Ten Principles for an Ethical Blogger Approach For Marketers

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association has released for industry discussion Ten Principles for Ethical Contact by Marketers, a document that basically amount to 1. Don't lie; 2. Be nice and 3. Don't manipulate. The ten points in full are below.

Sourced from http://i-wisdom.typepad.com/iwisdom/2006/11/towards_an_ethi.html

Principles

"1. I will always be truthful and will never knowingly relay false information.I will never ask someone else to deceive bloggers for me.

2. I will fully disclose who I am and who I work for (my identity and affiliations) from the very first encounter when communicating with bloggers or commenting on blogs.

3. I will never take action contrary to the boundaries set by bloggers.I will respect all community guidelines regarding posting messages and comments.

4. I will never ask bloggers to lie for me.

5. I will use extreme care when communicating with minors or blogs intended to be read by minors.

6. I will not manipulate advertising or affiliate programs to impact blogger income.

7. I will not use automated systems for posting comments or distributing information.

8. I understand that compensating bloggers may give the appearance of a conflict of interest, and I will therefore fully disclose any and all compensation or incentives.

9. I understand that if I send bloggers products for review, they are not obligated to comment on them. Bloggers can return products at their own discretion.

10. If bloggers write about products I send them, I will proactively ask them to disclose the products' source." (http://i-wisdom.typepad.com/iwisdom/2006/11/towards_an_ethi.html)