The EU Directive on fake business blogs (flogs) - what you need to know
Since 26th May, any UK company breaking the EU’s Directive on Unfair Business-to-Consumer Commercial Practices faces prosecution, fines or even jail terms for staff.
The kinds of activities this includes are:
- Using websites to create a false impression of grass-roots support or to inspire viral marketing
- Posting entries under different aliases to make something look more popular than it is
- Posting favourable evaluations or ratings to make something look more popular than it is
Companies caught out previously include L’Oreal, Sony, Wal-Mart and numerous politicians together with the Indian Prime Minister. So it is attractive but the consequences are now much greater.
Any blogger will admit it is tempting to add a few fake comments to get conversations going and to make a blog look more active but they will also agree conversations with a lasting impact are natural ones with real readers.
So work on content instead:
- Be controversial
- Be open-ended
- Invite comments
- Interact with comments
- Make it easy to comment (i.e. no log-in)
- Break news to encourage readers to link to you and come back for more
- Write about lasting issues that will still be popular in the future
- Be useful (educate and share information)
Remember: blogs should have integrity. The regular bloggers you are most trying to influence and get to pass on the good word about your company or product are influenced by the post not the number of comments.
Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/debaird/
louise wrote this on 24.07.08 –
It's filed in the Blogging, Business, Industry news, Marketing, Mistakes, Social media box
On August 7th, 2008 at 10:32 am, Beth Granter responded:
Hi - I’m a bit confused by the first bit that says “using websites to … inspire viral marketing” is not allowed. I thought lots of companies did this openly in their marketing campaigns?
On August 7th, 2008 at 11:25 am, Louise responded:
Probably a case of bad grammar more than anything! - I interpreted it as anything deemed to be unauthentic such as creating a false (who is perceived to be real) persona which some viral marketing is then based around.
I think most general marketing won’t be affected - the directive is really to protect consumers from finding and then trusting comments made by others who have a vested interest that has not been made clear (or is, in fact completely hidden!)
On August 7th, 2008 at 3:44 pm, john c responded:
Be controversial : hmm not sure about that, how about just plain old Be Honest
On August 7th, 2008 at 5:04 pm, Louise responded:
Yes, definitely! Authentic is good, though i do always enjoy a strong opinion or two and it makes me much more likely to comment.
On August 9th, 2008 at 7:53 pm, Will McInnes responded:
John - few bloggers are honest.
In fact, in my opinion in the main bloggers don’t tell it how they really see it, and as a result what they write contributes nothing new, often recycling other opinions, and rarely takes a position or explores a new, different perspective.
So I think the suggestion to be controversial is a good one - it encourages individuals and organisations to find their real voice, which in turn, is being plain old honest.
But even if someone isn’t ready to break new ground, then being honest is a basic building block of communicating so yeah, it’s a good suggestion, but not mutually exclusive to also being controversial when and where appropriate and possible.
On August 9th, 2008 at 7:57 pm, Will McInnes responded:
@ Beth G - yeah, it’s confusing isn’t it. The first part is clear - many organisations have been guilty of ‘astroturfing’ as I’m sure you’re aware, where the guilty bad company seeks to create the impression of grassroots support for their cause. So I get that. But you’re right about the second bit - it seems to have been mangled in the legislation-confusion-badness machine to prevent us from simple clarity and understanding!