Regulating Word of Mouth (and other PR Blog Jots)

FTC Goes After Word of Mouth Marketing
PR Communications

John Cass reports on a Washington Post piece (also reported in The Flack) detailing the FTC’s attempts to “unmask” word-of-mouth marketing by requiring those participating to disclose when they are accepting payments.  While current FTC regulations already require this, it seems the FTC may now—at the behest of a petition from a commercial watchdog group--wish to regulate those representing a company on a volunteer basis as well, using a Procter and Gamble buzz marketing program as an example. “As I said last year, Commercial Alert was just plain wrong on their assessment of P&G’s Temor program. I suspect Gary is again attempting to fan the flames of publicity by suggesting they are breaking the law, when P&G is not, the company does not compensate its volunteers. Though they do occasionally give free products away.”

New Media vs. Traditional Media
The Flack

Peter Himler, in a long and fascinating post, analyzes the state of traditional media in light of a new study claiming that “old” media outlets are “far from dead.”  The study claims that 70 percent of consumers are still getting their news from newspapers or local TV coverage.  Himler concedes that this may be the case, but points out that media professionals are well aware that the biggest influencers in the era of new PR are often anything but traditional. “Personally, I don't think the two realms should be treated as mutually exclusive. They both need to be worked, honestly, earnestly and transparently. They feed into each other. Sure, the blogosphere allows much greater specificity in terms of finding and engaging the exact right constituent. Still, there's no guarantee that one's carefully planted blogseeds will ever bare fruit in the MSM.”

Unethical PR Firms Paying Digg Users to Rate Stories Higher
Online Public Relations Thoughts

Jim Horton denounces the practice of paying users of the hugely popular news ranking site Digg to rate certain news stories about PR clients higher in order to generate buzz, citing another blog entry about the practice. He calls the practice unethical and bemoans that there will always be bad actors in any industry, PR in particular. “The reality in our business is that unethical operators were in it from the beginning. One needn't look far to find those who paid journalists to write stories or made up facts or pulled off phony events to generate coverage. There are those, however, who believe it is possible to practice PR correctly if one chooses to do so. I'm among them.”

"Are Bloggers Journalists?"
Josh Hallett

A PR bloggers reports on the responses from a panel at the Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s recent summit which asked the question “Are bloggers journalists?”  The panel included representatives from PR Newswire, PR Week and communications guru Peter Himler.  The consensus seemed to be that while many journalists do blog, in general bloggers are thought of as “citizen journalists,” although they can often be as influential as a mainstream journalist. “Peter: I feel they are journalists, but of the citizen variety. The lines of traditional media are blurring, entertainment is mixing with hard news, etc. Media needs to take a look and take stock of where they are at.”

Edelman's Second Life Video News Blog Debuts
Micro Persuasion

Steve Rubel links to the debut of the Edelman/Electric Sheep video news blog, which has made its official debut on the virtual community Second Life.  Other Second Life residents are free to submit news to the “show,” which is anchored by a virtual avatar.  “A few weeks ago I wrote about Edelman's first foray into Second Life. The second, a machinima video blog, debuted today. The Grid Review's goal is to deliver the best Second Life news.”

YouTube Videos Taking the Place of Press Releases?
BL Ochman

To promote the launch of its new page, Google Finance, Google posted a humorous YouTube video featuring one of its employees in an animated ad for the new page.  The result, as BL Ochman points out, was far more valuable than a traditional press release, as bloggers who may otherwise not have any interest in finance are linking to the video and creating buzz. “That's a way to build some real traction in the long term, since every industry, including finance, always needs new customers.”