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We’re here now with Jen Reeves, Melanie Nelson, and Sarah Pinnix to talk about a sometimes touchy subject in our industry: professionalism and ethics.
Professionalism and Ethics in New Media
“We don’t want to insult. We want honesty. We don’t want to point fingers…”
What Should You Consider Before You Agree on a Relationship?
Don’t start out asking for payment. Ask what the deliverables are and what their expectations are. Look at the message of the company or organization you want to work with. Look at their core messages and marketing materials and ensure you want to lend them your endorsement. It helps to look for other bloggers they’ve worked with the see the kind of partnerships they’ve made previously. The community aspect is very important. It’s okay to say no if you don’t want to link your reputation with theirs. If you want to work with them but have issues with things like them wanting you to not disclose or use dofollow links, tell them what the ethical and legal implications are – because they may not be aware of them. If they still insist on unethical behavior, run the other way.
How Much Transparency Is Appropriate?
All of it. Disclose your relationships. Follow the FTC disclosure guidelines. Nofollow your links.
Reverse disclosure is good, too. Like if you’ve worked with Disney in the past, but then you go to Disney World with your family and pay for your own trip, it’s okay to say, “I’ve worked with Disney before, but this is just us here on our own having a great time as a family.”
Do Bloggers Need to Understand “Terms of Service?”
A lot of times, we just jump in and do what other bloggers are doing without bothering to stop and see if that’s “legal.” It’s our responsibility to find out what the TOS are for each social platform. It’s good to know that Instagram is fine with contests on their platform. Because Facebook changed their TOS, it was super important to know when it was not okay to use them for contest entries. It’s now allowed. But it’s not allowed to sell a personal Facebook status update.
When you are familiar with the TOS and you know what’s right, people who are willing to break the rules are going to jump all over you when you try to educate folks about the ethical thing to do.
How Can We Better Educate Ourselves About the Ethics of Sponsored Posts?
Add value to the content provided from the sponsor. Don’t just copy and paste a press release. If you received a product sample, don’t just say, “It was yummy.” Give your readers something valuable in order to stay above reproach.
We can constantly improve. We may interpret some feedback as criticism, but sometimes it’s worth listening. It may be good advice.
Can We Build a Safe Space to Talk About the Unethical, Unprofessional Behavior We See?
It’s better to go directly to someone and say, “Did you realize that it’s against ____’s TOS to ______?” than to talk behind their backs about it in FB groups. Come to them with solutions, not criticisms. Don’t keep harping on it once you’ve said your piece.
Find the voices that will talk about the ethics of things.
Should Everyone Ask to Be Paid to Do Stuff?
Sometimes yes. We are professionals. We conduct ourselves in a professional manner. There are times when you’re going to have to “give it away” a little bit. Not to the PR companies, but when you want to explore a potential long-term relationship with a brand and they are skittish because they don’t know what you’ll deliver.
“I don’t have the right to tell someone else they need to charge money for something.” Sarah admits this is controversial. It can hurt the whole community when people always give it away for free, but she says that she’s willing to tell brands that they’re only going to get a certain caliber of work from people who always work for free.
Do You Think Brands Will Look at Bloggers Differently if They Follow a Certain Code of Ethics?
The unethical stuff will push those who engage in mostly shady behavior out of the space because it’s self-selecting, and the trust isn’t there.
Does Our Industry Need a Code of Ethics to Help New Folks Coming In?
It helps to have mentors for new bloggers. It’s important for those of us who have been in the space for a while to show new folks the ropes and share those best practices.
Q&A
Networking is the way you get ahead. It’s not all of those PR emails you get. Your reputation is being built on who you’re hanging out with.
Have a long-term view about the problem of new bloggers who don’t care about ethics and undercutting rates and such. Brands and agencies will eventually see that scraping from the bottom of the barrel is not beneficial for them, and they’ll start looking for the trustworthy, reliable, ethical bloggers who we here are trying to be.
If you’re working with a brand or agency that asks you to do something unethical, you can take that opportunity to educate them. (I have a success story with this. I came back to a client who wanted only dofollow links, and I said I don’t do that – and I gave them a link to a study about why nofollow links are the only thing I do when working with brands. My contact was not The Guy who came up with the dofollow request, but he went back to the people who did, and then he got back to me a week later and said THANK YOU for letting us know. We had no idea about this, and we want to do it the right way. You go ahead and follow the rules as you outlined them to us. We’ll be changing our standard instructions to bloggers from now on.)
We cannot attempt any sort of “price fixing” with sponsored post rates because we are all at different places with our blogs, what we have to offer, and how much experience we have. (I wouldn’t accept $10 for a sponsored post, but I also couldn’t justify asking for $1,000 either. Not at this point in time. Maybe at some point in the future though!)
The questions are still coming in from the audience, but with a dying laptop battery, I have to close up shop. Great discussion, ladies!
That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.
Christina thank you for beautifully capturing the essence of the discussion. It was such a great honor to be chosen to speak on such an important topic.
I think you ladies did an excellent job of discussing the topic in a non-confrontational manner.