We’re at an advantage right? Every business in the country is looking to build a social media presence and even dishwasher detergents now have a group on Facebook. The number of Followers you have is now a currency and employers are scrambling to recruit professional and accomplished community managers. Social media even has a week named after it!
The Lebanese blogosphere has a reputation that precedes it. Namely a good one. We’ve had our fair share of media coverage and we’ve managed to really make a name for ourselves- some more than others. We’re tight-knit circle that makes up the Who’s Who in our sphere and we often rally around the same cause, retweet it, share it and link it.
Brands are constantly referring to us for our humble advice, PR reps are flooding our inboxes with invitations to promotional events and all they want in return is some publicity, ANY publicity!
We’ve become influential in our context. We’ll eat at your joint and blog about it the next day. If it was a bad experience, we won’t hold back, and it’s only right, if our readership wanted a paid review, they’d buy a magazine.
At times, our words have created accountability, forcing businesses to not only acknowledge consumer feedback but to also cater to it.
Here’s the downside. We’ve also been known to get nasty- seldom with each other, mostly with online brands. There have been a couple of incidents where we’ve managed to take the criticism from constructive to destructive. Sure businesses are really putting themselves out there when they go online- but does that mean that it’s all fair game? I think so. But many feel that we may be thinly treading the “D” word. Defamation. I’m not referring to any one incident in particular here (I’m notorious for my own online rants), but here’s the thing: has our viral “expertise” allowed us to become more quick to judge and merciless when things just don’t go our way or when we feel a business is conducting itself in the “wrong” way? Rather than speaking to them directly, we resort to naming and shaming, but again, isn’t that the entire point of blogging in the first place? What do you think?
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I recently became active with the brands on twitter, but as i discovered, If you don’t YELL ! you will be ignored, even if you have something very important to say, and i discovered that with a personal experience with Zaatar W Zeit and Liban Post.
i don’t blog about a place/company/brand unless i have a big issue with them. i don’t like tweeps that make up a scene if they did’nt get invited to some place, or didn’t LIKE a brand, i write about what i like and don’t like, even if it was harsh, or some tweeps said that “TOBYID TANAJIR”
You have a point there that sometimes we are HARSH with no reason, and i call that POWER ABUSE !
Ivy, it is quite noticeable that Lebanese people are strong about their opinion and sometimes too strong that it crosses the red line of any acceptable social behavior. That with a lack of understanding of basic human relations and communication, some blog posts are unacceptable.
Blog editors are a mirror of different people from different backgrounds who are voicing their opinions, harshly, softly or irresponsibly.
Harsh blog posts are acceptable socially just like naming and shaming(rules apply). Whether with or without a reason it shouldn’t matter. Everyone got an opinion and they are welcome to voice it. It doesn’t take more than few clicks to find out if someone is abusing their freedom of expression by insulting or defaming & loosing credibility is enough to bring him/her down to their knees, virtually.
I have to agree with you on this one Ivy. I think many people are a bit too quick to criticize the actions of brands online..this isn’t to say that some brands don’t deserve to be put in their place..but I do think that people need to understand that a lot of what they say online can negatively impact a brand/business – especially in a region where social media is still very new,,and blog posts can oftentimes be higher in ranks that some brand’s websites! They need to think long and hard before they go about defaming brands on Twitter, Facebook, or on blog posts. My rule is, unless I have something positive to say, I usually try not to say anything.
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Just to get the message through. I hear you, and agree.
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you just said what i always think about, if we wanted a paid review, we would buy a magazine!! 100% right, so keep your blogs and go forward with it, it would change/save someone’s life ! 😀 … who knows maybe it did
It’s good that you said so! I believe that some bloggers are taking it really too far!I am a blogger, and I am proud that I am still “unpolluted”.
Cheers!