The FTC has ruled that any bloggers reviewing products on behalf of companies must now declare that they have recieved payment or freebies. The penalties for not doing so will mean a fine of up to $11k.
I find this all a bit surreal to be honest. The whole point of blogging is the freedom to talk about what you want, when you want. I don’t know any people that we work with who would dishonestly take money for writing a positive review. Our stance is that all bloggers should be equipped with information and products. If they then choose not to review the product then that is unfortunately our loss. A positive review cannot unfortunately be relied on and shouldn’t be relied on by clients or agencies. This is one of the cons of doing blogger outreach.
The more positive parts of blogger outreach for me are:
1) The ability to really discuss the product with someone who is an expert in the product area. I have found this amazingly useful when engaging further about the product with clients, bloggers and other members. Most bloggers I know, Eric Friedman in particular, are more than helpful in advising on best approaches.
2) The buzz when a blogger does write a positive post because he/she is passionate in that area and loves the product. This to me is the ultimate in blogger outreach and something that should be cherished. They don’t need your product, they don’t need to review your product so be grateful they have taken the time to review.
Blogging should be viewed as an additional arm to a PR strategy, not a simple way of getting paid advertising out there. I get approached almost daily by small agencies or “blogging technology” companies who will take money for being able to help “generate some positive blogging pr”, but we refuse to go down this route.
