1. Corruption of digital discourse:
what you need to know,
why you should care
David Kamerer, PhD, APR
Loyola University Chicago
Follow me on Twitter @davidkamerer

2. The online world
Journalism
Blogs
Social media
Online reviews
Action plan

3. Communication
Conversations
Influence
have moved online …
As communicators, online is where we work
and live

4. CC/flickr.com/Jeff_We
rner

5. The Attention Crash
“We are reaching a point where the number of inputs
we have as individuals is beginning to exceed what
we are capable as humans of managing. The
demands for our attention are becoming so great, and
the problem so widespread, that it will cause people
to crash and curtail these drains. Human attention
does not obey Moore’s Law.”
- Steve Rubel, Edelman Digital

6. Decline of trust
• Unemployment
• Globalization
• Poor economy
• Housing crisis
• Banking crisis
• War

8. Trust: infrastructure issues:
•Malware
•Phishing
•Hacking
•Insecure ecommerce
•Identity theft
•Device tracking
•Fraudulent banner ad exchanges

9. Trust – AC Nielsen study

10. Edelman Trust Barometer
• the rise of a “person like yourself (up 22% from
2004 to 2012)
• decline in trust – CEOs (-12%) and government
officials (-14%)

11. Edelman model: media cloverleaf

12. The online world
Journalism
Blogs
Social media
Online reviews
Action plan

13. What’s wrong with journalism?
• Continuous deadlines
• Harried reporters
• Multimedia/social media reporting
• Anonymous comments online
• Iterative journalism
• The “Foxification” of news
RESULT: less trust in journalism

14. Social media sources, HARO

15. Gallup survey, Fall 2012:

16. Decline of journalism
• $1 in new digital ad revenue for every $25 lost in
print ads
•http://bit.ly/R9TWPg
• One-third to half of all banner ads – never seen
•http://bit.ly/TbOomC
• Other financial models – limited success

18. Pageviews
rule all
Goodbye, zoning board;
Hello, Kardashians

19. http://bit.ly/OzkFr1

20. Typical response rates
Targeted email 5.00%
Direct mail 3.00%
Rich media 0.14%
Banner ad 0.08%
The failure of outbound
tactics
Source: Ad Age, 2010

23. How to get more pageviews, part 2:
Ghost sites defraud advertisers $400m/year
source: http://bit.ly/YEJ7YK

24. Journalism
• Financial model seriously compromised
• We’ve never needed good journalism more

25. The online world
Journalism
Blogs
Social media
Online reviews
Action plan

26. Modal qualities of social media
• Everyone can publish
• A variety of business models
• Google organizes all
• Trust/authenticity that comes from
“someone like myself”

27. Blogs
• The rise of hidden influencers
• Focused, long-tail content
• Often “journalistic”

28. How are blogs funded?
• No funding – hobby
• Banner ads
• Pay per post
• Affiliate program
• Free goods & services

29. Results: many revenue streams

30. Tracking software shows
ad relationships
Average of 14 tracking services on style blogs
•Analytics
•Share buttons
•Third-party ad networks
(source: Ghostery plug-in)
At left, tracking software from
the blog LoveMaegan

31. Disclosure of material connections
16 CFR Part 255
“Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and
Testimonials in Advertising”
Resource:
FTC “dot-com” disclosures guide
http://1.usa.gov/cScCMo

32. Examples of in-post disclosures

33. Not quite a disclosure: c/o (“courtesy of”)
In-
post
Site
State-
ment

34. Ann Taylor
FTC: it is the
advertiser’s
responsibility to assure
disclosure, not the
blogger’s

35. Legacy Learning Systems
$5 million
sales
$250,000
fine

36. Almost three-fourths of the sample
did not disclose in-post

42. The online world
Journalism
Blogs
Social media
Online reviews
Action plan

50. 50 Cent
+ 290% in one day
$8.7 million

53. Other platforms for paid influence:
•MyLikes.com
•SponsoredTweets.com
•Pay4Tweet.com
•Netflix affiliate program
•Amazon Affiliates

55. Other consumer referral programs
• The Fancy
• Pose
• Referly

56. Friends/Followers for sale

57. Wikipedia editing
Facebook group CREWE:
Corporate representatives for ethical
Wikipedia engagement

58. The online world
Journalism
Blogs
Social Media
Online Reviews
Action plan

59. Reviews
•an important source of (free) content
•are distributed across the web
•frequently anonymous or pseudonymous

60. Scope of reviews
• 76% of consumers use online reviews regularly or occasionally
• 72% trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
• 58% trust a business with positive reviews
• 52% more likely to use a business with positive reviews
US Alexa ranks:
1 Google, 5 Amazon, 57 Yelp, 63 Target, 84 Bestbuy,
114 TripAdvisor, 119 Expedia, 367 Cars.com,
600 Angieslist
http://selnd.com/ScqESZ

61. Reverb Communications memo:
Reverb employs a small team of interns who are focused on managing
online message boards, writing influential game reviews, and keeping
a gauge on the online communities. Reverb uses the interns as a
sounding board to understand the new mediums where consumers are
learning about products, hearing about hot new games and listen to
the thoughts of our targeted audience. Reverb will use these interns
on Developer Y products to post game reviews (written by Reverb
staff members) ensuring the majority of the reviews will have the key
messaging and talking points developed by the Reverb PR/marketing
team.

62. Reverb Communications memo:
Internal User Reviews Process:
• Internal “User Reviews”• Pre-written by in house writers• Positive
reviews – not over the top – but endorsing the game as a good
product• Age ranges+ 12 – 18+ 19 – 25+ 26 – 34+ 35 – 45+ 46+*
Written from the angle of each age group including key words that
resonate with each audience* Reviews begin to go live on day of
launch on the iPhone storefront

63. Reverb Communications

65. Yelp
•#57 website in US
• behind Instagram, GoDaddy
• ahead of Target, Groupon, UPS, Hulu
• 50 million unique visitors/month
• 18 million + reviews

66. Economic value of Yelp reviews
UC-Berkeley study: a half-star difference in Yelp reviews can
mean a 30-49 percent likelihood that a restaurant will sell out
in an evening.
Online reviews “play an increasingly important role in how
consumers judge the quality of goods and services.”
http://bit.ly/T2wFUJ

67. Yelp reviews

68. Yelp reviews

69. Yelp “filtered” reviews

70. Owner’s response:
• No record of “Justin G”
• Rejected offer to buy an ad
• Justin G did not respond to query
“I can live with what he says, even
though I believe it’s unjust. But
allow the good ones to go on, too.”

71. Blowback against Yelp
•Class action lawsuit (thrown out)
•Facebook pages
Yelp is a Fraud
We hate Yelp
•Website
yelp-sucks.com
• FTC complaints (almost 1,000) of “extortion”

72. · "Consumer states that [Yelp] told him to pay 300.00 for a
"membership" that would give him more positive reviews. Consumer
noticed that a couple of positive reviews popped up immediately after
paying the money."
· "Although the site cites that disclosing those [filtering] criteria will
allow circumventing their built-in checks and balances, in practice it
gives them a complete power to manipulate the ratings of any
business."
· "The site constantly and relentlessly filters out the good and
excellent reviews displaying less positive reviews causing the rating
to downgrade.”
· "We asked yelp please take all our business info we do not want to
be on yelp. The yelp said sorry."
· "They ask for money to post the positive reviews. Pure extortion. We
do not have an option to be listed on their website and that is bad
enough but to have them actually decide on how your business is
rated and profiled is not a fair business practice.”

73. Amazon - Cornell study
• 85% of Vine reviewers have been approached by
an author/agent/publisher.
• “… large numbers of reviews by the higher-ranked
reviewers are for books they have been given free
by publishers, authors, or agents.”
• Bad reviews – leave it up to the author?
• Alexa: #5 in US, #10 in world

74. Amazon.co.uk
• 47 5-star reviews in first week.
• Of the 47 reviewers, only six had ever
• written a review before
• Husband Sir Paul Ruddock net worth
estimated to be $450 million
• Current sales rank #99,085 in Books

75. VIPERTEK Kindle case

77. http://nyti.ms/R5QDK5

78. TripAdvisor
•More than 60 million reviews
•40 reviews posted/minute
•Hotel experience less tangible
http://tripadvisorwatch.wordpress.com/

80. The case of doctors
• Sue patients who write negative reviews for libel
• SLAPP suits
Reputation.com
DoctorScorecard.com
Angieslist.com

85. The online world
Journalism
Blogs
Social Media
Online Reviews
Action plan

86. High performance
High performance products, services
High performance communication
Become a transparent company

87. Listen to the chatter
Listening tools/RSS
Identify brand champions/connect and nurture
Complaint? Improve your performance
Some complaints fall below the noise floor
You can’t please everyone.

88. Use your owned media
Your message, your frame, your branding
“Every company is a media company”
SEO matters.
Build an “aquarium” of stakeholders
through outbound email
Curate through social media

89. Social media

90. Social media
• Prepare to play defense
• Rise of “native ad formats”
sponsored Tweet
sponsored story
• Facebook paid posts
• Commercialization is transforming social media

96. Disclosure
• Always disclose, even if in doubt
• Only work with ethical influencers
• Also use a site statement, linked on home page
• Goal: to avoid consumer confusion
• FTC dot-com disclosures http://1.usa.gov/cScCMo

97. PRSA Code of Ethics
PRSA’s Code of Ethics has a provision entitled “Disclosure of
Information,” based upon the principle is that “open
communication fosters informed decision making in a
democratic society.” The intent is “to build trust with the
public by revealing all information needed for responsible
decision making.”
The code states that a member shall:
Be honest and accurate in all communications.
Act promptly to correct erroneous communications for which
the member is responsible.
Investigate the truthfulness and accuracy of information
released on behalf of those represented.
Reveal the sponsors for causes and interests represented.
Disclose financial interest (such as stock ownership) in a
client’s organization.
Avoid deceptive practices.

98. Microchannels: Twitter, Facebook, SMS
What about a platform like Twitter? How can I make a disclosure when my message
is limited to 140 characters?
The FTC isn’t mandating the specific wording of disclosures. However, the same
general principle – that people have the information they need to evaluate sponsored
statements – applies across the board, regardless of the advertising medium. A
hashtag like “#paid ad” uses only 8 characters. Shorter hashtags – like “#paid” and
“#ad” – also might be effective.
#paid
#ad
#client
#sponsored

102. Reviews
Embrace the opportunity to listen
Claim your spaces:
Yelp
Google Places
Bing Business Portal
Foursquare
Verticals/hyperlocals
Use SEO to make your website more visible

103. Review food chain:
Top – independent professionals
(Consumer Reports, journalists)
Good first steps –
(real names, must be customer)
Worst –
(anonymous)

104. Great social content:
Facebook – Oreo
Twitter – Whole Foods
Blog – GM Fastlane
Owned – Patagonia
Community – Disney Moms
Youtube – Home Depot
Instagram – Audi
Podcasts – Ace Insurance

105. Whither journalism?
Media, news literacy
Journalism may enjoy resurgence
Direct pay model

106. The tragedy of the commons

107. For more information:
http://davidkamerer.com
(search for “corruption”)
http://delicious.com/davidkamerer/disclosure
http://delicious.com/davidkamerer/corruption
On Twitter:
@davidkamerer
Email:
david@davidkamerer.com
Thank you!