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FTC wants to Regulate Bloggers

June 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment

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Look out Mommy Bloggers and Reviewers, the government is coming to get you! According to the Washington Post (Article June 22, 2009) the Federal Trade Commission is reviewing guidelines it hopes to present later this summer that would regulate how bloggers disclose that they are receiving payments or freebies for their review. MomCentral (@momcentral) and IZEA (@IZEAinc) both of whom follow me on Twitter are mentioned in the article. I’ve met Stacy DeBroff very quickly after she spoke to IABC in San Francisco recently and put the following question to her via Twitter:

My question for @momcentral how do you stay transparent that you are tweeting/blogging for a paying client? #iabc09 ROI to SOI7:38 PM Jun 8th from Twittelator

I haven’t received an answer, yet. I’m sure Stacy or @MomCentral fields hundreds of direct tweets, so maybe they can’t answer them all, but it’s curious that the Washington Post singled them out over their practice of supplying coupons to Mommy bloggers so a certain product can be reviewed. IZEA on the other hand follows me, but has yet to reach out to me to offer any products or companies. But, it should be interesting how the FTC handles the slippery slope of trying to regulate the Internet.

Will bloggers go off-shore to accept payments for reviews? What about Twitter, much of the buzz on the microblogging site, is where do you put a disclaimer in the 140 characters you have to work with? I think the government should review the existing laws it has in place for retailers and the like. Rather than trying to chase down every Mom on a blog or band geek turned techno-blog reviewer, the U.S. Government should clamp down on the unscrupulous retailer trying to lure shoppers with “independent testimonials.” Code of ethics for bloggers are a good thing as well, and most bloggers who don’t disclaim they are receiving payment for their posts are soon uncovered by others who are trying to make blogging an trust-worthy news and information source. As for me, I have never taken payment for my thoughts, if I were, trust me, it would be disclosed.

What are your thoughts on this controversy?

Until next time, Tim

Other thoughts on the issue: Debbie Weil; Ideas that Spread; Weblog Tools Collection

Filed Under: Blogging, corporate blogging, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Motrin Feeling a Twittering Pain

November 20, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Motrin is feeling the pain. The ad attached here was attacked online over the weekend, mainly from those of us on Twitter. Mothers complained it was offensive. What do you think?

Motrin Mom Babywearing Ad

The coverage from the mainline media, and the thousands of Tweets on Twitter made the company pull the ad from its website and issue an apology for upcoming print ads. The woman who sparked this controversy is L.A.-based blogger, freelance writer and mother, Jessica Gottlieb. On Saturday, she received a Twitter message asking her to check out the online Motrin video. Which she promptly did and started the firestorm, and then let the world know how much it offended her.

I don’t think the ad was that offensive, maybe the “trendy” part about wearing your baby and the obvious exaggeration about wearing “it on your side, your back” etc. was too much. But, people are entitled to their opinion, and they now have an instant venting mechanism. I guess this Motrin ad and McNeil Consumer Healthcare, will go down as a case history of companies trying to deal with a newly-empowered audience that can talk back to ads, almost instantly, even on a weekend. Search MotrinMoms on Twitter and see what I mean. One mom stayed up until 4AM to respond to the ad with a Youtube video.

On a somewhat related note, my friends Dan and Eileen just had their fifth child – a baby boy. Congratulations! I’ll have to ask them how they plan on carrying him?

Until next time, Tim

Filed Under: Blogging, corporate blogging, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

What’s the best corporate gift you ever gave or received?

November 13, 2008 By 1 Comment

Today, I’ve been working on the gift RavenWood Creative is sending its clients for the holidays. It’s been a struggle to devise something that properly thanks our clients for their business, but also represents our brand.

I realize now what I should have done was ask you. Maybe you can help. What was the best corporate/business gift you ever gave or received in your career? Let me know, and maybe we can compile a cool list for people to reference. Also when is the proper time to send the gifts around which holiday? What’s your opinion?

Until next time, Tim

Filed Under: corporate blogging, Customer Service Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Corporate America Embracing Twitter

July 22, 2008 By 1 Comment

I’ve been reading more and more case studies about how Twitter is becoming the new avenue for corporate customer service. Justin Goldsborough has a great blog entry outlining some of the better examples.

Do you have any examples of companies using Twitter to service its customers? Let me know.

Until next time, Tim

Digg!

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Social Media Trends – Part 4 of 4

June 30, 2008 By 1 Comment

In this last part of this series on Social Media Trends, but I’m sure to continue, I’d like to point out some of the cool sites and people I had the pleasure of hearing about in my trip to NYC.

Social Media Research – Ryan Williams (a nice guy, whom I had the chance to speak with for a while on my trip), Tudor Williams of twisurveys.com have done some great research in how companies and those responsible for communication are using social media.

Sites recommended by Ryan and Tudor:
trendpedia.com (searching trends on the web)
forrester.com/groundswell (an traditional book, Groundswell, recommended numerous times to learn more about social media and its effects)
ning.com (set up your own social networking site)

Shel Holtz, ABC, the guru of communication technology was also at the conference. Of course he had a list of cool sites that communicators could be using to help themselves and their company.

SlideShare- the YouTube of PowerPoint presentations. One of those “why didn’t I think of that?” sites.
Stopblocking.org – a blog that talks about a lot of the same ideas I do here and with a theme of work/life balance, corporations trying to block employee access to social media sites. I recently answered a question on LinkedIn that dealt with irrational behavior in corporate world.

View Tim Ernst, ABC's profile on LinkedIn

Blocking access to the web was my answer and it drew a response from the question’s author, Ori Brafman, co-author of Sway. Seems this type of irrational behavior is evident everywhere in the corporate world where trust of one’s employees is behind the repressive act. It was something I heard about over and over again at the conference, communication leads being blocked from the Web by their IT departments to “increase productivity,” my question is what information outside your company isn’t on the web? Being handcuffed from accessing it isn’t helping anyone. What are your thoughts?

Other sites to check out:
Dopplr- if you travel a lot, this is the site to keep friends and colleaques up-to-date on your travels.
FriendFeed – collects all these social networking profiles into one neat little package.

What sites are you using and what do you find appealing or wrong with them? Let me know.

Until next time, Tim

Digg!

Filed Under: Blogging, corporate blogging, Social Media, Work/Life Balance Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Social Media Trends – Part 3 of 4

June 30, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Also last week, I had the priviledge to hear from Steve Rubel, SVP and Director of Insights from Edelman Digital. Ya know, the trust study folks. I figured with a title like that this guy must know what he’s talking about in the digital world, and he didn’t disappoint.

Steve listed some great stats – such as – of all the Internet’s users, only 13 percent are creating content. I assume this means on social media or networking sites, as every person or company that puts up a website is creating content at one point. But I assume this is ongoing and regularly, which means most of us are just taking it all in and absorbing it. I would hope that number would grow as more and more of the younger generation take jobs and presumably create online content as a part of their daily lives. (i.e. facebook, myspace, or even ebay)

He also cited Edelman’s Trust Study where “people like you” increased in trust from 36 percent in 2003 to 58 percent in 2008. Which means we are growing to trust others on the net that are like us and not Nigerian business men looking to deposit $ in our accounts. Social Media is having an effect and giving voice to people all over the world that share common interests.

We also discussed the trends:

The increasing portability of the Internet,
The ever-shortening attention span of audiences,
The popularity of aggegation sites on the web (i.e. popurls),
Being able to compress the web into digestable bits (i.e. google),
Growth in collaboration sites (i.e. My Starbucks Idea, or Dell)

On the horizon…
The living room being hooked into the Web. Ala – Apple TV and Game Marketers
Digital Nomads (like me) who have left the corporate world to go it alone out on the digital frontier. (i.e. virtual workers, and with $4 gas – it’s a good bet others will follow)

Also checked out Anders Gronstedt, Ph.D. from the Gronstedt Group – he has some big name clients (EMC, ADT, Microsoft, Jamba Juice) and can be described in one word – passioniate – about Second Life as the future of collaboration. Worth checking out.

Until next time, Tim

Digg!

Filed Under: Blogging, corporate blogging, Social Media, TV/Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Social Media Trends – Part 2 of 4

June 28, 2008 By 1 Comment

Bill Marriott, Chairman and CEO, and elder spokesman for the Marriott Hotel and Resorts – blogs. After hearing him speaking at IABC’s International Conference, this last week, the excuses that “I’m too old to do this social networking stuff,” or this “this company is too conservative to blog” and all the other arguments that my fellow communicators hear from their management are evaporating as quick as the Arctic Ice Cap.

Next time, your boss or client says they don’t have time to blog and do this other stuff. Say “$4 million.” That’s how much revenue can be directly connected to Bill Marriott’s blog in room reservations. He records it into a recorder and his communication team types it up and posts it for a busy guy who has to look after his many, many hotels and more importantly his 300,000 employees worldwide. Bill’s blog advice: “Make it personal, not about marketing.”

Until next time, Tim
Digg!

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