If you follow along on my social accounts, you may have caught a glimpse of our adventures in the Toyota Camry SXE this past week. While the car is super luxurious, and arrived to us fully loaded with every feature you could possibly imagine, we were honestly more excited about where it would take us! We were on a mission to help outfit children in need, with all of the tools and necessities required for a successful school year.
The world of blogging and social media is changing rapidly every day. Sometimes it can be difficult to keep up with it all. For bloggers that partner with brands, there are new disclosure guidelines set forth by the FTC.
What do these changes mean for you, as a blogger? It may require a few simple updates to the way that you present reviews and sponsored content on your blog/ website and other social media networking platforms.
The FTC released “.com Disclosures: How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising”, in March 2013. This new guide outlines what it means to properly disclose in all relevant digital media in regards to the promotion of
products [sponsored and/or advertised online]. For bloggers this applies to sponsored posts [where a product/compensation has been provided] and any subsequent social media promotion of the content [via social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest etc.]
If your a Blogger or if you work in Social Media Marketing, you should definitely check out the new guide.
Here are a few tips on how to remain compliant with the new FTC disclosure guidelines :
The world of children's Apps certainly isn't new however, in our home it's still fairly new territory. Yes, we have had tablets in our home for the past few years, but in all honesty introducing yet another electronic gadget into my children's lives was something that I preferred to delay, as long as possible. Of course there were a few educational Apps that we downloaded here and there - but they were never allowed to navigate them without an adult present [which is something I still prefer as a parent].
Now that our children are a little older, tablets have become valuable educational tools; we still navigate each and every App purchase with caution though.
Since when did the niche of review blogging become so over the top ridiculous? Contest entrants trying to win several of the same item to sell on Ebay/Amazon? Cheating on Entry Forms?
When did Blogger's start feeling the need to keep up with the Jones', and have a constant stream of "reader giveaways"? It wasn't like this when I started blogging - at all.
Yes, I'm all for a couple, maybe even a few giveaways a month - but it has swelled to something that is clearly out of control. When did folks stop reading blogs, to well, just read blogs?
Blogger's purchasing (yep, literally paying for social media followers ) (or"Stumbling" SU) their way to the top?! This has gotten OUT OF CONTROL - It's like #MeanGirls except it's real life .... and we are NOT IN HIGH SCHOOL!
Don't get me wrong, I have
met some awesome mom's since I started blogging! There are many truly amazing mom blogger's that are good people, and great at what they do.
But then there's also this whole other side of thing's that is literally overshadowing everything else that's good (great even) about this community.
This is turning into a #SocialMedia #EpicFail in the #Momblogging Community (all in my humble opinion of course).
Update Published 1/31 (see below):
So, WOW, it has been an interesting couple of day's. I've received an onslaught of emails and comments addressing the topic that I addressed in this post (some good, some less than tactful, but I'm glad that it has opened a conversation.)
Because I'm unable to respond to each and every email / comment, but I feel a response is necessary:
As I stated in the beginning of the above vlog, this is completely out of character. However, this is a topic that needs to be addressed (in my opinion.) With that being said, yes, I did vlog about a trend in the sector of review blogging that has the potential to change the sector on a whole. If some would like to take this opportunity to blame my observation (yes, in the form of a vlog) as the reason that all PR professionals refer to mom’s who blog as “mommy blogger’s” (which I’m totally fine with by the way….I’m a mother and a blogger; and proud of both roles) fine. BUT, here’s the thing … Review blogging stands on the principles of word of mouth marketing. Word of mouth marketing is based wholly on trust, and the trust of an individuals opinions and honesty.
When blogger’s (again, specifically review blogger’s) start inserting various shades of grey to the way that the community operates (i.e. dishonestly pushing numbers) the whole point is lost. The entire concept will ignite skepticism, ultimately diluting what many of us do honestly.
In any area of business, there is a definite need to maintain a certain level of integrity and transparency. Period. I don’t care if your a blogger, mommy blogger, business owner, medical professional etc.- transparency and honesty are necessary. Have an issue with the way the term “Mom Blogger”? ..... they (as media does) tend to address this community on a whole (unfortunate, but true.) Issues such as these,
