SOPA would not only give power to the Attorney General to shut down websites with copyright material, but it also lowers the threshold for who can be liable for IP theft. Under this bill, if an ISP, search engine, payment network, or ad network doesn’t take drastic measures to prevent piracy, they can be held responsible for copyright infringement. Any site could be declared “foreign infringing” if its domain name registration authorities are located outside the U.S. and the site “facilitates” the commission of criminal copyright or trademark infringement. In such an event the Attorney General would be permitted to shut down the host site. It is important to note, the bill doesn’t take into consideration whether or not the facilitation of infringement was intended or the amount of noninfringing content on the site.

In addition to allocating too much power to the government to regulate internet activity and threatening the operations of companies that play a key role in our domestic economy, SOPA fails to even achieve its main goal of stopping piracy. While shutting down a host site does increase the difficulty for piracy to continue, the site may still be reached with its IP address. Because the bill does not call for the elimination of IP addresses of pirating sites, it is not sufficient in stopping copyright infringement.

If passed SOPA could have serious negative implications for social media, stifle speech and innovation as well as economic growth during harsh economic times. Rostin Ventures will take all means necessary to inform its clients and the rest of the social and online media community of these potentially disastrous effects, and asks for your support.

Resources to Reference on the bill:

Detailed summary of the SOPA bill written by The Center for Democracy and Technology.

A link to a full copy of the bill:
http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/pdf/112%20HR%203261.pdf

Rostin Ventures Inc. Press Contact
Cameron Ross, Issue Analyst
cross@rostinventures.com
214.995.3824

Related articles

• White House Will Not Support Online Piracy Bills (huffingtonpost.com)
• Stop SOPA – Rostin Ventures, Inc. Releases Official Position on the Stop Online Piracy Act

Pioneers in paid blogging initially met with a surprising level of resistance from readers. This was largely due to poor execution. Today, major brands including Sears, Kmart, Panasonic, and Nikon are using sponsored conversations to take advantage of bloggers’ authority and influence.

Below, we’ll explain why paid blogging remains a controversial strategy even as more companies are using it to greater effect. You’ll also discover the unique advantages of sponsored conversations, including how you can generate the best results from them.

Why Is Paid Blogging So Controversial?

Blogs are widely recognized as a bastion of unadulterated thought and ideas. Readers are loyal largely because they assume the blogger’s ideas have not been compromised by commercial interests. On the surface, a sponsored conversation seems inconsistent with this ideal. Compensating a blogger to write about your company suggests the blogger must forfeit his or her unbiased position. In reality, that is completely untrue.

The problem is that most companies that use a sponsored conversation to gain market exposure execute a poorly-crafted strategy. It is tainted from the beginning and does more harm than good for their brand.

How To Generate The Best Results From A Sponsored Blog

There are two secrets to leveraging sponsored conversation effectively. You’ll find both of them intuitive, especially when you consider the perspective of a sponsored blog’s readership. First, the connection between your company and the blogger should be transparent. Second, you must allow the blogger to speak authentically.

Transparency is critical because readers will revolt if they feel something is hidden from them due to the blogger being compensated. That creates a problem on multiple fronts. Not only will a lack of transparency hurt the blogger’s influence, but it can also create a public relations maelstrom for your company. Make sure that every sponsored conversation is disclosed as such.

The blogger’s authenticity is also critical. If he or she is unable to speak freely about your company, their credibility will suffer. Even if a post is openly disclosed as a sponsored conversation, readers will ignore it if they sense the blogger is being disingenuous. That does your company little good. Let the blogger write authentically.

A Sponsored Conversation Melds Voice, Authority, And Marketing

The reason a sponsored conversation has such potency is because it lets you access an existing platform of trust and authority. Many bloggers attract thousands of loyal readers. These readers are influenced by the blogger’s posts because of the writer’s authentic voice. That authenticity encourages their trust. If the blogger writes about your company and products, readers are likely to trust his or her ideas. They’re likely to act on the blogger’s recommendations. As long as the sponsored conversation is disclosed as such, you can benefit from the blogger’s authority and influence while promoting your products through the blogger’s voice.

Measuring The ROI Of A Sponsored Conversation

The compensation you offer to bloggers and the goal of your sponsored conversation will influence how you measure each campaign’s ROI. For example, if you’re using a sponsored blog to drive traffic to your website, you can embed pixels and trackable parameters within the links. That allows you to measure the number of unique visitors and the sales they generate. If you compensate the blogger based on a cost-per-click or cost-per-sale formula, you can easily calculate the ROI of that particular sponsored conversation.

Sponsored Conversations Can Increase Your Exposure And Sales

Marketing costs are rising with no end in sight. At the same time, consumers are gravitating to blogs that are written with an authentic voice that encourages their trust and loyalty. A sponsored conversation gives you an opportunity to tap into those powerful levers to promote your products and brand. Despite the controversy, this strategy is here to stay. Major brands are already using it to reach niche communities that would be all but impossible to reach through conventional methods. You can launch a sponsored conversation campaign and enjoy the same advantages.

As long as a sponsored conversation is transparent and the publisher is given the freedom to write with sincerity, advertisers stand to yield significant benefits. They will be able to enjoy guaranteed exposure for their brand and products. Plus, they can tap into a publisher’s social media network. Each person within that network controls and influences their own network. If orchestrated correctly, a sponsored conversation can be launched to trigger a groundswell of buzz and sales. It is measurable; it is scalable; it is a cost-effective marketing solution that seamlessly blends public relations and advertising. For many companies, sponsored conversation and participation within social media conversation can form the foundation of long-term brand loyalty.

Just as brand managers once experienced a transition of offline brand management into the online marketing space, they are now working through a new perspective in Internet marketing.  Social Media professionals in Public Relations Online are incorporating blogging and comments into the paid Internet marketing strategy and brand managers are embracing the new social media strategy.  Sponsored conversation is here to stay.

“The FTC and Sponsored Conversation” was released by Sean Corcoran on Forrester’s blog for Internet Marketing professionals, noting….. “There is no doubt that the use of sponsored conversation is growing and at Forrester we believe that marketers can compensate certain bloggers to create content for their brand in an above board fashion – one that follows all of the necessary rules so blog readers know when they are reading legitimate editorial content and when they are reading paid content. Sponsored conversations are a form of paid media but they do have the ability to create earned media (i.e. word of mouth conversation) when done the right way.”

Released recently on Ad Age by Josh Bernoff, “When and How to Pay a Blogger” we find the proposed FTC guidelines on sponsored conversation as they relate to paid endorsements:

“If you don’t want to lose your job — and if you want to retain any credibility — you should move forward very carefully here. We strongly recommend that you heed these key elements of the FTC rules:

• Advertisers must disclose “material connections” between themselves and their endorsers that might “affect the weight of credibility of the endorsement” (i.e., if you compensate or pay in any way, you must disclose that).
• Endorsements by bloggers must “reflect honest opinions, findings, beliefs or experience” of the endorser.
• Both the marketer and the blogger can be held liable for misleading or false statements made by the blogger about the brand.”

These golden rules of social media in public relations online are the newest public relations obstacle course, which if used appropriately, could be the brand manager’s dream.  Managed with absolute disclosure and transparency, social media will allow direct communication between the brand manager and the consumer.

The key to the golden equation will be whether or not the brand manager has the ability to make the transition from offline public relations practices to public relations online.  Those who are able to invite conversation through social media content without extinguishing that conversation will benefit in increased market share and brand interest of the consumer.

In closing, must I share that I am a social media professional in public relations online?  Are you, the consumer and business marketing professional to differentiate whether we are writing content for pure pleasure or for profit?  Is this a paid endorsement?

Perhaps we can all learn from each other.  Included is my profile.  Whether or not we follow the golden rules, sponsored conversation is the here and now in social media.  And it has legs.  My two cents is that the online consumer is as savvy as the offline consumer and guidelines should remain consistent across the board.

Of course, your conversation… paid or not… is welcome here.