Beauty Brands Should Not Be Working With Bloggers...
...directly, anyway. But more on that in a second. First, my take on why this is all blowing up right now.
Bloggers or citizen journalists have come into the big time. Why? Because marketing machines, PR companies and Madison Avenue have finally realized blogs' potential. Sure, bloggers have always had one key pillar of what marketers look for -- a passionate reader base. But now they have nice big reach, too. Leading blogs now draw as large an audience as some major media publications.
Big numbers like this means big interest from ad/marketing/PR firms. In their fervor to court bloggers to write about their products, they're offering incentives -- from free products, to trips, to outright compensation. It's at a fever pitch, drawing attention from mass media who've labeled this phenomenon "Blogola" -- and even drawing attention from the FTC (see article here); in the near future, the government may mandate that bloggers disclose potential conflicts of interest, like receiving incentives, free products or money for a product they're covering.
So now everyone's abuzz about bloggers' ethical/journalistic standards as they receive "Blogola." I've been interviewed numerous times by publications about this subject recently. Some brand managers and agencies have even told me they're thinking of cutting off blogger relationships, since they're worried about risking tangling up their brands in this ethics debate.
Professional mass-media journalists are bound to these standards: objectivity, accuracy, truthfulness, fairness, public accountability, and limitation of harm. They're bound to presentation standards such as clarity, correct spelling, and formal dialect. But most bloggers are not classically trained professional journalists; they are individuals who had the guts to start talking publicly about an area of passion that had.
Add in e-mail, texting, IM, Tweeting, etc., and the presentation standards in blogging are blurred. As in, it's acceptable (sometimes cool or funny) to misspell, cut corners, or not be as polished. That is what establishes your authenticity. However, whether you are a professional journalist or a blogger, publishers have a responsibility to hold true to ethical standards in journalism. It's not worth ruining a reputation or selling out in the short run for small amounts of money or free products. Bloggers must stay true to their readers. It's what will keep and grow the reader base -- and it's what drew brands to work with them in the first place.
It is also the responsibility of brands, agencies, and companies like Total Beauty to hold our bloggers true to those standards. It isn't worth it for brands to force bloggers to post a positive review. This only taints the world of blogging, and could end up killing the marketing machine that has helped so many brands be able to reach a passionate audience.
Now, back to why your brand shouldn't be working with bloggers. (Directly, anyway...)
One of the things we encourage our bloggers and brands to do is work through Total Beauty for product reviews via our Sneak Peek program. The reason? We have developed a community of vetted bloggers who are impactful, truthful, and not compensated for their posts/reviews -- and we continue to monitor that community. We guarantee to get your products in the hands of the right bloggers, and that they will use your product as recommended, post about it on their blog, and review it on TotalBeauty.com. What we don't guarantee is whether it will be a positive or negative review. That fate falls upon the performance of your products.
And on the flip side, why do bloggers work through us? We can ensure a buffer between their blog and brands, so that they are not penalized by a negative review, if that is what they truly feel. I've had many bloggers complain to me (three in just the last week alone!) that they sometimes receive products from brands they just don't like, but they fear if they don't review it (or review it negatively), they'll never hear from that brand again. We at Total Beauty prevent that from ever happening.
This ecosystem is so new. And just like any new ecosystem, it is extremely fragile. The few could ruin it for the masses. Let's make sure to police ourselves and stay true to consumers so that we can continue to engage bloggers for many years to come.
- Emrah Kovacoglu, Founder and CEO, Total Beauty Media, Inc.
