Monday, August 6, 2007

E-Marketing: Bloggers Consider Labor Union

This article is from.MSNBC.com It discusses the ongoing movement by a coalition of bloggers to develop a labor union. The objective of the union is to help bloggers receive health insurance, carry out collective bargaining, and set professional standards.

This movement has developed from the growing power of bloggers. Because the field of bloggers is diverse, it is unclear what type of professional organization is needed.

Most bloggers agree that having a union would allow them insurance discounts and press credentials. Others believe that a union could also help set up guidelines for advertising and data on blogger pages.

A union would lead to increased professionalism and regulation. The increase of these elements could lead to a boost of more jobs for bloggers as well as becoming a more trustworthy source of information.

Not all bloggers think unionizing is a good idea. Because there is no regulation on blogging, many consider it to be freedom of expression. Setting up unions may lead to compromising of these freedoms.

The effect of this movement on marketers is great. If bloggers begin to unionize, the will be both positive and negative consequences.

Positive effects would be regulation on bloggers. This lessens that chance that an advertisement will be placed on a distasteful website. Thus, there is less risk for a marketer placing an advertisement. Also, if regulation is enforced, it is more likely that negative blogs would be restricted. This would silence some overly critical bloggers.

A negative consequences of unionizing would be less freedom of expression. If blogs begin to restrict what can and cannot be discussed, important consumer topics could be lost. Marketers would loose a strong outlet of customer reviews that allow them to evaluate and change products and promotions.

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