Over the past week, one of the hottest stories in the corporate blogosphere has been the dust-up over the allegedly "fake" Wal-Marting Across America blog, run by Washington Post photographer Jim Thresher and his partner Laura St. Claire. Without getting in to the gritty details, Thresher and St. Claire’s travel expenses and blogging time were paid for by Working Families for Wal-Mart (WFFWM), an organization funded by Edelman, the Chicago-based mega-PR firm one of whose largest clients is Wal-Mart. This was one of those "ah hah!" moments that inquisitive bloggers intuitively gravitate to, creating a blogswarm that almost always reflects negatively on the parties involved.
So what are the lessons from this episode that organizations seeking to influence the blogosphere can take?
Disclose. Disclose. Disclose. Blogs should explain the who, what, when, where, why, and how of their origins and purpose for being in the very first posting. Bloggers are making money off the medium (just ask Markos), which is a testament to the growing popularity of the blogosphere. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. However, bloggers should be sure to disclose and explain such sponsorships up front to avoid accusations of an undisclosed quid pro quo arrangement with their sponsor.
Does it pass the common sense test? Bloggers are hyper-sensitive to content that smells like PR. Just reading the unerringly positive postings about Wal-Mart and
its employees would have led one to suspect something fishy. In the case of the Wal-Marting Across America, the RV that Thresher and St. Claire were driving was plastered with a big "Working Families for Wal-Mart" banner on its side. The mainstream media had picked up on the Edelman-WFFWM connection as far back as January of this year, so a little Nexis searching would have been all it took for a blogger to dig up this information.
WHOIS fishiness. One of the first places I go to check the origins of a blog (ones with unique URLs, at least) is the WHOIS database. The results of a WHOIS search on the URL can often give clues as to who is behind a site. In the case of Wal-Marting Across America and WFFWM, both sites were registered using the GoDaddy.com domain registrar, which hides the name and contact information of the registering organization. While the WHOIS search did not turn up a great deal of information, the use of GoDaddy.com suggests that 1) the registrar of the site does not want to be known and 2) they are willing to spend money on GoDaddy’s (albeit inexpensive) services. When the WHOIS database search does yield contact information, a quick search of Google Maps lets us know if the site is being run out of a home (usually indicating a small, often one-person operation) or an office (indicating that the registrant has money coming in from somewhere to afford office space). Sometimes, a simple Google search of the registrant’s address or phone number matches up with a sponsoring organization or PR firm. In addition, Nexis and Google News searches of the registrant’s name sometimes bring up mainstream media stories connecting them to other organizations.
The main point of today’s posting is that bloggers who don’t disclose why they’re blogging on a particular subject or who might be supporting their blogging efforts is playing with fire. In a blogosphere with literally millions of users, who have a dizzying array of investigative techniques at their fingertips, it’s really only a matter of time before shady blogs get burned.
