A man walks into a bar and shouts “hi, I’m entering Big Phil’s Italian restaurant competition to win a free a pizza in exchange for irritating you fine folk”
Would you drink with that guy? Or for that matter buy a pizza from Big Phil?
Yet thousands of people are prepared to give away their online reputations in return for the chance of winning a pizza, getting a free mobile phone or getting the tab picked up at an expensive restaurant. It’s a great testament to the power of freebies.
It’s a rather quaint that as many bloggers and Twitterarti are prepared to give the last rites to the traditional media channels, some are picking old media’s worst habits of payola and thinly veiled cash, or favours, for comment.
The worst area for this is in the food blogs where a number of successful bloggers now post more reviews of PR driven freebies than another posts as the big, well funded restaurateurs find these blogs are good alternatives to the crowded review pages in the major newspapers.
It isn’t just food bloggers though, we see this in the tech, fashion, travel and even the “mommy bloggers” field as enthusiastic PR agencies convince their clients, correctly, that these sites offer motivated and loyal readerships to their clients.
The really sad thing is that the bloggers don’t need to selling out so totally, not writing about every freebie they’re offered actually increases the value of those they do write about.
Another point of course is few bloggers live on freebies and in the case of the food bloggers, partaking in the town’s best eateries a couple of times a week is probably going to leave you dead, or at least with a severe case of gout, by 40 anyway.
So what’s the problem? If a company wants to give something away to someone who is happy to talk about it, isn’t it a win for everybody?
Maybe, but when you’re regularly taking freebies, the question becomes how many other things you talk about are freebies. More importantly, your reputation is now tied up with the products you are touting. Even worse, your brand becomes tied up with the agendas of public relations agencies in exactly the same way the old mainstream media has been.
There’s a power inbalance here as well as the old media has it’s mastheads to stand behind. Should there be a falling out between the media outlet and the agencies or their clients, it’s rarely the newspaper, radio or TV station that loses if someone makes a fuss.
A travel, tech or restaurant reviewer for a major newspaper or magazine can hide behind their employer’s good name and if a corrupt journalist moves on, their name will be quickly forgotten.
There’s no such luxury for an individual blogger as their site’s credibility is their only asset and their online credibility is entwined with their offline, professional reputation.
This isn’t to say bloggers or anyone else should take freebies, I’d be an unrealistic hypocrite to suggest that. Free samples and meals go with the territory of having an influential outlet or a big, enthusiastic audience.
But perhaps it’s time for people to say “no’ to these online competitions that ask you to spam your friends and followers and for successful bloggers, maybe suggesting to some of these PR agencies that their clients would be better served buying advertising space on the sites rather than offering a free meal to later be dressed up as a review.
Having a big, enthusiastic audience is a fantastic asset and a great achievement to those who’ve built those tribes of followers to their websites and twitter feeds. It’s an asset worth guarding and respecting.