Don’t know how it works in the US, but in Canada, when market research/focus groups are being done, people who work in marketing, advertising, and PR are automatically disqualified from participating – and it is always one of the questions asked. Whether it’s answered honestly or not is moot, of course.

Ruth Seeley’s last blog post..Why communicating with your stakeholders doesn’t constitute spin

Mr. Brogan may be feeling hurt that many of us are critiquing him today. I’d advise him to look at it as honest social media feedback — taking $500 to use your podium to write glowingly of a retailer you typically don’t visit is a glaring mistake that erodes credibility, even if you had a jolly good time at Kmart spending the cash on the gift card. If you can’t see the conflict, well, please, look again.

It all comes down to what we value most about Chris — his voice. At his best, Chris Brogan offers the kind of wisdom that makes you feel you can leap into a new media and do something different to change your world. Letting that voice be morphed into a manipulated opinion is disappointing — so please, please, let’s stop such nonsense before it spreads elsewhere and devalues all of social media currency.

And to the pay-per-post boys behind the entire campaign — if you really must try to game the system, please do it in a dark corner where the rest of us don’t have to look at it. I’ll take my advertising and editorial straight up, please, with no hidden strings.

Ben Kunz’s last blog post..The problem with Chris Brogan’s Kmart promotion

I have no clue what they are doing in the world of social media beyond giving Chris $500. Unless we know this, how can we be critical. If the only thing they have done or will do is the “Chris Brogan Experiment” then they are silly. I guess that this is a part of a bigger strategy of reaching people via social media.

Another mistake we all make in social media is we see the world through our own eyes. We make assumptions based on what we see and assume. If working with Chris Brogan is one spoke (of many) in their wheel then are they not being smart?

We must look at this out of the vaacuum of how we want social media to be.

Two more cents

thom singer’s last blog post.."Celebrate Austin Entrepreneurship Project" – Vignette

I saw the Kmart post when Chris first tweeted about it, and I have to admit, I was a bit taken aback. I have huge respect for Chris’s blog–he’s taught me a lot–and the community he’s developed exemplifies much of what is best about social media. I think what sets Chris apart is that, unlike most blogs that are mostly commentary–ie: about the author and the author’s views–Chris’s blog is far more focused on providing tactical value to his readers. And that’s frankly what felt odd to me about the Kmart post. It was so clearly out of the mold of what I’ve come to appreciate about reading Chris. It reminded me of listening to radio personalities pitch products. Their tone of voice changes, their cadence changes, and I’m never really convinced that they believe what they’re saying about the product. But….

I honestly don’t know what the best alternative is. We need to find ways to support the time and effort that goes into creating content, and text ads and banners won’t cut it for most bloggers. The concept of sponsored posts is worth exploring, but finding the balance between adding value and shilling is one every blogger has to negotiate with his or her own audience in order to be effective, or the sponsorships will go away. I appreciate that Chris is trying things out, and doing so transparently.

Chris Kenton’s last blog post..The “No S–t” List: Resolutions for the Rest of Us

Thanks for your feedback. Hopefully you are right and Kmart has a more-expansive plan for how it uses social media.

I look forward to seeing it… and I hope it involves using existing customers to promote the store.

Thanks,
-Josh

Izea chose a social media maven, who used multiple online social venues. Twitter and his blog, for instance.

Also, because Chris is a social media maven, whatever he writes has the potential to erupt across the social mediasphere. Case in point: this blog post.

Coming up with coulda shoulda woulda’s isn’t very practical here, because this is a one-off and not K-Mart’s (or Izea’s) entire strategy for social media.

Social media campaigns, like traditional media campaigns, have many events.

As a one-off event with legs, this one is pretty successful because Chris has enough of a brand name of his own to engender critiques and comments to spread the original post virally.

Gib’s last blog post..See Resume, See Door, See Applicant Run

Thanks for your comments!

Your last point was the point I was trying to make: “In my opinion, a topic more worthy of discussion could be how social media plays into KMart’s overall positioning and sales strategies.”

This is my problem with what’s happening.

I wish Kmart would truly have a dialogue with its current and prospective customers by listening and responding to their likes and dislikes.

My view is that that would be more effective than giving bloggers gift cards.

Thanks,
Josh