I just finished reading an article on the Inquirer which talked about how a “Big Bad Blogger” in coordination with a PR firm allegedly tried to extort a restaurant. The owner first declined the PR agency’s pitch to handle “buzz marketing” for them. Later on a blogger came in, ate, and wrote a rave review about her business. The PR firm called shortly saying that they have an “arrangement” with the blogger and they can make sure that more bloggers will write more glowing reviews if the restaurant hires them (P80,000/month). She declined again.
Fast forward several months they decided to put up a new restaurant. The same blogger comes by and eats again. He pays for his food and then leaves. This time though the review made is scathing. What’s alarming though is that the PR Firm again calls and says that for the right price they can make the bad review go away and maybe even turn it into something positive. If this story is indeed true then I must say that the PR Firm is not only giving blogging a bad name, but the entire PR industry in general.
Here are some thoughts on the matter:
- Did the blogger really know that the PR Agency is “representing” him? For all we know the PR is just using his name and he really just did write a glowing review for the first restaurant and a bad one for the next. I strongly recommend that the restaurant and the writer of the article give the name of the blog because that would only be the fair thing to do.
- If your food is really good, then just get other more balanced bloggers to come to your restaurant and try the food out. This is an effective counter to bad online PR especially if the positives outnumber the negatives. The solution is not to brand all bloggers as such.
- Should you pay protection money to get positive reviews from bloggers? A big NO. If you don’t want to hire an agency to tap bloggers all you have to do is check out all the different food blogs, write to them via e-mail, and invite them to a food sampling event.
- Don’t expect all good reviews all the time. That’s how the world works, you just can’t please everyone.
Thanks to Noemi for sharing the link to the article!
Read the complete Inquirer article here
Yeah right.
When I saw this article this morning, I was completely dumbfounded. It sort of made me get praning over all the other invitations I’ve been receiving (and I only accept very few to begin with). I got to the praning level of asking fellow bloggers (in private) if certain PR firms are trustworthy.
You just gave a very nice angle to this. I never thought about #1 point. It could be that the blogger wasn’t aware his name was being used. After all, many PG bloggers do this all the time (drop names of famous bloggers to claim freebies). Maybe some PR companies do this as well?
I’m just completely appalled that it has come to this.
si Anton Diaz ba yan ng Our Awesome Planet?
sigurado namang hindi si Market Manila,
Si Awesome TALAGA YAN.
somebody just commented in my blog as to who he is but I still dont buy the idea…..it could be that the PR firm is using whoever this person is…..
its bad for a PR firm to extort but really restaurants should ignore bad press, a blogger is a blogger, serve good food and good service and you shall get good reviews.
ofcourse theres a marketing aspect but you cant do anything about bad reviews.
sometimes i feel resto’s rely too much on the opinions of the individual. it takes 5 minutes to setup a blog.
hindi ba responsible din ang nagsulat ng article for such expose? She should name the blogger or the PR firm since her article was misleading—it’s unfair for the person whom people think is the BBB
Hi Carlo, this actually was a very interesting issue. I think it was about time someone have thought on monetizing by bad principles. I think this requires businesses to really study blogs and know more about it. It is about understanding how blogs operate and how we think as bloggers.
Here’s my thoughts on this matter: http://techfilipino.com/big-bad-blogger-was-bound-to-emerge-advice-to-businesses-about-bloggers/
I agree that Margaux Salcedo should name the person behind BBB and most especially, that PR firm. It is unfair for that blogger who was mistaken as BBB huh!
It is the sad part on the BLOGGERS! Nasasangkot sa kung anon anong issue.
This makes me feel bad, grabe naman ung blogger na un, pero kung sino nga sya, I think dapat talaga pangalanan, imbes na nagdududa tayo kung sino man yun,one thing is sure, sikat yun. Sa blogosphere ngyn dpat wag gamitin ang kasikatan just for earning.