Dinesh Soni’s Blog

Got a call from one laptop manufacturing company few weeks back. The company was planning to launch a new desktop series and wanted to have a blogger meet for the promotion of same. I asked the person what would blogger get through the event? And the reply was “Something amazing to write about”. The reply rang some bells in my head.

1) Why do the companies think bloggers are vellas who have lots of time just to attend those promotional meets?
2) Are bloggers running out of topics to write about, so they have to attend the promotional events for the material to write about?
3) Why do companies think their products are something *amazing* and everyone would like to write about it?
4) If the companies are taking help of bloggers to spread word about their products, shouldn’t they also consider providing due remuneration for the same?

The 4th point was something i thought more about. Some people take this as a case of bribing. But believe me, bloggers are not someone who will accept bribe just to write good about something. They will test the product and provide valid feedback. If thats what the companies really want. And if you want us to write good just like that, I don’t really see that happening at all..

Your views?

Update
A wonderful discussion on facebook notes happening on same topic. Putting up for reference.

Rajesh Dnyandeo Dhawale
Valid points, indeed.

Manan Kakkar

a) companies never give anything. Except if its a paid event.
b) the response given by the company rep was arrogant & if I were you I would have ripped that company apart on my blog.
c) I don’t mind attending such meets as it is an oppurtunity to directly interact with the company reps.

Abhishek Thakkar

My blog are not relevant to any company, so I dont get invited to events like these.
If they want me to blog abt them, the least I expect is a free tshirt

Bhanu Prakash

Well. I truly agree to what dinesh has pointed out. I also agree to Abhishek Thakkar – a token of appreciation which can be retained for a long time. This is something more than any thing. I do agree, that corporates think that bloggers would come anywhere. I think its a strong point Dinesh made is Bloggers should be made feel special as they are … Read Morethe strong influencers online and most of the product success relies on their reviews. In that case, even they have equal rights to reserve their space in the communication industry.

Idea Smith

I received an invitation to the same event, though I daresay they made it appear more like charity that was thrown my way. Obviously I didn’t even bother replying to them or writing about them – publicity is what they want, why should I give it to them when they treat me so shabbily?

I realised (esp. after the Marketers Toolkit summit earlier this… Read More year) that ppl are absolutely clueless about social media. Not just the technology but more importantly, its implications. The organisers of such events are probably used to running after newspaper journalists and figure that an individual blogger is a nobody. Beats me why they’d be interested in having me write about them but I guess they’ve heard that social media is the new buzzword so are trying to ‘get with it’. Never mind understanding the universe and its etiquette.

I’d say just ignore such people. We don’t have to bother with teaching them, it’s their loss if they haven’t figured it out…and they’ll have to, eventually.

Baishampayan Ghose

I am not surprised. The problem here is that there are too many mediocre bloggers around who feel privileged to attend some event in some 5 star hotel and eat fee lunch and get a T’Shirt, maybe.
As a result the companies treat everyone equally. That’s not going to change unless the better bloggers rise to the levels of someone like Michael Arrington.

Harish Iyer
yes, it is so damn silly. and yes, they make it look like charity. hahhah. But it will be fun to attend. We all love to blog about aweful moments. dont we???