authenticity

When I counsel clients on blogging I stress that authenticity and disclosure is the cornerstone of credibility in the blogosphere. When one is responding to comments or participating in forum discussions there should be no question as to who is posting; in fact, I encourage the use of a signature file with links back to their blog as standard practice.

So I was interested in Fredric Koeppel’s post yesterday and Tom Wark’s post this morning about the buzz marketing campaign for the movie Bottle Shock. Aside from an unimpressive Blogger site (the lack of professionalism doesn’t make this more authentic, guys), it seems they are posting comments anonymously on wine blogs with obvious pitches for the film. The comments are tangentially related to the subject of the post so they slip past SPAM detection software and are often posted; here’s a sample:

Not only is this unethical from a blogger ethics perspective but it’s a disturbing development that concerns me. Social media marketing is about connecting with people personally online and not sneaking around behind anonymous Gmail accounts. Interestingly, this is the first case of “black hat” social media outreach I’ve yet seen but I expect more if this tactic is successful.

I was looking forward to seeing the film and perhaps reviewing it on my wine blog and podcast but now I think I’ll pass and wait for the DVD… or when it plays on HBO.

To whomever is behind this campaign: you guys blew it.

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