is viral blogging the way of the future?
Posted by locusbooks on May 14, 2008
It’s no secret that companies hire bloggers to post favourable comments about their services or products all over the interweb. I was surprised however, to find out that one of those organisations is this year’s Melbourne Writers’ Festival (MWF). MWF put a call out for volunteers to undertake the task of generating online promotion for the Festival by way of blog posts.
According to the position description key tasks include:
Regularly contribute to the 3-4 blogs supplied by the festival, at first by “leaking” names, news, dates and times.
Instigate discussion about the program from July 18 onwards
Discuss sessions attended during the festival
On the close of festival, place comments on blogs
Tailor responses to sub-market eg foodies, diversity groups etc
For their time (around 2-4 hours per week plus festival attendance), volunteers can expect in return:
Will gain experience in viral marketing
A reference on the successful completion of project will be provided.
Now, I don’t doubt that the volunteers who end up doing this will have a genuine interest in the MWF, but it does seem like a pretty cheeky way to gain promotion. Surely there are more transparent methods to market the Festival to 18-25 year olds (this is the audience MWF is seeking to increase through the viral web campaign). Facebook groups, e-newsletters (by subscription) and a MySpace presence are all legitimate ways to attract the attention of this age group, without treating them like idiots.
I mean, surely dear reader you would be suss if you saw a post on Locus that said: “Hey, I just heard David Sedaris is coming to a festival. Which festival? Why, it’s the Melbourne Writer’s Festival, tickets here…”
Perhaps I am being a little too harsh, but it just seems to me that this type of thing is reserved for creepy self-help services, Avon-style herbal supplement sales or financial scams. We all use the internet to promote our businesses, but I think when posting on blogs or forums it is important to give full disclosure about who you are and what your association is to the products/books/services you’re endorsing.
I’d be keen to hear from the Festival’s decision makers as to why they chose this path.
E.
May 14, 2008 at 10:53 am
Dear Emily
I think that you are being a tad harsh! We are not trying to be subversive just trying to reach audiences who don’t read or listen to traditional media. We have a great relationship with The Age but far fewer 18 - 35 year olds are reading traditional newspapers than in the past. How do we reach that age-group? And I also think that blogs and forums are a genuinely good match for a writers festival which is, after all, a live forum for discussing ideas. Yes, we do want people to talk about the festival but you’ll notice that most of what we are encouraging people to do is after the fact - so it is hardly naked marketing - more a genuine desire to start discussion. And, in the same way that Locus is a niche media outlet for independent publishing which I read as someone involved on the periphery of publishing, we ask volunteers to spread the word about areas of the program that they are genuinely passionate about. We have an ebulletin list and a Facebook and MySpace presence but, to be honest, I feel more uncomfortable about them (MySpace and Facebook) as naked marketing tools than I do about posting to blogs.
We have one part-time marketing person who works for us 2 days per week. This is the first year that we’ve actually had the luxury of even a 2-day/week marketing person so, yes, we rely very heavily on volunteers to help with our marketing. Whether that is bundling up programs for libraries or posting entries on a blog. You forgot to mention that the volunteers get free tickets.
Cheers
Rosemary Cameron
Festival Director
Melbourne Writers Festival
May 16, 2008 at 4:07 am
For me the issue isn’t that the MWF will be running a blog, although I haven’t really seen many blogs that are successful for a short period of time. I generally think it’s better to have a permanent blog and step up posts leading up to, during and then after the festival. That way it builds a community rather than simply obviously markets to web-users during festival-time. But I digress.
I agree that the way that the MWF is hoping to target a younger audience doesn’t sound workable. That age group (which Em & I are just outside of) is pretty savvy when it comes to viral marketing and the idea of being ‘leaked’ information and advertised to in blog comments sounds cheesy at best. Like Emily, I think that there are legitimate ways to run a viral web campaign that doesn’t involve using web outlets to try and advertise to ‘the kids’ without being seen to.
As Rosemary pointed out, the MWF is a forum for discussing ideas, and that does lend itself to continuing discussions online. Whether it’s blogging or live-blogging or something else entirely, I would be interested to see the MWF record what is happening at the festival online. As Fed Square is a big wi-fi zone, that’s a distinct possibility for this year and I look forward to seeing what they do.
L.
May 20, 2008 at 9:53 am
Oh, good to see this discussion. I received the MWF newsletter advertising this position too and also had initial misgivings about the understanding implicit in the advertisement of precisely what blogs could hope to achieve for advertising the festival.
It’s good that your advisors at MWF, Rosemary, have latched onto the notion of blogging as viral marketing, but it’s important always to have some appreciation for its purely social, uncommercial aspects. Blogging is first and foremost about conversation.
Sure, blogs can sometimes work as ‘viral’ marketing tools, but there is a risk that they will be seen as (in Australian young ‘uns lingo) ‘tryhard’ if they come from an established outfit like MWF. And yes, you are barking up the right tree in looking for young intern-types to take it on, rather than older hands.
I’m not sure what the answer is, and appreciate that MWF is trying to reach a younger audience. I think that’s really important and will cudgel the old brain forthwith. But maybe some good old-fashioned meet and greet with some of the people behind EWF a few months beforehand would do more for MWF than any volunteers’ blog could ever hope to achieve.
And I agree with Lisa that some event based blogging would be cool (but please do not ask me because I can only report after the fact, not live. It’s a congenital defect I have.)
May 20, 2008 at 9:55 am
Whoops, sorry - good post, Emily.