The golden rule of blogging: play a straight bat [BT broadband office]

The golden rule of blogging: play a straight bat

Posted 30 May 2008 at 9:28AM by Ian Betteridge in Business blogging

If you are blogging on behalf of your business, there's a few golden rules that you ought to follow. We wrote about many of these in an article for Business Insight, but some of these rules are now more than just good advice - they are, effectively, a legal requirement.

As BBC News notes, from a few days ago companies engaging in blogging must avoid two things: "sock puppetry", and "astroturfing". These mean, respectively, posting entries under false names to make something look more popular than it is, or creating fake web sites to create a sense of grass-root support for your company or products.

Both of these can be summed up in one rule: "Don't pretend to be who you aren't". Don't got to competitors web sites and post rude comments about them, don't pretend to be customers and say nice things about your products. To borrow a cricketing metaphor (well, it is summer), play a straight bat.

That doesn't mean that you should never post anything about competitors or products, although knocking the competition rarely pays off anyway. But always be transparent: let people know who you are, and who you work for.

The price for getting this wrong is no longer just ridicule (inevitable when you get caught) - it's now also a stiff fine or even a jail term.

Tags: blogging, bt, bt broadbandoffice, business blogging

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Comments

1. At May 30, 2008 10:29 AM, Chris Sabin wrote:

If the BBC/ITV are like their phone votes then i certainly wouldn't trust their blogs!

Its about time something like this was brought in to stop the examples you have giving from happening. With the powers of the internet these days, plus the power of some internet companies (We all remember the dude who put iphones etc in a blender for advertising), you can see that there needs to be some control.

2. At May 30, 2008 11:35 AM, i've never sock puppeted in my life! wrote:

ok the stiff fine i believe and quite rightly so. but a jail term. don't make me laugh!
and who is going to police this any way? it sounds like our government once again trying to sound like they are "getting tough" on an issue of little importance to the majority of people

3. At May 31, 2008 2:47 PM, Digger wrote:

Your first line says :

If you are blogging on behalf of your business, there's a few golden rules that you ought to follow.

... there ARE a few golden rules .... it's plural !

and the first ought to be to use intelligent grammar

4. At June 2, 2008 11:28 AM, 'Razor' Ramone wrote:

You'd never catch me pretending to be who I'm not.
Although admittedly I'm also not trying to upsell my products either.

Although talking of products, I used the best, and I mean the BEST facial scrub the other day: Oxo-Scrub, check it out, never felt exfoliation like it. When you want a face like it's freshly mace'd, you can't beat the exfoliation of Oxo-Scrub(tm). Available at all good retailers.

5. At June 3, 2008 11:50 AM, Ian Betteridge wrote:

Digger - yes, that's the other golden rule!

6. At June 3, 2008 12:47 PM, J G Dawson wrote:

There are indeed rules and in good punctuation a full stop, a question mark or an exclamation mark is NEVER preceded by a white space...

7. At June 3, 2008 2:09 PM, Thomas Grewar wrote:

Sock Puppetry? The blogs on this site are filled to the brim with this cliche! The majority of the replies / comments made are by people who work for BT (directly / indirectly), just look at the wrestler names or other random names, from what I have been able to figure out over the years.

As for the blog, in theory, this is good / sound advice, but in practise, it is harder to implement, as companies, big and small alike, do it ALL the time.

- Thomas Grewar

8. At June 4, 2008 9:26 AM, 'Razor' Ramone wrote:

Perhaps there are posters on these blogs who work for BT, but even if there were, that doesn't mean their views represent the views of BT themselves (as the posts would be made as individuals, not representatives), so it is not really relevant to the subject at hand here.
So long as no-one bad-mouths or over-promotes their own company (or anything else for that matter), there is no reason to take offense at comments made, regardless of their source.

9. At June 4, 2008 3:30 PM, Big Show wrote:

Who are you calling a sock puppet? Big Show just likes to keep up to date with the issues facing small to medium enterprises in Britain! A lot of the Big Show's fans are British businessmen. Possibly.

Now quieten down before I choke slam you.

10. At June 4, 2008 3:48 PM, Thomas Grewar wrote:

'Razor' Ramone - I guess you are some form linked to BT, wither it be Technical Support or something :P

I agree with the fact that as long as you dont brag or slander others, then you are ok.

- Thomas Grewar

11. At June 5, 2008 1:56 PM, Thomas Grewar wrote:

In regards to Big Show, my money is on Hulk 'The Real American' Hogan ;) I wonder where he has gone!

- Thomas Grewar

BT broadband office