Indelibuzz

Marketing is about reaching people where they live right now. So as people spend more and more time online, brands are looking for new and innovative ways to reach them.

Recently, there’s been a good deal of news about companies paying bloggers to say positive things about their brands. Corporate Eye had this to say: ‘Sponsored reviews, paid blog posts, sponsored tweets and more are not new to the social web, and whether you like them or not, they can be a cost effective way to generate online buzz and word-of-mouth marketing.’

And now there’s a post on Mashable about Virgin America offering free airfare to Twitter influencers. Call me crazy, but this trend feels a lot like something that could eventually kill the goose that lays golden eggs.

The reason people read blogs posted by individuals – rather than those from corporations – is because they believe the opinions are independent. Like the old Billy Joel song says, it’s a matter of trust. In fact the entire social media premise is built on the idea that people are saying positive (and negative) things about products and brands – because they really feel that way about them.

If the equation is corrupted – if it becomes commonplace for influencers to be paid by brands – then the whole model loses credibility. And people will quickly catch on that there’s no reason to believe what you read on a blog or a Facebook page anymore, because it might simply be a paid endorsement.

Fortunately, the online world appears to be pretty good at evaluating honest content. Which means that shameless endorsements are often called out for being just that. It’s one thing to write a post and acknowledge that you’re being compensated. It’s quite another to leave that part out.

If ‘sponsored reviews’ are indeed here to stay, let’s hope that the authors have the good sense to offer full disclosure. Otherwise, people will start to view the entire social landscape as one great big piece of advertising.