[2014/12/23] Blogs traded for buzz marketing

[lancelot]

Blogs traded for buzz marketing

By Kim Rahn

An Internet user named "haehu" recently received a message from an unknown person who introduced himself as a "marketer."

The marketer said haehu that he would buy a section on her blog where more than 1,000 people interested in baking, food and travel visit each day. He said he would post 25-30 times per month about cosmetics, diets and hospitals and pay 100,000 won per month in return.

Haehu is not the only one receiving such messages from marketers, as hundreds of Internet users on portal sites say they have received messages about renting or selling their blogs or online communities.

The messages are usually from marketing companies that want to take advantage of blogs or communities run by so-called "power bloggers," who have large numbers of regular visitors who trust their opinions.

As more and more people buy products or visit restaurants after reading other people's online reviews, buzz marketing through blogs or communities has become an important advertising tool.

Another blogger, "Ray," received a message that said: "I'd like to borrow your ID to share your blog. I promise it's not about personal information theft. If your blog is proven to have a large number of visitors through a simple test, we'll pay 1 million won in monthly rent, or 4 million won for purchase."

Bloggers are confused as to whether they should accept such offers and whether such trades are illegal.

According to the law, blog or community trade is not illegal: in fact, there is no law governing it.

Most portal sites have their own rules to prevent this and slap penalties, such as suspending IDs for limited periods. However, it is not easy for portal site operators to detect the trades.

"These kinds of trades are made between individuals, with the buyers sending messages to the bloggers or community operators. We don't have the authority to check everybody's messages," Naver official Lee Seung-jin said.

There are cases when community members or blog visitors report "unusual" posts to the portal operator, he said. "We can detect it indirectly when a community suddenly has a surge of posts unrelated to its original purpose."

Even though this is not illegal, it may provide false information about products or services. A common example would be a post saying bloggers were really satisfied with a product, while the post was actually written by marketers.

Authorities are moving to prevent damage from exaggerated or false information. In June, the Financial Supervisory Service strengthened monitoring of online ads of financial products such as loans or insurance after finding many reviews on blogs, communities or portals were ads unapproved by the related authorities.

For reviews that bloggers or community members post in exchange for money from advertisers, the Fair Trade Commission also revised a regulation in July to oblige the bloggers to clearly state that such posts are in fact ads sponsored by the makers or service providers. If they don't do this and the ads contain false information or lead to consumer damage, the commission can issue fines or file complaints against the advertisers.

Questions

1. Do you read blogs often? What kinds of blogs do you visit?

2. How much do you believe information from blogs?

3. How do you distinguish between blogs with profit reason and with non-profit one?

4. What if someone came to buy or rent your blog for marketing? Would you trade your blog with money?