Today I wanted to take some time out of my busy day to explain to all of our blog readers why you will NOT see the Two Classy Chics participating in various blog voting campaigns and popularity contests online.
Before I tell you why we feel the way we do on this particular topic, I want to tell you about a recent experience that I had.
Back in June I was asked to participate in a foodie review, recipe creation and recipe contest and I accepted the challenge. After I participated and published my review and recipe, I was then asked to DRIVE traffic to the hosting company’s Pinterest board for a voting contest. The company was using bloggers who participate to drive traffic to the contest. The problem with that is this…
Many of these bloggers were bribing their social media followers and blog readers with extra entries in all kinds of other “non-related” giveaways if followers/readers went over to the company’s Pinterest board to vote for that bloggers recipe. Wow! We will NEVER hi-jack a sponsor (company’s post) here on our blog to drive traffic to another company’s web site for the purpose of winning a dang contest!
The objective of the recipe contest was for people to VOTE on the BEST RECIPE from those that were pinned on the company’s Pinterest board. Well, I was greatly disturbed by the tactics that some bloggers were using to get folks to go over there and VOTE for “their” recipe. It didn’t matter if their recipe was the crappiest or the best, just as long as folks voted for it.
How is that fair? It’s not! What it really boils down to is this…It wasn’t a recipe contest but was a popularity contest! Yup, that is what it was! I was greatly distrubed by this and swore that day that I would never participate in another online “popularity” contest like that!
I feel that this is the same thing that goes on with all of those “Vote for the Best Review Blog” or the “Vote for the Best Mommy Blog” type of things too! I see all kinds of bloggers giving extra entries or other incentives to their readers to go vote on such and such site for their blog.
Frankly, If any of our followers or readers vote for us or our blog, I want it to be because THEY wanted to do it, They believe we deserve it and they got NO extra incentive to do it. That is how it should be!
The reason I am fired up today is because…another PR Pitch rolled into my email box today offering me the chance to review a foodie product, create a recipe and my recipe would have to participate in their MANDATORY popularity contest (oh, I mean recipe voting contest). I would be responsible for driving traffic to “my recipe” on their site by bribing and using my social media followers and blog readers. Huh? Yes folks, that is how some companies are rolling these days.
Well, I am here to tell you all who read our blog and/or follow us on social media, We will NEVER ask you to go vote for us on any site or for any recipe that we may or may not create. We will NOT bribe, blackmail or coerce our readers/followers to go play the online popularity game.
If you love/like us for what we do…great, by all means go vote for us somewhere online. If not, that is cool too! We hope you all understand our position on this and why we will not participate or ask any of you to participate in something like that.
We are not “damning” the blogs and bloggers who participate in this type of thing and we are not pointing fingers, but we did want to explain our position on it.
We hope you all have a great weekend and thanks for reading and following our blog!
I’m at the point of visiting blogs, entering giveaways and deciding how I want to handle giveaways on my own blog. There are a number of things I’ve made note of about what not to do and vote bribing is one of them.
Thanks for stopping by Krys….agree! Vote bribing is a terrible thing!
This happens all the time…… and I mean constantly. You have probably gathered the vast majority of contests I enter are via blogs… and honestly I have seen it all in the 3 years I have been doing this. I have seen people ask for every vote under the sun as an entry in contests that have nothing to do with the sponsor nor their blogs.
I dont mind at all giving a picket fence vote, or along the same lines a top mommy blog vote, boosting the blog etc if it is one I like and visit. I dont even mind giving klout as an entry IF I think they go above and beyond .. I will even go as far as to say I don’t mind the foodie blogs asking for votes if thats primarily what they do and the recipe looks good.
What I dont like seeing is vote for my kid, vote for someone else (not the blogger running contest) vote for my dog/cat etc. It isn’t about their blog, it isn’t about the sponsor, it isn’t about anything short of getting votes without the work it takes to get votes (and it is hard work to win ) I see it as not only undermining the original contest they are holding but also skewing the vote by giving large blogs an unfair advantage because they are rewarding people for voting. And yes I have seen very crappy entries win this way.
I like the blogs who ‘keep it clean’ – the blogs who disclose that what you are clicking on is an affiliate link (huge pet peeve in non disclosure) ones who may ask for a vote / tweet/ post but don’t make a requirement. And you know, these are some of the blogs who have the most loyal readership- you might not have the numbers from joining in contests that you have to follow 10,000 people , you might not get the popularity tiara, but you have readers who read what you write. And if you EVER need a vote/like you can call and we happily answer.
Thanks TCC (and others) for keeping it clean. And yes, I will likely forget later tonight to take the entry for this comment LOL! But then too, I comment because I am one of your readers !
Thank you Ellen! I pretty much agree with everything you said. It is really getting out of hand with bloggers and it is getting out of hand with sponsors pushing for it or requesting it. It is something we (The Two Classy Chics) will not be participating in.
I am so in agreement with you. Some bloggers have their readers voting for things as a requirement for a contest and that to me is so unfair. I pull away from those sites because it isn’t something I would do. And it does end up being a popularity contest. Thanks for the post. I love this blog and don’t need anyone telling me to stop by. Thanks for all that you do put into your blog. And your honesty.
Carol L
Lucky4750 (at) aol (dot) com
Amen to that. So not into folks that pound the heck out of their readers to vote for them and I do not think a company should hijack readers and interest from participating blogs. I find that very uncool!