How NOT to Build Good Relationships with Bloggers

Establishing good relationships with bloggers is a good way to raise visibility for your company.  Most businesses that give it a sincere effort will find that it is not that difficult to get in the good graces of bloggers.  Some businesses though struggle with the changes to the new ways of marketing.

The following is an example of a blogging strategy, you do NOT want to emulate:

It involves creating a fake blog (a “flog”). 

In 2006, Wal-mart created a blog that written by a couple traveling across the company in an RV and staying the night in Wal-mart parking lots.  The bloggers wrote about the kindness of employees and good customer service.

The only problem is that the blog was fiction.  The trip was actually subsidized, including the purchase of the RV,  by Working Families for Wal-Mart, a pro-Walmart advocacy group. The blog has since been removed, but the blog posts that wrote about it live on.

Pro-Wal-Mart Travel Blog Screeches to a Halt

Wal-Mart’s Jim and Laura: The Real Story

After reading about this PR fiasco, you might conclude that Wal-Mart or at least it’s PR firm, Edelman PR,  had not heard of the WOMMA code of ethics.  But ironically, CEO Richard Edelman,  was not only responsible for the “flogs”, he also helped co-author the WOMMA code of ethics!

WOMMA put Edelman PR’s membership under review.

Edelman apologized and posted about his company’s response to the controversy.

Some notable bloggers accepted the apology, while others felt the company got off too lightly.

Regardless of where you fall on the controversy – the message should be clear – this scandal happened in October 2006 – but when you search Google, today, 18 months later,  for the keywords, “Wal-mart blog” three of the top ten posts reference the fake blogs; only one is for Wal-mart’s real blog.