seriously!!! i talk nonstop about nail polish on twitter.
i'll start believing mascara ads when they stop using false lashes to pad the effect! how can anyone judge a product's effectiveness from an advert? they're DESIGNED TO SELL! i never trust ads and i ALWAYS trust blogs!
Great post! Now there can be no ambiguity regarding the benefit of bloggers to brands.
These facts prove how vital blogs are to a brand's development and reputation and will hopefully help to dispell all these accusations of bloggers as freeloaders.
Of course anyone can be a blogger and that's part of the appeal, but it's good to have some guidelines on what makes a great blogger.
Well done BBB for fighting our corner once again! x
So very, very true! Do they think we just buy things on a whim because we have money to burn? I'm so fed up of pushy SA's telling me things smell nice!
I still see a whole lot of gullibilty, ignorance, and complete willingness to spew verbatim whatever marketing spiel PR has dumped into their inboxes.
Don't get me wrong, I started my first blog 10 years ago and love blogs, but bloggers need to spend less time being self-congratulatory and more time getting real. All those "sample provided for review by PR, but that has not influenced my opinion" disclosures? Self-delusion. Glowing reviews of products after one use? Glowing reviews of products that subsequently appear in "blog sales"? Mass campaigns that see the same product featured on every blog? Yeah, it's all getting a bit old and if bloggers want to be seen as more than just another PR mouthpiece they really need to rethink what they're doing.
Hello Anon: generally I don't interact with Anons - why reward hiding? but in this case I would say I understand your frustrations. But I am sorry you see it as self-congratulatory. The list is fact; these are things that brands really didn't know before beauty blogs; bloggers themselves in the beginning didn't know they'd change the face of how beauty is seen and reviewed. I look at things from an industry wide perspective, not just from a blogging perspective, and beauty blogs are making important, relevant and consumer focussed key changes across the board. Assuming that free equals favoured is a bit old hat now: drawing in a small revenue via ads on blogs is standard and acceptable and PRs shudder at the thought of negative reviews so I feel they are brave to put their products out there. In fact, trawl any blog and you'll see open, honest and sometimes brutal reviews. Blogging has changed, it's moved with the times and there will always - as in any community - be the odd 'rogue', but please don't be sweeping. It just sounds bitter.
Very late, but I'll repeat what I said on Twitter - the rise of beauty blogs helped to show a lot of brands that there is significant interest in beauty brands from outside the US/UK, and from people located outside the US/UK.
UK companies have realised this a lot quicker and international shipping at reasonable rates are getting very common, but the US companies lag wildly behind and either don't offer international shipping or go out of their way to be exceedingly difficult aboub it. I guess the idea of Internet shoppers being a global concept has kind of missed the US companies!
Anon's comments are somewhat out of date. Even as few as 6 months ago, the always-positive-beacause-I-got-it-free reviews we're fairly common place. You couldn't read the truth in very many places.
These days things are changing. BBB isn't shy of expressing her true thoughts and Lipglossiping is well known for her true but fair reviewing.
And whilst I agree that when a product is introduced to a large group of bloggers at a dedicated Blogger Event, there is a mass outpouring of similar posts across the net, I have been reliably informed by more than just a few brands, that this practice is going to change.
Like all 'organic' market and industry changes, everyone needs to adapt and change, not just the brands who are open to more visible feedback than ever before, but also those who choose to write those reviews.
Fortunately it seems that most have grasped this concept!
Hi BBB My name is Julie and I’m the Community Manager for Pantene. Just wanted to let you know that I found your post very instructive, actually it’s so educational that we’ve all been reading it very attentively here in the Social Media office. Potential training material for future community managers! Thanks for your great work Julie
Yes!! I personally think sponsoring impartial blog posts are so much more useful than spending $1m on a celebrity endorsement :P Of course your product has to be a gd one for this to work :P
I am so behind in reading posts. I remember you tweeting about this post when you did, but I am coming round to read it tonight. Omg this is amazing post, and so empowering too. I find it so nice I can just google for real swatches rather than being bogged down to see the nyx swatches on cherry culture. Still so many people don't know of existence of beauty blogs thought, the words need to get out! xx
29 comments:
So true!
XXX
seriously!!! i talk nonstop about nail polish on twitter.
i'll start believing mascara ads when they stop using false lashes to pad the effect! how can anyone judge a product's effectiveness from an advert? they're DESIGNED TO SELL! i never trust ads and i ALWAYS trust blogs!
xo
sara
I can vouch for the nail colour thing! But it's about time that brands sat up and realised this. Well said lady :)
Every single word = the truth.
Excellent post.
Bloody well said! Now, when will they start implementing all this information...??
I just loved reading this! Wow! So true!
Again, made me feel proud of being a beauty blogger!!
X
Love this :)
Perfect! :)
hahahaha.. this is so true! Just wish companies were more pay attention to us and our needs! :)
Great post! Now there can be no ambiguity regarding the benefit of bloggers to brands.
These facts prove how vital blogs are to a brand's development and reputation and will hopefully help to dispell all these accusations of bloggers as freeloaders.
Of course anyone can be a blogger and that's part of the appeal, but it's good to have some guidelines on what makes a great blogger.
Well done BBB for fighting our corner once again! x
Bloggers FTW
x
HAHA this is so awesome i love it! So true...
This, this, this! All so true. I love how you always champion us beauty bloggers BBB!
xoxo
So very, very true! Do they think we just buy things on a whim because we have money to burn? I'm so fed up of pushy SA's telling me things smell nice!
I still see a whole lot of gullibilty, ignorance, and complete willingness to spew verbatim whatever marketing spiel PR has dumped into their inboxes.
Don't get me wrong, I started my first blog 10 years ago and love blogs, but bloggers need to spend less time being self-congratulatory and more time getting real. All those "sample provided for review by PR, but that has not influenced my opinion" disclosures? Self-delusion. Glowing reviews of products after one use? Glowing reviews of products that subsequently appear in "blog sales"? Mass campaigns that see the same product featured on every blog? Yeah, it's all getting a bit old and if bloggers want to be seen as more than just another PR mouthpiece they really need to rethink what they're doing.
They didn’t know how important it is to have accurate colour swatches on e-tail sites (and they still don’t really understand that);.
Oh, I live for the day they finally get that one!
This is so very true! Thank you for writing it up, because I completely agree :)
Really? Models Own does a Paradoxical dupe? bugger. Just broke my no buy for that.
I love this! I've always hated being patronised by the beauty industry. Beauty blogs have filled a massive gap in my life... Sad but true!
Hello Anon: generally I don't interact with Anons - why reward hiding? but in this case I would say I understand your frustrations. But I am sorry you see it as self-congratulatory. The list is fact; these are things that brands really didn't know before beauty blogs; bloggers themselves in the beginning didn't know they'd change the face of how beauty is seen and reviewed. I look at things from an industry wide perspective, not just from a blogging perspective, and beauty blogs are making important, relevant and consumer focussed key changes across the board. Assuming that free equals favoured is a bit old hat now: drawing in a small revenue via ads on blogs is standard and acceptable and PRs shudder at the thought of negative reviews so I feel they are brave to put their products out there. In fact, trawl any blog and you'll see open, honest and sometimes brutal reviews. Blogging has changed, it's moved with the times and there will always - as in any community - be the odd 'rogue', but please don't be sweeping. It just sounds bitter.
Very late, but I'll repeat what I said on Twitter - the rise of beauty blogs helped to show a lot of brands that there is significant interest in beauty brands from outside the US/UK, and from people located outside the US/UK.
UK companies have realised this a lot quicker and international shipping at reasonable rates are getting very common, but the US companies lag wildly behind and either don't offer international shipping or go out of their way to be exceedingly difficult aboub it. I guess the idea of Internet shoppers being a global concept has kind of missed the US companies!
Anon's comments are somewhat out of date. Even as few as 6 months ago, the always-positive-beacause-I-got-it-free reviews we're fairly common place. You couldn't read the truth in very many places.
These days things are changing. BBB isn't shy of expressing her true thoughts and Lipglossiping is well known for her true but fair reviewing.
And whilst I agree that when a product is introduced to a large group of bloggers at a dedicated Blogger Event, there is a mass outpouring of similar posts across the net, I have been reliably informed by more than just a few brands, that this practice is going to change.
Like all 'organic' market and industry changes, everyone needs to adapt and change, not just the brands who are open to more visible feedback than ever before, but also those who choose to write those reviews.
Fortunately it seems that most have grasped this concept!
This is so true!
Hi BBB My name is Julie and I’m the Community Manager for Pantene. Just wanted to let you know that I found your post very instructive, actually it’s so educational that we’ve all been reading it very attentively here in the Social Media office. Potential training material for future community managers!
Thanks for your great work
Julie
I love your list, and the comments have been interesting too. Nice job!
Yes!! I personally think sponsoring impartial blog posts are so much more useful than spending $1m on a celebrity endorsement :P Of course your product has to be a gd one for this to work :P
I am so behind in reading posts. I remember you tweeting about this post when you did, but I am coming round to read it tonight. Omg this is amazing post, and so empowering too. I find it so nice I can just google for real swatches rather than being bogged down to see the nyx swatches on cherry culture. Still so many people don't know of existence of beauty blogs thought, the words need to get out! xx
I liked your post so much, that I translated it into German to post it in my blog. Hope you don't mind!
Of course I linked to your blog! :)
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