Bad Advice at Disney from Chris Brogan
Chris Brogan is a social media superstar. He was also a headline speaker at the Disney Social Media Moms Conference. Most of his advice was good. But at the end he dropped such a huge stinker, such bad advice, it deserves rebuttal.
Chris Brogan's presentation at the Disney Social Media Moms Conference was a huge hit. He got applause, and maybe he got a few social media mom phone numbers, too.
Among the points made by Chris: blog twice as often each day to increase traffic. Sure. But another of his suggestions runs counter to what responsible bloggers - assuming they also want to be responsible journalists - should be doing.
Chris said that bloggers should 'raise up everybody instead of tearing them down'. Why? Because 'what brand wants you to represent them if you're doing that'.
Bad advice!
And given solely for the purpose of sucking in brand sponsors. Of course, if all you care about is brand sponsors, than it is good advice, right? Wrong...
If you 'raise up everybody', why should anyone take you seriously? Not everybody deserves to be raised up. Some people and some products deserve to be torn down.
I would quickly ignore a 'social media mom' who cheerfully blogged every day about the merits of everything and everybody. That mom would be a shill, writing peppy posts only because she's getting free products to review.
I would, however, pay attention to a social media mom who sometimes writes a negative review, sometimes writes critical commentary, because I'd trust that mom to tell me the truth. That mom, at least, is attempting good journalism and giving her honest opinion about a product that her readers might purchase on her recommendation.
Sadly, most of the moms at the conference probably think Chris Brogan brought the word of God down from the social media mountain, and the integrity of their blogs may suffer a bit from his advice.
My advice is to develop a personality, a style, and stick with it. Put a little edge on it, too. Be interesting. Have an opinion, an honest opinion, and state it. Even if it's negative.
Just because someone sends you a gizmo doesn't mean it's a great gizmo.
If you write a negative review of that gizmo, you may lose the sponsor but you'll gain readers who appreciate your honesty - and once you've gained enough readers, you won't have any problem with sponsors, either.
Don't stop there! More Tidings Await...
Stuff Not to Skip
- Chris Brogan
http://www.chrisbrogan.com
Comments (9)
It's great to have integrity. It's great to disagree. Couching it the right way is what matters most.
Glad you voiced your thoughts, Bob. You've got a good blog.
I agree with Bob that a mom who does nothing but praise everything isn't much help. But I agree with Chris that a mom who trashes everything isn't much help, either.
I think many moms are afraid even to politely criticize a product for fear of losing money. That is a very sad state of affairs, but I have faith in intelligent readers who know where to find good, honest coverage and who reward it with their traffic.
Did I attack the advice he gave which I found dubious? Yes. Did I attack it, well, vigorously? Yes. For better or worse, that's my style. You'll find more of that style here on Disney Dispatch, but you'll find a lot of positive coverage, too.
I have much respect for how quickly and for how professionally Chris Brogan replied to my article. No wonder he's so successful.
I found Chris Brogan's presentation mostly good - though he did present quite a few common-sense tips and I was quite turned-off by his suggestion never to 'tear down' a bad product. I'm glad he left a comment here to clarify his views.
This is certainly off-topic, but I'd like to say that I won't ever attend another Disney Social Media Moms Conference. The behavior of many of the moms there was completely over-the-top and they seemed more interested in drinking and acting like high school kids than they did learning or networking. I wouldn't say I had a bad time, but overall it wasn't worth the time and the expense, and for me put "mommy blogging" in an unattractive light.
If I were a sponsor, what would I value more: an endoresement from someone who endorses everything or an endorsement from someone who doesn't? No doubt the latter!
From reading the reports of your presentation at the conference, it seemed that you were advocated the 'everything must always be positive' approach and I'm glad to read in your comment that you didn't really mean that at all. There are enough bad sites on the web now that exist only to sell someone else's crap that we don't need to encourage bloggers to do the same.