9.15.2009
9.01.2009
3.05.2009
age of innocence
we have been discussing social media around here a lot for obvious reasons...
what it is... what it's good for...etc etc...
and recently we have been discussing whether brands should pay for friends...
as there are a lot of "affiliate agencies" out there trying to introduce "bounty" models into the social space as "social marketing."
to us, this is seemingly getting some traction because in our experience, to a lot marketeers, "social" is a bit like "china"...
...meaning they hear about it all the time, read about it, know they should know about it...
however don't really understand it...
but know when their boss asks they had better be able to say what it is and what it does for the business...
that's when these bottom feeders offer them what are basically.. cpf programs (cost per friend)...
clearly by our tone, we are not a big fan of paying for friends through sweepstakes, rewards programs, free stuff, etc...
in our minds, everyone will come to your party and be your friend for "free beer"...
but who stays around when it's gone?
no one, if there is not continued mutual benefit in the relationship...
all that said, we are not posting this to point out the obvious...
it's to draw a bit of attention to a controversial way buying friends (particularly friends who blog), much to our chagrin, might actually be a good thing for marketers to do.
it seems these same agencies that are promoting the cpf social affiliate models are also starting blogging affiliate programs now...
these "brand pimps" are setting up "blogger rings" that operate on what is basically a "pay for post" model...
and these paid posts are supposedly positively effecting google rankings.
this was a big deal, but an obscure one...
until sean corcoran at forrester research issued a report called "add sponsored conversations to your toolbox" that basically "suggests" brand marketers should consider sponsored blog posts for the possitive effect on the google relevence engine...
... to top it off, he sights specific examples from brands like kmart that he claims are getting positive benefit from this practice...
...and now all hell is breaking loose...
google hates when someone figures out, or even hints at figuring out, how to game their engine...
google's matt cutts restated the search engine's policy on paid blogs.. he wants the bloggers to adhere to google's "nofollow" tag policy when posting the blog if the post links to the sponsor's site paying to have the brand mentioned in the post.
"nofollow" is an html attribute used to instruct search engines that a hyperlink should not influence the ranking, or PageRank, in the search engine's index.
farm is not sure we can count of self enforced rules to insure the integrity of google's engine...
so... question:
how is a paid blog post different than a paid/commercial message (an ad)?
is it implictate that bloggers are amateurs and/or unpaid?
are blog posts implicitly unbiased and honest?
should blogs be held to some higher standard of truth and transparency?
farm likes a world where it's clear what is "promotion" and what is "peer recomendation"...
but does this world exist anymore?
can it exist anymore on the open internet?
questions like this, no matter the answer, point at one thing... there are no rules only opinions...
and opinions of consumers are their truth...
so if a brand gets caught doing this... are they easily going to be able to talk their way out of it with consumers?
like buying friends...is the risk worth the reward?
what it is... what it's good for...etc etc...
and recently we have been discussing whether brands should pay for friends...
as there are a lot of "affiliate agencies" out there trying to introduce "bounty" models into the social space as "social marketing."
to us, this is seemingly getting some traction because in our experience, to a lot marketeers, "social" is a bit like "china"...
...meaning they hear about it all the time, read about it, know they should know about it...
however don't really understand it...
but know when their boss asks they had better be able to say what it is and what it does for the business...
that's when these bottom feeders offer them what are basically.. cpf programs (cost per friend)...
clearly by our tone, we are not a big fan of paying for friends through sweepstakes, rewards programs, free stuff, etc...
in our minds, everyone will come to your party and be your friend for "free beer"...
but who stays around when it's gone?
no one, if there is not continued mutual benefit in the relationship...
all that said, we are not posting this to point out the obvious...
it's to draw a bit of attention to a controversial way buying friends (particularly friends who blog), much to our chagrin, might actually be a good thing for marketers to do.
it seems these same agencies that are promoting the cpf social affiliate models are also starting blogging affiliate programs now...
these "brand pimps" are setting up "blogger rings" that operate on what is basically a "pay for post" model...
and these paid posts are supposedly positively effecting google rankings.
this was a big deal, but an obscure one...
until sean corcoran at forrester research issued a report called "add sponsored conversations to your toolbox" that basically "suggests" brand marketers should consider sponsored blog posts for the possitive effect on the google relevence engine...
... to top it off, he sights specific examples from brands like kmart that he claims are getting positive benefit from this practice...
...and now all hell is breaking loose...
google hates when someone figures out, or even hints at figuring out, how to game their engine...
google's matt cutts restated the search engine's policy on paid blogs.. he wants the bloggers to adhere to google's "nofollow" tag policy when posting the blog if the post links to the sponsor's site paying to have the brand mentioned in the post.
"nofollow" is an html attribute used to instruct search engines that a hyperlink should not influence the ranking, or PageRank, in the search engine's index.
farm is not sure we can count of self enforced rules to insure the integrity of google's engine...
so... question:
how is a paid blog post different than a paid/commercial message (an ad)?
is it implictate that bloggers are amateurs and/or unpaid?
are blog posts implicitly unbiased and honest?
should blogs be held to some higher standard of truth and transparency?
farm likes a world where it's clear what is "promotion" and what is "peer recomendation"...
but does this world exist anymore?
can it exist anymore on the open internet?
questions like this, no matter the answer, point at one thing... there are no rules only opinions...
and opinions of consumers are their truth...
so if a brand gets caught doing this... are they easily going to be able to talk their way out of it with consumers?
like buying friends...is the risk worth the reward?
3.03.2009
how hard is this?
is it appropriate to feel guilty for not posting?
prioritizing the accomplishment other activities and projects ahead of writing about them...?
we're not sure...
either way... just to be safe...
apologies all.
between snow storms, rain storms and economically driven $hit storms we have been a bit quiet at the farm club...
speaks poorly of us... but volumes about our preoccupation with twitter.
speak soon (we promise).
1.23.2009
end bush
some of us live in san francisco and most of have at one time or another...that said if you are familiar with san francisco, then you have probably driven on bush street.
in honor of the inauguration of our 44th President, some folks from performance art group survival research laboratories made some clever (and fun) changes to city's street signs on bush street...
...and we think it's great.
has anyone done this anywhere else?
1.04.2009
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