When A Blogger Meets Public Relations

fermion writes "The New York Times is running a story on the evolving relationship between PR departments and bloggers, specifically between the Wal*Mart PR people and sympathetic bloggers. The interesting thing in this story is not so much the astroturfing, which is old news, but the transformation of blogging from a personal statement to a corporate bullhorn. The bloggers mentioned in the story, who presumably are able to articulate their own opinions, received Wal*Mart email and began to simply copy the PR text into the blogs. What is the use of a blog if bloggers are just going to copy sentences and sentiments from the puppetmaster's email?"

Blogs are SEO tools

[spentrent]

What is the use of a blog if bloggers are just going to copy sentences and sentiments from the puppetmaster's email?

Blogs are used to clutter search engines. Where have you been the last few years? Most blogs are keyphrase link-fests. Another innovation from the world of online adult marketing. Porn coders could solve cancer if the money was there.

Just one question:

[abes]

What is the use of a blog if bloggers are just going to copy sentences and sentiments from the puppetmaster's email?

Ditto

[Anonymous Coward]

The bloggers mentioned in the story, who presumably are able to articulate their own opinions, received Wal*Mart email and began to simply copy the PR text into the blogs. What is the use of a blog if bloggers are just going to copy sentences and sentiments from the puppetmaster's email?

I couldn't agree more.

There's a more important issue than that.

[Minwee]

The real question is "What is the use of a blog if bloggers are just going to copy sentences and sentiments from the puppetmaster's email?"

Well...

[meringuoid]

What is the use of a blog, period? Does anybody actually read these damn things?

I gather there's a guy by the name of CmdrTaco whose blog has a pretty impressive readership. Always some interesting reader commentary following every article, too... I'd link to it, but I forget the url.

This just in....

[AeroIllini]

Text posted on the internet might not be completely legitimate or factual.

Film at 11.