We’re getting ready to launch a new program with a little company called Marqui, Inc. They’ve got a new breed of service, called “Communications Management” which combines email campaigning, CMS and work flow and a bit of garlic - to spice things up.
We’re going to pay bloggers $800 a month to talk about the companies products – even if they don’t say everything kindly.
To hire bloggers means you’re hiring their integrity. So to demand (like most of you would) that they ONLY can blog something positive about your products, would refute the whole reason for hiring them in the first place.
When I first came up with the idea – the question was poised “what if they blog something negative?”
My answer was “that’s a good thing! Can you imagine how powerful it will be for us to listen to and react to that criticism and show that we responded in a timely manner by actually fixing the problems?”
That’ll be worth its weight on gold.
So the next time you’re contemplating how to spend your multi-million dollar ad budget, just think about all those bloggers out there who would LOVE to work for you – as long as you can stand the heat.
This is a grandeous social experiment. If it works (and so far, so good) – then LOADS of advertisers will flock to the blogosphere – paying bloggers to do the same thing we’re doing for Marqui. Afterall – as the saying goes “it doesn’t matter WHAT you write about me, just spell my name correctly – please.”
We’re going to be completely transparent on this as well (Bill Gross doesn’t get to be the only transparent one!) Who we’re paying, what we’re paying them, what the terms are (3 months), what we’re asking them to say, their links, everything – will be available on the company site.
So if you’re in the publishing business and you thought you might start a new scam – well the jig is up. We’re going around you – too. Just like we’re going around Big Media directly to the people, now the dollars are going around the publishers directly to the writers.
So check out Marqui.com and this social experiment of ours.
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Member Comments
There's a long thread on this based on the initial argument between Marc and the Marquiists, on one side, and Jason Calcanis and me, on the other; here's the most recent piece, rebuting arguments in favor of this by various Marquiists: http://www.corante.com/getreal/archives/i_took_a_week_off_from_marqui_but.php
Just go to Get Real and search on Marqui or Marc Canter -- there's a dozen ort so posts on it, with links to several of Marc's rants and various others chiming in or out.
It's an advertisement. Good hustle Marc. I applaud the experimentation. My big point here is that the advertising model of blogs and syndication is the "information". This is why CPC model will die soon.
The danger is that you risk becoming an Ad Blog only where you become a thought leader on the advertiser instead of an industry. Don't trip over dollars to pick up the pennies.
All aboard the cluetrain... the market is a conversation. In order to get into the market jump-start the conversation yourself with external talent. Don't control the conversation but engage it, learn from it, catalyze it....
I kinda like it. Let me know how this experiment works out.
Stikes me as utopian. Won't be long before the bloggers that deliver the leads campaign for a raise and diminish any profit margin over more traditional approaches. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Marketing dynamics are changing and only accelerating, the blogging community needs to find ways of adjusting to this transformation, not draw lines in the sand, one cannot standstill in this environment, it is about ruthless execution. The fact that its Marc Canter who is doing this only means the guy has chutzpa and only a very few of us ever get to show chutzpa.
How Marqui works out will be interesting to see, but this is only the beginnings, customers are beginning to wake up to these changes at each new development innovation and the full motherload of transparency has not even begun to yield its mighty ax yet, but put your ear to the ground and you will hear it coming, and even the writers of the Cluetrain Manifesto could not envisage how this will come about or when it would arrive.
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