Thank you everyone for your kind tweets and emails about Bob LeDrew’s and my appearance on CBC radio this morning. The topic was bloggers and freebies.
As many of you already know, I do accept some freebies, but you may not realize how many pitch emails I delete and how few products I actually accept for review.
The interview has now been uploaded to the Ottawa Morning website in case you want to have a listen. Just go to the archives page and scroll down to the link called “Bloggers and freebies”. (Emma told me afterwards that she thought I sounded “mechanical.” I’m still wondering what that means. Anyway, I can’t listen to myself, so I’m going to leave it to you to have a listen and reassure me that I don’t actually sound like a robot!)
It’s crazy how quickly the time flies by when you’re in the hot seat. Here are a few things I wish I had mentioned (and this is all loosey-goosey because it’s coming straight out of a brain which has only had about four hours sleep):
- Bad pitch vs. Good pitch vs. Unsolicated Mail (remember THE BOX fiasco?) and the pitch policy that followed.
- Bloggers who will do anything for low-value goods and not ask the hard questions … and what that means to (a) the advertiser/maker of the product (HINT: it’s FREE ADVERTISING) as well (b) the rest of us bloggers. I wish that bloggers would band together and refuse to blog about low-value goods from big companies e.g. that box of cereal and that container of yogurt (and both are pitches I have received and ignored.)
- And in that vein, are PR people taking advantage of bloggers? Personal blogs cultivate relationships. By sending freebies, PR people are capitalizing on that word of mouth. So where is this all going?
- Does that fact that the blogger receive a freebie automatically make them biased in favour in the product? I would argue that no – my readers are my bottom line and I won’t ever jeopardize that relationship – but many people are divided on this issue.
- Spreading the word for good, and not for profit. Blogging about community initiatives, charitable causes, creative projects … that’s using the Power of Blogging for good. That almost deserves a whole other conversation, because social media marketing is actually pretty cheap to undertake. So how is it helping the little guy?
I would love to continue this thread. What do you think? What would you add to the conversation?