Is It Relationship Building or Relationship Manipulation?

By on March 7, 2006 in Blogging, Marketing with 4 Comments

The cloth of trust has been soiled. The marketplace manipulated. The conversation staged.

This NY Times article (free reg. req.) about Wal-Mart, Edelman, and a few bloggers is similar to an old Hollywood movie.

In the Martin & Lewis comedy, Money From Home, Dean Martin is singing from behind a tree as Jerry Lewis mouths the words, trying to serenade Dean’s romantic interest. When she finds out that the words come not from Lewis – but from Martin, she’s a bit upset at both of them. Martin & Lewis got caught.

How is this similar? Wal-Mart, Edelman, Bloggers got caught. Edelman’s rep whispered in the ears of those bloggers. Reaching out to the blogosphere? Or possibly finding some motivated individuals who could easily be fed. C’mon.

Some bloggers (Holtz, Taylor, Jarvis, Holmes among them) wonder what the big deal is. Richard Edelman responds with a Word to the Wise. I agree with Scoble on this one. Thankfully, each of them talk about disclosure being very important.

This thread of email shows that much of what was sent by Edelman’s rep looks like spam with only the recipients name changed, perhaps with Mail Merge? (Rob- why are you sharing this email thread?)

I’m all for getting products and services out to bloggers and bartenders and people who are in the habit of sharing their opinion. I’m even okay with a company’s P.R. firm leading the charge – though I’d prefer to see the company get into the conversation with a blog. There’s a difference between building a relationship and manipulating one.

Full disclosure: I’ve supported Iowa Voice by purchasing ads in the past. I have a sense of what’s going on in Brian’s life by reading the site for the past several months. Think there’s motivation? Think Edelman didn’t sense this upfront?

Maybe this isn’t such a black eye for Wal-Mart or Edelman (though someone had a game plan), but it sure isn’t pretty for bloggers.

"A guy asks his wife if his yellow shirt is clean enough to wear to church. The wife responds, ‘If there’s doubt, it’s dirty.’"

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  • http://www.iowavoice.com Brian

    You’re buying into the premise that what Barbaro wrote was true. The only “fact” he got correct in relation to me was my name…and I had to spell that for him.
    I wrote about Wal-Mart before they contacted me, and I’ll write about them long after the emails stop.
    The only thing we got from this PR firm was links to news articles. That’s it. Articles we would have found on our own, by the way.
    I didn’t get paid to blog anything about Wal-Mart, but if I had, I would have disclosed that….if I even accepted it in the first place.
    My personal situation doesn’t affect my judgement, so I don’t really appreciate the innuendo….it’s like Barbaro putting the word “reader” in quotes….as if I had lied to him, which I hadn’t.

  • http://www.iowavoice.com Brian

    Oh, and I just remembered one other thing: considering the large amount of emails sent out to bloggers, isn’t it odd that I only blogged about two (maybe three) things they sent along? And isn’t it odd that he only found one sentence that I copied and placed outside of the quotes?
    In my defense, that sentence was meant to be IN the quotes, but I made the mistake of not double-checking the post after I published. I saw it a few weeks ago and meant to edit it, but then heard this article was coming out, and thought that it was better that this remain as it was, or people would accuse me of covering it up.

  • http://www.mikesansone.com Mike Sansone

    Brian,
    As I led in the previous post (Whistle Stops 03/06/06) “IF” this is true. The article only presents one side and I’m sure the information is incomplete.
    I haven’t accused you of receiving money from Wal-Mart or Edelman (though others have accused such). My gut is that someone designed a game-plan and was shrewd in playing it out.
    This whole thing is a bit of a black-eye to blogging. Everyone involved – including the Times, the two companies involved, the bloggers involved, and even the audience – has suffered a bit in the credibility dept. It will heal. We will go forward.
    It’s part of the learning process.

  • http://www.iowavoice.com Brian

    The fact is, Barbaro a) hates Wal-Mart and b) hates blogs (like the rest of the people at the NYTs). He made up a large portion of what he wrote, at least from where I’m sitting. I can’t speak for the others he talked to, but it was a hit piece against blogs and against Wal-Mart and all across the blogosphere, that seems to be the prevailing opinion. At least with normal people, anyway.
    The far, radical left doesn’t buy it, but then, they never do.

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