Don't Be A Clogger

As quoted in the New York Times recently, there is a new social media slang in town: “clogger”. Cloggers are the type of bloggers who just use their blog as a platform for receiving free goods or event invitations from PR companies and brands themselves. The term differentiates these freeloaders from the dedicated bloggers who receive press samples from those they build relationships with after having proved themselves in the blogosphere.

It’s pretty easy to identify the cloggers out there. They’ll be the ones brazenly asking for free goodies to post about on a blog that you’ve never heard of because it’s only been online for a day and has no readership. These bloggers also tend to post press releases in a copy and paste fashion without any commentary or individual voice. They’re just in it for the freebies.

Cloggers are a major thorn in the side of good bloggers out there. As Amber Katz states in the New York Times article, they are a big part of the reason the FTC now has guidelines for blogger disclosure of press samples and paid posts. These new rules for disclosure will weed out the cloggers. Unfortunately though, many bloggers who hold themselves to traditional journalistic standards feel punished and condescended to. The result is a culture of responsible internet journalists and consumer reviewers made to feel as though they are not ethical or trustworthy enough to provide unbiased reviews because of those out there that are just trying to work the system.

As both a blogger and marketing professional myself, I see both sides of the argument for and against the FTC guidelines. I think for those of us bloggers who were already doing things the right way it will just be a mild irritant, one more thing to think about. Additionally, it is important for marketing professionals to help the blogosphere remain a trusted source for consumer reviews by choosing not to work with cloggers. That’s good news for us, because the blogs that continue to do well will be of a calibre we want to work with to help promote our clients. Despite the patronizing press pieces that paint bloggers as a bunch of freeloading slackers that resulted from the FTC’s ruling, eventually the change will result in a win-win situation for us all.

Tags: blog, social media

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 11:04 am and is filed under Online Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.