Fortunately, eMarketer and IZEA has done that and it appears as if the idea of “earned media” sounds much better as theory rather than reality. Are you really surprised?
Social media advertising company IZEA surveyed Twitter users, blog writers and other social media publishers about their openness to sponsorship of their social content. More than half said they had already monetized their activities, and almost a third more wanted to. Overall, 71.3% had been offered some kind of incentive, like cash, free products or coupons, for a blog post or tweet promoting a brand.
Asked about the idea of being paid for content, it sounded good for about 89% of the bloggers surveyed. Apparently, the economy has taken its toll on accepted payment methods because social media content generators are not so much interested in barters or coupons, they want to be paid the old fashioned way: cash. (I personally like gold bars but I am different for sure).
The most startling part of this research is as follows
In December 2009, the US Federal Trade Commission released new guidelines designed to protect readers of social media content from undisclosed sponsorships, but according to the IZEA survey more than a third of PR, social media and marketing professionals have not heard of the rules at all. Only 29.9% said they had read and understood them.
So what happened to the idealism of the world of social media? It went the way of just about every ideal that makes everyone sound so great when talking about it. Where is that? It ran headlong into reality where people have to make a living.
So how do you feel about the apparent blogger for hire social media world we really exist in? Is it OK or is it ‘not the way it is supposed to be’?
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