This post has been brewing for a few weeks now, but after a discussion with a blogging friend this week, I believe it needs to be written.  The blogging landscape in South Africa is changing, and we’re starting to see companies paying bloggers for content more and more often.  Now that’s great, I’m all for that, hell, I love that we’re finally getting recognition that we have a voice and that we have a listening audience, and that our audience is the same as the ones that brands advertise to on TV etc.

This however, raises a few issues that I feel need to be aired.  Local bloggers are not as “wise” as overseas bloggers yet, when it comes to being sponsored by corporates and brands, and we need to start getting wise… FAST!

Local bloggers normally do this for the love of it, they’re not earning a lot of money from blogging, so the vast majority have full time careers.  Those careers are important.  They’re what brings in the main revenue in the household.  My message is the following…

Don’t jeopardise your day job because of a carrot that is being dangled in front of you by a corporate.

Be aware of the impact of what you blog about.

This might seem logical, but seriously, please think about the company that is asking you to advertise on your blog.

If the company is in any way a competitor of the company that you work for, don’t do it!  It’s not worth the little bit of money they’re going to pay you for your sponsored blogpost or the banner they’re going to stick on your site.

When you sign your contract of employment, one of the clauses normally stipulates that you cannot earn money outside your workplace, and if you are allowed, it says that it can’t be a conflict of interest.  In addition, your company may or may not have a Social Media policy which defines what you can or cannot say in a social space about the company, your work and your industry.

Therefore, if a company approaches you and offers you money for you to write a blog post about one of their products, and that product is similar to something that your own employer sells or provides as a service… don’t even go there!! It’s a conflict of interest… you can get disciplined or even fired for it.

Now some of you are probably saying, who is she to say this?  How on earth are they going to find out?

Part of what I do, in my day job, is monitoring social spaces for mentions of my company.   More and more companies are doing ORM (online reputation management) to monitor mentions of their brand online, they have to. Companies run software (or they outsource it) that pick up mentions of certain words in all social spaces and they get tracked and reported on.

Companies are becoming aware of the power of social media locally.  They understand that your blog/tweet is being watched by plenty of people, and not only that, it can be shared.  So what you say is not only being heard by the people who follow you, but potentially by the people that follow your followers too!  And that’s power.  That can affect a brand.  It can affect buying patterns.

Understand, as someone taking part in social spaces, that you have power.  People are listening to you all the time.  Understand why you can’t blog about a competing product… it can possibly damage the brand you work for.

That will jeopardise your job.  Just be careful.

This post is mostly about blogging, but this could be said for other social spaces too.  Let me know in the comments if you want me to explain a little more.

Oh and to end off, please also remember that if a company has asked you to blog about their product, it’s good blogging etiquette to have a disclaimer at the bottom of the post stating that fact… or else you will lose credibility pretty quickly.