Instinctively I get angry about this, big brands, big companies coming up with campaigns aimed at taking advantage of bloggers. Usually construed by people in offices with a compete lack of understanding of bloggers.
I’ve been doing this for 6 years, I have a paid day job I’m a busy individual, you are a multi national corporation dangling a pathetic carrot. Seriously, offering a carrot in a competition is actually offensive to those that have worked so hard and built something on their own.
It shows huge lack of understanding of social media, the web and those that publish on it. These corporations need social, they need organic buzz generated by those people who are active online.
I don’t want the chance to win, you need my content, you need bloggers to be collectively working with you, so pay for it. They need to understand and respect those people who provide real value because in this democratisation of information, we have the power and we should never give a piece of it up just for a chance to win a meager carrot dangled from a stick.
Photo by claireknights
But some bloggers are bunnies and like carrots!
I find these contests annoying. Same with ones that require you to “Pin” content from their website. Thankfully you don’t have to participate if you don’t want to. But there will always be someone interested and not every blogger has the same business goals.
Hi Adam,
I agree. I am ranting but I do mean certain types of competitions, not all. Especially those that tag other people as a kind of game. Lets be honest, no company really wants to play “a game” there is obvious a different motive… basically to get something for very little money.
Do I sense this being directed to a recent “travel relay”? I couldn’t agree more!!! xxx
Hi Scarlett,
To be honest it’s aimed at a lot of competitions. Not all, there are those that are handled well but others that are just blatant attempts to use bloggers for content or links.