WOMMA Ethical Blogger Contact Guidelines: 10 Principles

10 Principles for Ethical Contact by Marketers

• Review these guidelines before initiating any contact with bloggers.
• Share these guidelines with vendors, agencies, and staff.
• Keep disclosure and transparency top of mind.

Remember: Consumers come first, honesty isn't optional, and deception is always exposed.

For more information, visit www.womma.org/ethics.

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1. I will always be truthful and will never knowingly relay false information. I will never ask someone else to deceive bloggers for me.
2. I will fully disclose who I am and who I work for (my identity and affiliations) from the very first encounter when communicating with bloggers or commenting on blogs.
3. I will never take action contrary to the boundaries set by bloggers. I will respect all community guidelines regarding posting messages and comments.
4. I will never ask bloggers to lie for me.
5. I will use extreme care when communicating with minors or blogs intended to be read by minors.
6. I will not manipulate advertising or affiliate programs to impact blogger income.
7. I will not use automated systems for posting comments or distributing information.
8. I understand that compensating bloggers may give the appearance of a conflict of interest, and I will therefore fully disclose any and all compensation or incentives.
9. I understand that if I send bloggers products for review, they are not obligated to comment on them. Bloggers can return products at their own discretion.
10. If bloggers write about products I send them, I will proactively ask them to disclose the products’ source.

Great move and initiative, guys spread and Marketers follow! Thanks Womma and specifically to the Ethics group, I proudly reviewed and commented on guidelines before public release. Keep going WOMMA!

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Comments

[Christophe]

Laurent, did you see this initiative from a US company to pay bloggers for advertising secretly to their peers. The 10 principles are very good but can they prevent a few of these from spoiling the blogosphere?

http://www.quechoisir.org/Article.jsp?id=Ressources:Articles:EF33CF34D5616AF2C125720D0050E701&catcss=TEL000

[Laurent Flores]

Thanks Christophe -

of course I am awared and in fact highlighted the dangers & limintations of such practice and in fact womma stood up right from the beginning to push back on such initiative.

http://customerlistening.typepad.com/customer_listening/2006/07/payperpost_mark.html

I will say, let it go and do not give more "talk" as we already blamed it and by referring to it we simply get what they want: attention.

Thanks