Update: This post and what the OFT’s ruling means for blogs has generated a lot of debate! It’s obvious that the issue of how to handle commercial relationships and transparency is one that engenders a lot of opinions (and emotions) in bloggers.
Our idea of creating badges/icons/visual elements that immediately convey has drawn praise and criticism, which you can see in the attached comments. The idea is that it’s a way for bloggers – in individual posts – to include an easily recognisable element that tells the reader exactly what kind of commercial connections that post has.
Our idea was to create simple, easy-to-grab elements that don’t mess with the overall design and feel of a blog – “badge” is probably the wrong word since it connotes a big box that goes in the right-hand column rather than a smaller logo in the text. But it would get the point across and meet the OFT’s guidelines.
It wouldn’t be the equivalent of a Good Housekeeping seal of approval or be policed. The point is for blogger themselves to divulge the origins of their posts, and for readers not to have to read through several paragraphs before they know the bloggers’ relationship with the company or product they’re writing about.
It’s a work in progress. What’s inspiring is the depth of feeling and thought that everyone is giving this issue, by considering how it reflects on them, on their peers and on blogs in general.
This discussion is just part of a larger conversation and will continue to grow and change. If you haven’t already, jump in and tell us what you think!
***
In December we blogged about the ruling from the OFT regarding consumer protection laws. The OFT is enforcing these laws with bloggers, to ensure that any content promoting a product or service where the content has been paid for is clearly marked.
Now, in a new Q&A on its site, the OFT says it will NOT be monitoring the Internet and going after individual bloggers. (It considered the action with Handpicked Media appropriate because Handpicked is a blogging network.) This is not a witch hunt. But it will be taking appropriate and proportionate action to ensure the laws are followed.
That means more than ever it’s important for all of us – as upstanding bloggers focussed on creating quality content – to get out in front of this ruling and be transparent and ethical in all we do.
But what does it mean for the day-to-day on our blogs?
We think that labelling every blog post as “sponsored” doesn’t quite cover it. Getting a free DVD to review isn’t the same as going to a press event isn’t the same as being a long-standing ambassador with a multitude of perks.
That’s why we’re coming up with some badges to help your readers understand the origination of the content without lumping all of it into one group. You can grab these and pop them into your posts to show your blog stands for quality and trustworthiness.
This is a work in progress that we’re all part of. So jump in with your thoughts on how to be transparent and blog with integrity.
Undoubtedly these won’t fit every situation, so let us know what we’ve overlooked.
To start, what are your thoughts on how to connote sponsorship on Twitter? Some people use #ad. #Sponsored works but can be long. Another possibility: #sp.
What do you think?
Photo credit: IXQUICK
About Jennifer Howze
Jennifer Howze is the Creative Director and co-founder of BritMums. She blogs about family travel at Jenography.net, tweets at @JHowze and Instagrams at @JHowze. Previously, she wrote the Alpha Mummy blog at The Times and as a journalist has contributed to The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Wall Street Journal, Travel & Leisure, Budget Travel, CNN.com, Allure, SELF and Premiere, among others. She won The Maggie Award from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America for a health article in Seventeen magazine.
New Mummy
Wednesday 9th of February 2011
This is all so depressing. I am honest with my posts, I put if its a review or a sponsored post. I don't see why I then have to add badges as well, its just getting overcomplicated. Badges and disclosures will only work if everyone is doing the same thing. I find this is all getting a bit witch hunty with purist bloggers ready with the pitch forks waiting for those you decided that they want to write reviews or sponsored posts to fall down.
Natalie
Wednesday 9th of February 2011
I think, that while badges are well intentioned, they miss the point. A lot. The purpose of marking content and making clear what your blog is about is for the reader. Putting aside blogs for a moment, when a magazine marks content as an advertorial, it isn't for the benefit of other magazines. It is also clear when you pick up that magazine that it is a commercial vehicle hence the person who reads it expects advertising - they just want to be clear that when something is in the editorial, that is unbiased and if it is commercial, it is marked. That is why badges miss the point. Unless you have shag all readers, you don't just have bloggers reading your blog and really, the only people who ever look at badges, are yes, other bloggers. I don't write my blogs for bloggers - I write for my readers and in anything I do, I think about how that affects or can be interpreted by my audience. The issue here presents itself because there are people who are writing 'personal blogs' but trying to mix commercial but not being upfront about it. The OFT issue with Handpicked was of course right because they are not only a network that is running commercial content, but at times, when they run that content, it appears on blogs that are not immediately obvious that there is a commercial aspect. It is time for bloggers who mix commercial aspects with their personal blogs to decide what they are doing. There is nothing wrong with not running ads, comps, sponsored content, whatever, Equally there is nothing wrong *with* running ads etc. Where I take issue is that people want to have it every which way and be disingenuous. They want to play 'personal' and run a shake down like a money maker. They want to take vouchers for a post and then expect people not to realise that 50 other blogs are doing exactly the same post and a handful of them are disclosing. The fact that people feel a need to put a badge on their blog instead of leading through *actual* transparency - disclosure page, clearly marked sponsor post, reviews etc - speaks volumes. I agree with Rachel - all this stuff either makes me want to scream or grind my teeth. What the hell has happened to common sense? Why do people have to talk the nth degree out of stuff and look down on those who do/those who don't? Talk about trying to suck the life out of something! It's very simple - if you are writing the post because you accepted payment or there was some direct or indirect agreement that in exchange for taking something, you would write the post, it's a sponsored post. It's also as simple as saying in the post 'I recently received X from Y to check out'. I mean seriously, it's not rocket science! And if your only motivation to write about product is based primarily on the receipt of goods from others (i.e you wouldn't write about product otherwise), your content is commercial and it *is* influenced.
Sally Whittle
Tuesday 8th of February 2011
While I support any attempt to improve disclosure and I have often commented in the past year that 'sponsored post' is not a catch-all disclosure statement, I'm not sure about this. The reality is that if, as a network, BMB sets itself up as a 'mark of integrity' then it risks being caught in the fallout if anyone who displays that badge demonstrates a lack of integrity. And what is the value of a BMB 'mark' if the mark isn't monitored, audited or subject to any kind of checks and balances? Personally, I'd suggest bloggers who want to use in-post disclosure use CMP.ly badges (http://cmp.ly/), which are independent, not tied to any specific brand or organisation, and are easily recognised outside of a single network or community. I tend to find a clear disclosure statement at the end of a post is enough for me, though, as I rarely do sponsored content.
Alex
Tuesday 8th of February 2011
I thought the OFT had explicitly said they weren't enforcing the regulations against individual bloggers or have I misread their commentary? Either way I look forward with interest to seeing more badges :)
Alex
Tuesday 8th of February 2011
Hi anonymous blogger, I'll reply to you, despite the fact you lack the courage to use your real ID :) It's hardly Salem, self policing is nothing new. Why on earth wouldn't you want to be behind a scheme that would stop a naughty few bringing the rest of us in to disrepute?