Young, Tom Murphy, Stuart Bruce and Chris Rushton for the fifth in this series of one-day conferences.

Over the past year, we’ve helped quite a few communicators around the UK expand their knowledge of what social media can help them achieve in the practice of public relations.

Missing from our presenters’ line-up this time is Elizabeth Albrycht who is somewhat preoccupied with a few things including an imminent new member of her family.

We’ll toast you at tonight’s speakers’ dinner, Elizabeth!

As Elizabeth can’t be with us, Philip and I will be taking Elzabeth’s presentation slot on networking.

I’ll be adding some perspectives on virtual communities like Second Life.

Today’s edition of the FIR podcast won’t include me live with Shel.

I sent him a recorded contribution this morning which he’ll include in the show, which he’s recording with guest presenter Leesa Barnes.

Being on the road means that I’m going to miss taking part in a briefing today from Dell re an announcement they’re making in conjunction with the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA).

I won’t give the game away; just pay attention to Direct2Dell from about 5pm UK time today.

On the road also means I’ll miss Second Thursday in Second Life today which is being hosted by Eric Rice in the Hipcast Conference & Expo Center in Second Life.

A bummer to miss that one.

More later.

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Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology.

Neville is currentlly the VP of New Marketing at Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson’s blog: NevilleHobson.com.

Congrats again to all the award recipients and a thank you too. The winning case studies will help support and advance the society’s research efforts next year – and I can’t emphasize the importance of that enough.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, I think there’s a lot of noise in the PR industry right now, especially as it relates to social media. What we lack, however, is a healthy stable of case studies and best practices that we can model and build on. I think what the SNCR is doing, along with related efforts by groups like WOMMA, Social Media Club and even the Third Thursday meetup network will, in their own ways, help fill this knowledge gap.

We need to push industry thinking forward, but I don’t think that can really happen until we have a foundation of shared experiences (and less rhetoric) to build from.

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Mike Manuel is the founder of the award winning Media Guerrilla blog. Media Guerrilla is an insiders take on the practice of technology public relations with a focus on the issues, tactics and trends that are specific to the tech industry.

Visit Media Guerrilla …

The program offers a comission on services ordered from PRWeb via affiliate links and ads.

“Evangelists and power-users of PRWeb can now receive an agency-level referral fee for their word-of- mouth efforts.”

At the last Search Engine Strategies conference in NYC I talked with David McInnis about the idea of an affiliate program (he brought it up, not me) and I thought it would be a great idea. The type of product/service PRWeb offers should be very conducive to a successful affiliate program. At the same time, some affilates can get pretty aggressive and quality is an issue of prime importance for any wire service. To that end, PRWeb is limiting the initial participation of the program and then expanding to ensure quality.

To apply for the program, contact Mick Jolly 360-312-0892 ext 222. You might also be able to apply online after logging into your PRWeb account.

If you’ll be at the WOMMA conference next week, you’ll probably run into the folks from PRWeb as they are a Platinum sponsor of the event.

Lee Odden is President and Founder of
TopRank Online Marketing, specializing in organic SEO, blog
marketing and online public relations. He’s been cited as a search
marketing expert by publications including U.S. News & World Report and
The Economist and has implemented successful search marketing programs
with top BtoB companies of all sizes. Odden shares his marketing
expertise at Online Marketing Blog offering
daily news, interviews and best practices.

Stylehive contributors work together to share stores, designers, trends, products and more. They are advertising supported too, which opens up some nice synergies and possibilities.

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Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.

He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.

Intelliseek has been acquired by BuzzMetrics which is now part of VNU (okay, so if I get this right, BuzzMetrics acquired Intelliseek and then was acquired by VNU … I think) and will be known as Nielsen BuzzMetrics. Yep, that’s a mouthful. The full press release is here, and everyone’s favorite blog measurement Website, Blogpulse, will still be around as will everyone’s new dad of twins, Pete Blackshaw. Crappy timing, though, since VNU announced that they were up for sale to be split up.

Okay, so the quick analysis of this: no brainer that the measurement industry is going to contract and we were going to see either companies go through M&A or just die. It’s the same with the Web 2.0 companies, and while I use BlogPulse, I have not used BuzzMetrics nor know much about them beyond the emails I get from Max Kalehoff and his columns in MediaPost. But, while word of mouth marketing is hot right now – and the WOMMA conference should be fun – let’s boil it down to what it really means: Nielsen wanted the capability to track this crap so they bought a company to do it – well, actually two companies.

Another interesting piece of news is that BusinessWire is being bought by Warren Buffett. From O’Dwyer’s …

Berkshire Hathaway, the $75 billion conglomerate run by Warren Buffett, has moved to acquire Business Wire in a deal expected to close in the first quarter of ’06.

BW’s management team, led by newly promoted CEO Cathy Tamraz, will remain in place and operations will not be affected by the ownership change, according to BH. BW will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of the conglomerate.

Business Wire sent a letter to BH last year pitching the potential acquisition.

Buffett had high praise for the 44-year-old newswire. “In making this acquisition of Business Wire, we have followed our blueprint of buying profitable companies that are industry leaders, yet have significant growth potential,” he said in a statement. Buffett cited the company’s experienced management team and called it a “gem of a company.” He added: “I expect BW to continue to do what it has always done and I’ll be there if I can help it in any way.”

BW, which is privately held, said it posted double-digit growth in 2005. It has grown significantly overseas in the last few years.

Last month, founder and CEO Lorry Lokey promoted Tamraz, a 26-year-veteran of the company, to the top executive post and said he would focus on his philanthropic pursuits, which have totaled $160M to date.

Lokey said BH is “committed to providing a supportive environment” that will allow the newswire to continue overseas expansion and pursue “emerging opportunities.”

BH companies include Benjamin Moore & Co., Fruit of the Loom, Buffalo (N.Y.) News, and GEICO Auto Insurance, among a roster of 42 companies.

This is interesting, and I have been working on a larger piece about the Wire services and whether or not they are needed nowadays (hey, how about those layoffs at PR Newswire). But, hey, congratulations to Lorry as he is a nice guy and philanthropic. I will have more to say about this later in the week, after I meet the CEO of Primezone. But, the telling part here is that BW actively pitched BH to be acquired. There’s got to be a story there, but I will leave that to the reporters.

Jeremy Pepper is the CEO and founder of POP! Public Relations, a public relations firm based in Arizona, USA.

He authors the popular Musings from POP! Public Relations blog which offers Jeremy’s opinions and views – on public relations, publicity and other things.

Targeted to those interested in marketing metrics, WOMMA says the conference is the first-ever on measurement, metrics, and standards in word-of-mouth marketing.

It will be held in Chicago. Cost is $295 for WOMMA members, $545 for non-members. I’m happily able to pass on a $50 discount code WOMMA gave me to share with my readers. When you register, use the case-sensitive discount code “Blogsareawesome”

WOMMA Measuring Word of Mouth Conference Web site

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Darren Rowse is the founder of ProBlogger.net, a blog about the many ways of adding an income stream to blogs.

Darren owns and writes a variety of blogs including Digital Photography Blog and Camera Phone
Zone. He is also a co-founder of the Breaking News Blog Collective.

What’s remarkable is that these evangelists were not hired by the store or enrolled in any special loyalty program. Instead, these evangelists educated and helped other customers simply because of their passionate love of wine.”

Thanks DurnikBlog for the link. All I need to know about Word of Mouth Marketing I find there. If you have even the slightest understanding of Swedish you should read it.

Links: WOMMA

Reader Comments…

Fredrik Wacka is the author and founder of the popular CorporateBlogging.Info blog which is a guide to business and corporate blogging.

Visit Fredrik Wacka’s blog: CorporateBlogging.Info.

… take a look at the presentations from WOMMA Summit 2005. The focus is obviously word-of-mouth marketing, and blogs are just one tool from that perspective. But many of the speakers did talk about blogs as part of their strategies.

GM Blog in Marketing Strategy Terms
I found it interesting to learn more about the thoughts and plans behind General Motors FastLane Blog in Michael Wiley’s presentation (pdf).

“Company position but candid and transparent” is one of the operating principles, and they also use the blog to “subtly introduce or move to important positions that need more clarity”.

One of the goals is to use the credibility and influence the blog generates to reach mainstream with a fresh image of GM.

Wiley’s presentation is all the proof you need to convince yourself that a blog can be a integral part of a marketing strategy, written in the words your Marketing Director feel comfortable with.

PETA Staying Relevant
For People for the ethical treatment of animals the blog of cofounder and president Ingrid Newkirk is one of several ways of “staying relevant with fresh content daily” (see presentation, pdf).

Influence the Influencers
All of David Reis’ presentation (pdf) is worth a read if you want to understand what happens when people are empowered — and connected — on the Internet.

“Demographics alone are no longer enough. Think psychographics and sociographics…”

And to truly connect to the important influencers you have to open up. For real.

“Influencers don’t only want to influence other people – they want to influence your company to provide a better product which is better suited for their needs…”

Fredrik Wacka is the author and founder of the popular CorporateBlogging.Info blog which is a guide to business and corporate blogging.

Visit Fredrik Wacka’s blog: CorporateBlogging.Info.