Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wylies99]

Companies Hire Bloggers for Promotion

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2009/02/133_39785.html
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter

Can online product reviews be relevant and credible when the authors are offered payments or freebies from the companies? The question has lately become a frequent topic in the country�s fast expanding blogosphere, which is increasingly embraced by the corporate world as an effective business tool.

The debate was sparked by the marketing efforts of Tatter & Media (TNM), an Internet company based in Seoul, which has been connecting a group of popular bloggers to companies willing to offer free products and services in return for reviews.

However, there are also observations that such changes are inevitable as blogging becomes mainstream, and seen as a medium for companies to get corporate messages across to the public.

About 20 bloggers participated in TNM�s recent marketing events with Samsung Electronics, where they were given some of the company�s latest mobile-phone models in exchange for a promised number of columns on their blogs.

TNM stresses that the bloggers were never pressed for word-of-mouth endorsements, and it never imposed on them any editorial guidelines other than that the Samsung phones must not be mentioned or compared with products from rival companies in the postings.

But critics wonder whether ethical thresholds have been crossed, considering that some of Samsung�s latest handsets cost more than one million won (about $687) on the shelves.

``When including taxes, Samsung�s T-Omnia touch-screen phone can cost around 1.2 million won for consumers,�� wrote a blogger, who goes by the nickname ``Ara.��

``By journalism standards, getting a phone like that would be seen as borderline graft.��

Another popular blogger, named ``Little Lamb,�� lamented that companies like TNM were making blogs more impersonal and corporate by recruiting online columnists to generate buzz for the products of client companies.

``When buying products, people tend to trust the offline opinions of friends or acquaintances more than the articles from traditional media outlets,�� wrote the blogger.

``Naive or not, the postings of bloggers are generally trusted in the same way, and you have to at least say that TNM is taking advantage of those beliefs to stuff its wallet.��

One of TNM�s most criticized bloggers is ``Hakjuni,�� whose blog (poem23.com) is immensely popular for gadget reviews. In a recent posting, Hakjuni defended his recent reviews of the Samsung phones, claiming that his writing is rarely accused of being one-sided.

``The reviews of each blogger reflects personal opinion ― some would choose to focus on the innovations of the new product, while others would focus on the deficiencies,�� wrote the blogger.

``The opinions on the review are open for debate, but unless a blogger is creating something out of thin air, it would be unfair to question the trustworthiness of the postings.��

The controversy is linked to questions whether TNM, which calls itself a media company experimenting in decentralized, user-generated information models, is undermining its own credibility by blurring the lines between genuine postings and paid advertising.

Han Young, the chief executive of TNM, admits that the company�s member bloggers receive free products and occasional payments from sponsoring companies for reviews on their blogs.

However, he also points out that companies using bloggers for marketing is nothing new, although the public consciousness is just catching up, and stresses that TNM�s bloggers have established their reputation as technologists long before them were teamed up.

Unlike other Web sites relying on peer-to-peer models for content, TNM is run more like a closed community, with the company selecting around 100 of the more influential bloggers to link their postings to its site (www.tattermedia.com).

``It�s not like we can force bloggers to play by the same rulebook as professional journalists, and the independent nature of the blogs makes it impossible to enforce guidelines on them,�� Han told The Korea Times.

However, Han said the company is discussing new guidelines to prevent further controversy, such as attaching bigger Web banners to the product reviews that explains to readers that the products have been sponsored.

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[wylies99]

They're FINALLY following the examples set by the Left/Kim Jong-Il supporters. Repeat the big lie and the useful idiots follow.

[RACETRAITOR]

Wait, this is news? Companies hiring people to run advertising-themed blogs? This has been done for years.

[Smee]

For the best pizza in Jeollanam-do, try Hit Pizza.

[Hindsight]

Bloggers?

Does anyone here make their buying decisions based on reading blogs?

Heck, I don't even read blogs. Blogs are so 2006. Does anyone here even read blogs?

What I worry about is the online product reviews being stuffed by canned content. The article doesn't address this. Is it happening? Sometimes I get suspicious.

-- I get suspicious when a product review reads like a press release, complete with itemized bullets.

-- I get suspicious when a product review reads like it was supposed to be written by a 12 year old.

-- I get suspicious when you see five reviews in a row all saying the product is the very greatest of its kind ever made in the history of the world.

-- I get suspicious when those reviews are written by reviewers who never reviewed any other product.

-- But I'm also suspicious that these "reviewers" are catching on, and doing token reviews of at least one other product, and offering token criticism of some insignificant "flaw."

I've noticed at least one Korean company that has some online reviews of this nature. But then there have been American companies that may have been doing this for years. I have been suspicious of some of the pro-Apple content, but then I guess most Mac-heads don't need to be paid to be brainwashed. But some of the Apple propaganda appears to be seeded.

I have seen some movie directors who have gotten extremely positive comments online, comments that sometimes seem to bear so little relation to the movies I wonder whether they watched them. These movies were so excruciatingly bad that sometimes I couldn't finish them.

For awhile there were reviews of certain movies with the recurrent theme about how the reviewer watched the movie at least once a month, or once a week, or once a day because it was their very favorite movie and the greatest movie ever made. (Perhaps they are still being written.)

The prose was so purple that I once collected the hyperbole from one of these movies and cut-and-pasted it into a single outrageous parody review. No one seemed to find anything amiss. Maybe I should have submitted my review to the director with a bill for payment of services.

Hey, where can I get one of those blogging jobs?

[sojusucks]

These biased reviews will definitely reduce the credibility of the company, but schools here don't teach students how to detect fraud which may explain why so much goes unnoticed (or that could be because of the bribes).

In Korea, this may work. Look at how nationalism is used to further protectionist policies in Korea. I don't think that most Koreans will notice this.

[joshuahirtle27]

This is not news. I mean seriously... we know this.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I'm sure I've seen it here at Dave's a few times in the last couple of years. Someone comes in, raves about a new product I've never heard of, then a few days later the product is all over the place in a new ad campaign.