Buzz Marketing with Blogs: Interested in Fake Blogs?

Interested in Fake Blogs?

Just a reminder that I’ll be giving a talk in a couple of hours on fake blogs, character blogs, and some of the other “creative” uses of blogs today. It’s not too late to register!

Pushing the Boundaries on Blogs: Do Fake Blogs Work?
Wednesday, June 8, 2005, 8:30 p.m. ET - FREE

http://www.customizednewsletters.com/CE/cesched.htm

Blogging continues to move out of the realm of personal diarists and into the hands of business professionals and marketers. The transition isn’t always smooth, especially as creative marketers use blogs in new ways to promote products, businesses and business strategies. Long-time bloggers often refer to these efforts as “fake” blogs, and the resulting hue and cry generates publicity – of the negative kind. Are there lines that can’t be crossed? What has been tried, and failed? What has been tried, and succeeded? Learn to plan for the reactions you will get as push the boundaries with new and exciting ideas.

Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Off-line Hosted by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff and sponsored by Build a Better Blog System.

You can register for the Conversation with Susannah Gardner at: http://www.customizednewsletters.com/CE/cesched.htm

Posted by Susannah Gardner on 06/08 at 03:02 PM • Blogging Events -- Fake Blogs

Comments

Surely we can find a better term than “fake blogs” to describe those that are not traditional diaries. It seems so exclusionary, even snobby to call marketing blogs as being fake. That would mean our direct mail is fake mail. Our TV commercials are fake TV. Our news releases are fake news. Some of these blog initiatives might be poorly done, but the rest should not be cast out with the bad.

How about “marketing blogs”—or “campaign blogs”—or “promotional blogs”—or “event blogs”—anything but FAKE.

Posted by Dale Wolf on 06/10/05 at 06:28 AM
Enjoyed the call on Wednesday and I am looking forward to reading Buzz Marketing. Although I have spent most of my prior working life in brand marketing and advertising I do think that the invasion of “marketing blogs”, “campaign blogs”, “promotional blogs” is unfortunate though probably inevitable. Regardless of what they are called, they ARE fake in a media that likes to think of itself as authentic. This is a risk for blogs if every time a blogger raves about or recommends something we have to wonder if it is a paid endorsement or if the whole blog is an advertisement.

Posted by Marianne Richmond on 06/10/05 at 03:00 PM
“That would mean our direct mail is fake mail. Our TV commercials are fake TV. Our news releases are fake news.”

I think a large portion of the population would agree with these three statements…I know I do. That doesn’t mean I’m against them, just that I recognize a difference between the medium itself, and the advertising that exploits it.

I don’t think I’d call them fake blogs, but maybe blogsploitation : )

Posted by Cary on 06/10/05 at 06:09 PM
I couldn’t help myself from responding to Cary.

The word ‘exploit’ is not in my vocabulary when it comes to how I view marketing. I see marketing as being helpful to prospective and current customers, as long as it remains relevant to their needs. It might be interruptive, but good marketing should never, ever be exploitive. If I felt that way, I’d find another way to make a living.

Which gets me back to my pickiness over words like “fake”—there’s nothing fake about good marketing whether it is on TV or on a blog. The blog we are creating for the company where I do marketing is designed to provide content to help managers simplify complex business processes so they can be more competitive ... it does not promote our products ... it is relationship marketing ... and it is certainly not fake.

We also have blogs about our products and our development of these products ... which customers find very useful. They generate far more traffic than our website because customers want this information. I don’t think they see these as fake blogs.

Posted by Dale Wolf on 06/11/05 at 06:12 AM
Dale, I didn’t really mean to offend, though I realized that it was a distinct possibility. I don’t have any issue with advertising, I’m in printing myself, the bulk of which is advertising in one form or another…I just personally have a preference for calling a rose a rose.

I CAN see real legitimacy in a blog that follows the development of a product, as this is something that is of use to your actual customers, or customers who are looking for this type of product, and it adheres to the journal-like format of a blog (web-log.) However, in my opinion, a blog developed for the sole intention of selling something is just an advertisement. Calling it a blog doesn’t change that. It’s no more a real blog than an infomercial is a real program. It’s advertising. The population sees right through it. Calling THAT kind of site a blog just means that you’re trying to re-define what the word “blog” means. I’m not actually against it, myself, but the topic here is “Fake Blogs.” I would have to say that a blog that is just an advertisement is by definition not a blog at all, and hence you could safely call it fake.

Posted by Cary on 06/11/05 at 07:18 AM
Dale, one more thing…I DO NOT consider a blog that serves to help it’s existing customers to be a bad thing at all; I frequent some of these myself : ) I’m still not sure I’d call it a blog, though.

Posted by Cary on 06/11/05 at 07:35 AM
Susannah, I did some serious thinking about this post, and wanted to offer my sincere apologies if my original comment seemed like some sort of flame. It wasn’t meant to be at all. I was only trying to voice my honest opinion on the subject.

I like your blog a lot, because while it is a companion piece to your book, it also offers a ton of useful information for its readers as a stand-alone blog.

All the best,
-Cary

Posted by Cary on 06/11/05 at 08:50 AM
cary, your comments are great. i’m happy to see other viewpoints being expressed here!

please continue!

susannah.

Posted by Susannah Gardner on 06/11/05 at 10:38 AM
As clarification…it was my understanding based upon the the 6/8 call that the term “fake” blog applied to blogs that had a fictional element with the intent to appear authentic. This would be differentiated from a blog that provided information to customer or potential customers or was used for relationship building….in other words if Betty Crocker had a blog and wrote about “her” products that would be a marketing blog; if I wrote a blog endorsing Betty Crocker products impartially, but in fact received compensation from General Mills, that would be a fake blog.

Posted by Marianne Richmond on 06/11/05 at 01:48 PM