Flogger: n; Contraction of the two words: Fake, and Blogger. (syn: Persona Blogger) One who writes fiction but portrays it as autobiographical, usually as a paid writer to promote products, services, brands or ideas.
Astroturfing: v; The act of writing fictional comments on blogs, bulletin boards, or in online discussions. usually as a paid writer to promote products, services, brands or ideas.
Yesterday at Social Media Camp NYC hosted by Mashable, and Yoono, there was a very lively discussion started by a young woman who presented herself as a “Persona Blogger.” She was joined in this discussion by a company (who I have decided to not name, yet) who is employing her to blog for them.
She discussed how she assumes the persona of several people; 52 year old woman, 25 year old man, 20-ish woman, and then blogs, twitters, and creates pages on social networks like Facebook, MySpace, and others as these people. She spoke about how this is a 24/7 job that requires her to maintain this work constantly to keep up the facade.
I’ll not mince words, this is simply lying, and as I’ve stated in this blog before, lying is a terrible way to build a relationship.
The audience at SM Camp NYC seemed to divide somewhat along generational lines, with some of the younger people taking the side that it’s understood that people can’t be trusted on the internet. Their arguments followed the logic that everyone on the internet makes things up. They’ve grown up understanding there are different levels of honesty. All marketers are liars who are often telling people a story they want to believe. Throughout history there have been great works put out under false names. “I’m not a doctor.” TV infomercial fake audiences, etc, etc.
So the question is where is the line- Blogging, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, FriendFeed. When has the flogger crossed the line? If a “Persona Blogger” writes a blog posing as a fictional person, and creates a myspace page, and a twitter persona, and then runs that persona 24/7 on these services is that a problem?
The test for this is simple; if you were selling a hard product that I could go to a store and purchase could you be accused of false advertising?
Here is the problem for the Advertiser: The basis of the effort in Flogging or AstroTurfing is to gain the trust of the audience in order to break down their defenses against advertising and pitch your products to a more open audience. The problem is that if you are found out then you have not only broken the trust you have gained, but you have betrayed it. Betrayal is common in almost all societies, and people have a highly developed sense for detecting it. This betrayal will often lead to alienation and retribution. Pete Blackshaw’s book title says it all, Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000.
Here is the solution for the Advertiser: Hire the brilliant writer (or brilliant editor) and find a real person. Have the brilliant writer edit that real person’s words. This can never cause you a fraction of the grief that Flogging or AstroTurfing can cause.
Tanks for reading, now tell me what you think in the comments below:
Chris
18 responses so far ↓
1 Rob Blatt // Aug 12, 2008 at 1:13 pm
This damages the reputation of real bloggers who are willing to take on projects like this. It’s clear that this person isn’t someone who cares about the community that they are supposed to be a part of and the company that uses her services will eventually be outed publicly for building someone fake and trying to pass it off like it is standard practice.
2 Jonathan Trenn // Aug 12, 2008 at 1:22 pm
It sounds to me that this person has no clue what she’s doing is that wrong. She’s got a bunch of personas. I hope you “out” the company…not necessarily her, but the company that’s paying her to do this.
3 Jen Zingsheim // Aug 12, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I’m at a loss–I thought we were beyond this sort of thing? While I think what the advertiser is doing is reprehensible, the blogger should know better too. “Persona Blogger”…who comes up with this stuff?
This type of nonsense is exactly why some big companies refuse to engage. Right now, I can’t say as I blame them.
4 Chris Kieff // Aug 12, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I’m not really sure if most younger people don’t think cynically that everyone on the ‘Net, on TV, Radio and in print is lying. It’s a condemnation of our society when a whole generation has that low an opinion of us.
Chris
5 Dave Evans // Aug 12, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Younger people expecting less truthfullness on the Social Web? BS! In my book (which I’ll not plug here, but if you search you can find it) on Social Media one of the central points is that MARKETERS need to act TOGETHER to stop fake blogs and any other form of social shilling. Otherwise, one of the powerful channles that we are currently BEING INVITED to use by consumers will surely be closed off.
Frends don’t let friends pay bloggers.
6 Dave Evans // Aug 12, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Chris-
One other quick note–yes, agreeing w Jonathan, *please* out the company and the individual and each of the campaigns. Only by acting affirmativley, and collectivley, when we see this kind of mis-use and disregard for trust will effectively prevent this. To let it go hurts all of us, not to mentions consumers themselves.
7 Jonathan Trenn // Aug 12, 2008 at 2:26 pm
A few months ago, Coach, the woman’s clothing or accessory company was nailed on some sort of false effort tied into a university. It involved the president of the university, a donation, and the communications department. A lot of the students thought it was no big deal.
http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3i26f1bfd408799a20a6278840774a1176?pn=6
Makes me wonder if the standards we set today will be followed tomorrow.
8 Chris Kieff // Aug 13, 2008 at 8:18 am
I am working on an interview with the company and the Flogger which I hope to publish later this week. At which time I will decide whether to “out” the company or not.
This is a small company which you’ve never heard of, so outing them will only hurt their small business. If it were a larger well known company I would not have any question in my mind.
I think the more pertinent question is; are young people being taught that lying on the internet for business is wrong? In my personal experience I think they are not.
Chris
9 Jonathan Trenn // Aug 13, 2008 at 8:26 am
I completely agree and would add the question are people like her boss taught that lying on the internet is wrong as well. Or agencies that may use this practice (agencies that employ a lot of these young people).
10 Rob Blatt // Aug 13, 2008 at 8:47 am
Jonathan, from what I recall, this is a company she’s starting on her own. I suppose her potential clients don’t think that lying is wrong because it’s just a way for them to advertise. They probably don’t realize how much this violates the work that the community has been doing to prove that we are a viable place companies can turn to in order to get their message out.
11 Katie Paine // Aug 13, 2008 at 11:46 am
I totally agree that its lying. More to the point, why would we ACCEPT the fact that all marketers are liars. We’re in the relationship and perception business, do we really want to be perceived as fakers and liars? Do we want our relationships to be based on false premises. If you wouldn’t accept it in your personal life, why would you accept it in your professional one? I wonder how the CEO of the company would feel about his/her child establishing a relationship with someone with a false persona?
12 » How social media will get screwed, Part One - Marketing Conversation - New Marketing and Social Media by Abraham Harrison LLC Marketing Conversation - New Marketing and Social Media by Abraham Harrison LLC // Aug 13, 2008 at 1:54 pm
[...] … Yesterday I hopped over to Chris Kieff’s blog, 1 Good Reason, and came upon an excellent post that sparked a discussion both online and off. I ended up talking to Chris and five others about [...]
13 Chris Kieff // Aug 13, 2008 at 5:38 pm
UPDATE:
I will be “outing” the company who hired the Flogger and what they are going do about this going forward.
Look for Next Weeks blog post!
Chris
14 Flogging & Astroturfing isn’t wrong, it’s advertising. // Aug 19, 2008 at 6:06 am
[...] Last weeks post highlighted a Fake Blogger (Flogger) and the comments following the post illustrated the emotion [...]
15 » What Chris Kieff’s wife can tell us - Marketing Conversation - New Marketing and Social Media by Abraham Harrison LLC Marketing Conversation - New Marketing and Social Media by Abraham Harrison LLC // Aug 19, 2008 at 9:10 am
[...] Trenn (No Ratings Yet) Loading … I’ve been having a running conversation with Chris Kieff about the ideas of authenticity, transparency, and flogging. We agree on most things, disagree on [...]
16 When is a flog not a flog? « niff, naff n triv // Aug 21, 2008 at 12:19 pm
[...] had reached this conclusion after meeting a real life flogger and researching for the post in which he revealed his epiphany. He suggests that in order to [...]
17 Adam Jackson // Sep 15, 2008 at 4:46 pm
The great thing about Yoono is that switching between identities isn’t extremely easy so if you like being yourself online, Yoono is a really cool sidebar.
18 Where to go with Web 2.0 | Multi-Media Musings // Sep 15, 2008 at 8:54 pm
[...] although I am now well aware of astroturfing. Apparently people that do this on blogs are called Floggers or Persona Bloggers. Whilst this is worrying, there is one way we can check a blog’s authenticity, via a whois [...]
Leave a Comment