A Starting Point for Responsibly Managing Relations With Bloggers

Today the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) released draft guidelines to help companies and brands more responsibly manage relations with bloggers.  Hardly perfect, and probably a lightning rod for feedback in key areas that merit deeper conversation, but an important start. Importantly, the very diverse team of WOMMA members that put this together (brands, PR firms, agencies, consultants....many of whom blog themselves and are very passionate about keeping the space trusted and transparent) are encouraging feedback on this set of guidelines.  This is a very challenging subject, but it's long overdue for discussion and debate.  As with the work on disclosure around viral video and the WOM ethics assessment tool kit, WOMMA (full disclosure: I'm a member and board member and a co-chair of the ethics committee along with Dupont's Gary Spangler and Cymfony's Jim Nail) is working hard to proactive address many of these important issues. Says David Binkowski, director of online research of Hass MS&L and co-chair of this project:

"It's an easy way to teach your team and to avoid mistakes that will be harmful to your reputation. Prevention is a powerful protection." 

Please provide feedback.  The timing is right to engage.  Click here for more information.