My friend and bloggy-buddy Debbie Weil has started a blogosphere kerfuffle over her request via e-mail and blog post to leave a comment on GSK’s alliblog. Folks like David Murray and Allan Jenkins have been roasting Debbie over the coals and Lee Hopkins had this to say:
As for me, I am stunned that a leading proponent of blogging within corporations is behaving so unethically. The fact that the WalMart blogs were fake had to be ?discovered?; Debbie is coming right out in the open.
Now, as much as I am ?anti? any fake blogging (it totally undermines the whole ethos of Social Media), I am not unaware that satellites might have to be sent up to photograph the other side of me. Even though I have no experience of liposuction myself, were Ms Weil and her client able to arrange for me to partake in what academic researchers have found is Adelaide?s ?secret? growth industry (it?s cheaper to have professional body reconstruction here in Adelaide than anywhere else in the whole Asian region, a case of ?Mutton recreating into Lamb?), I am sure Mrs BetterComms will be the happier for it if I were able to shake those few extra kilogrammes that plague my otherwise svelte and sylph-like self. Source: Better Communication Results
So, first yes I did get the e-mail and, no, I didn’t leave a comment. I, in fact, used to work at GSK in the eBusiness department in Canada and would have been pushing for blogs if I were still there. I also got a sneak peak at the blog and submitted a comment just to help them test the system–I haven’t been back since.
I don’t think there is any problem with posting about a client and asking readers to visit. Nor do I think there is a problem with privately e-mailing colleagues to do the same. Asking for comments is where I’m stuck. Really this shouldn’t be a big deal. What if you have a client who is writing some amazing stuff, but isn’t getting any feedback from readers, wouldn’t it be okay ask your friends to visit and maybe leave some words of encouragement for your client? Writing is hard enough and writing in public is even harder (as all us bloggers know), I don’t see that kind of request as bad.
What about Debbie’s case. It seems that the alliconnect blog isn’t doing well. Mediocre traffic and few comments. Okay. Well, the blog does have a pretty tight comments policy, it has to, they are a pharma company (Heck the legal stuff sounds an awful lot like the stuff I wrote years ago for them). This limits the number of comments by default (I wonder if David Vance is still in the legal department…). Is it okay to specifically ask for comments? Is it asking all of us to shill for Debbie to help her out with her client?
If you read the text of Debbie posts and e-mail, it’s clear to me that Debbie is only asking for comments if you feel motivated. I didn’t, sorry Debbie, but I do feel that she’s getting a bit of a bad time on the blogosphere. Might not have been the best thing to do to e-mail and blog this request. Maybe be more careful about who is on the e-mail list. Also the offhand remark (I took it as a joke) that we didn’t have to mention that we knew Debbie, which is what has gotten Debbie into the most trouble, yeah well we all live and learn, don’t we?
When you feel passionate about your clients and you want them to be successful, sometimes you try your best and might be a little over zealous. In reality we don’t have anything to tsk, tsk Debbie over beyond trying to make a joke in e-mail. She said they were a client. She said that she was trying to boost comments. It was all above board, IMHO.
Debbie, maybe next time let one of us read the e-mail first.
Tris Hussey is a writer, teacher, blogger, and speaker on all facets of Internet life, WordPress, and social media. He is the author of Create Your Own Blog: 6 Easy Blogging Projects to Start Blogging Like a Pro and Using WordPress.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I don’t see this as being above board. I see this as someone who probably felt a lot of pressure to go out an get people to comment because things weren’t turning out they way they should. And she did it in a way that goes against the grain of what many see as standard operating procedure.
That being said, I don’t see this as being so utterly unethical. Or in the fake Wal Mart blogs. The comparison is absurd. It was a request that, at best, would have had a minor effect for a client that was probably being a pain in the arse. Put away the tar and feathers.
I mean, what, the blog is a month old? It takes time to get an audience. I don’t see the lack of comments as Debbie’s fault.