In a story posted on PR Tactics and The Strategist Online, bloggers have begun writing sponsored posts about products and other topics and are raising concern over online ethics. I am disturbed by this action because a lot of people look to blogs as unbiased opinion. I personally look at blogs about products and services to hear from an actual user or owner, not a paid voice of their providers. Sponsored blogs are paid advertisements and this misleads consumers and customers and blog readers. If this problem persists, consumers and customers won’t be willing to rely on blogs as a source of information when making decisions.
Instead of paying bloggers for their posts, companies should address the unbiased posts bloggers write. If companies want their voices to be heard, they should contact unbiased blogs requesting that the blogger mention a certain topic or provide more information to the blogger about their company, industry, competition, etc.
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I totally agree with you, that sponsored blogs are misleading blogs. But one of the characteristics of the new media is that they are to a great extent uncontrolled. It's really hard to say if the opinion that a blogger shares with the community, is indeed an unbiased one, or someone has paid so as this opinion to be posted. I don't think that it is something that bloggers' community can do about that, other than condemn such practices and not adapt them of course. It's a matter of ethics, not only the blogger's but of the sponsor as well, who tries to "sell" unfair means. It's a shame that there are such efforts to infiltrate the bloggers' practice. Such tactics aren't miles part of trials that have been reported, to promote products and companies through Wikipedia, from the same the companies or their PR firms. Both practices try to mislead the public using media that are very popular and trusted. The difference is that in Wikipedia the access is free…
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