WOMMA Ethical Blogging Guidelines

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) released their ethical Blogging guidelines for public comment. Interestingly, they all have to do with transparency, honesty, and openness for both bloggers and advertisers.

2. I will fully disclose who I am and who I work for (my identity and affiliations) from the very first encounter when communicating with bloggers or commenting on blogs. 3. I will never take action contrary to the boundaries set by bloggers. I will respect all community guidelines regarding posting messages and comments. 4. I will never ask bloggers to lie for me.

I suspect much of this is from the rash of “fake” blogs. Guilty parties include: McDonalds, Wal-Mart, Coke, Captain Morgan, HP, Dr. Pepper, and Halo2 creator Bungee Studios.

It’s one thing when a company creates a fictional blog, quote another when it creates one under the guise of a loyal customer. Take a look at the results of this recent study from Consumer Reports’ Consumer Web Watch. Consumers are scared about the credibility of the Internet and have changed their behavior as a result: 30% say they've reduced their overall use, 53% say they've stopped giving out personal organization, and 25% say they've stopped buying things online.

Credibility is a big problem, one that is not easily overcome, but someone better let the PR firms know before they create that next fake blog concept. Or at least they should review these ethical rules for blogging – it just may come as a shock to some of them . . .