Categories: Articles

WOMMA Wants You (And Your Blog) To Get Ethical

A press release hit the wire last Thursday from WOMMA – Word Of Mouth Marketing Association titled, WOMMA Ethical Blogger Contact Guidelines. The subtitle read: “10 Principles for Ethical Contact by Marketers.”
I love the fact that WOMMA immediately explains that this guideline is still open for discussion and that WOMMA is “asking for feedback and revision from the blogging community and all interested parties.” Talk about engaging your consumers as co-developers.
“‘It’s an easy way to teach your team and to avoid mistakes that will be harmful to your reputation,’ said David Binkowski, director of online outreach, Hass MS&L, who is co-chair of the project. ‘Prevention is a powerful protection.'”
These are powerful statements and are coming hot on the tail of the Wal-Mart and Edelman fake Blog troubles.
It also speaks directly to marketers, not to Bloggers in general:
“This document applies specifically to marketers. It does not cover ‘how to blog’ or rules for internal blogs. WOMMA is in no way making a statement on blogger behavior or attempting to assert authority over the blogosphere. Our job is to educate marketers.”
I found it to be an extremely interesting read.
You can find it here: – WOMMA Ethical Blogger Contact Guidelines.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.