I’ve argued to both Jeff Jarvis and Jason Calacanis that there’s room to establish best practices when it comes to commercializing social media. Today, Jeff argued that, no matter how well-intentioned, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s guidelines for marketing disclosure in social media are based on the “science of manipulation.”
In a perfect world, he’d be right. But we live in an imperfect world. In an imperfect world you can’t create a new, global publishing medium and expect that businesses aren’t going to try to leverage its inherent strengths for direct benefit.
Going by WOMMA’s very well thought-out guidelines when leveraging social media for commercial purposes is a near-optimal solution for an imperfect world.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
steven e. streight aka vaspers the grate 11.10.06 at 9:59 am
I agree 1005 with Jason Calacanis.
You cannot “leverage” trust, credibility, or transparency.
For example, PayPerPost is an covert, deceptive scam. Once you break the trust system, it’s gone forever.
Word of Mouth, by definition, is spontaneous, uncoached, unrehearsed, genuine reports by users on a product they use, and either love, hate, or tolerate in a neutral manner.
If your wife was suddenly acting all lovey dovey, then you find out she was part of, say a university experiment that paid her $100 every time she acted loving and sweet to you, you’d be annoyed.
We Do NOT Want to Hear From Paid Enthusiasts, especially when they refuse to reveal that they are getting paid to say positive things.
It’s the issue of spontaneity, even more than sincerity or transparency.
steven e. streight aka vaspers the grate 11.10.06 at 10:18 am
WOMMA and PayPerPost are the bottom feeders of the blogosphere.
I am devoted to defending the integrity of blogospheric interactions, and paid enthusiast commentary runs completely contrary to core values.
Here is yet another example of the clash of cultures, the Business As Usual mentality vs. users advising each other on products in a sincere, unpaid, and spontaneous manner.
Business must not think “How can I leverage blogs to my advantage commercially?” but rather: “How can I engage in candid, “naked” conversations.
I suggest you read Scoble and Israel’s book again, after you read Gonzo Marketing by Chris Locke and Credibility by Kouzes and Posner.
See? Now, thanks to PayPerPost and WOMMA, I feel compelled to state: “I am not paid in any way to promote these 3 books, though my name is in one of them.”
How tiresome.