Bloggers expect 'brand conversations' online

by Alicia Buller Revolution UK 12-Jul-07, 12:19

LONDON: UK web users are increasingly giving brands permission to talk to them online – ‘as long as those brands play by the rules of new media’, according to Shiny Red, an online PR consultancy.

More than half of the company's 600-people sample said they exepct brands to be having online conversations with them. And 94 per cent said they valued how being online allowed them to tap into information that fitted with their specific interests.

The use of "floggers" or fake bloggers who are paid to post comments on behalf of a company but pose as ordinary web users came in for particular criticism.

Another sore point was the way that some corporate or CEO blogs aren't updated often enough - an example of where a brand is paying lip service to the blogosphere.

Speaking at the Brands and Blogs conference, Jeremy Wright, head of international blog ad network, B5 Media, shot down claims that ‘blog ads should be cheaper than press ads because of lower production costs', saying that: "Blogs offer a very specialised audience that will actually take action on a campaign."

Meanwhile Ashley Norris, co-founder of Shiny Media, claimed that: "Online marketers need to be ‘of the web' not merely ‘on the web'. Blog readers are influential, intelligent, informed and interested. All communities will move online eventually."

Currently 120,000 new blog sites are created each day.

But according to Shiny Media, owner of a 20-blog network, successful sites must include significant, fast-moving, high-quality content with links to other blogs and websites.