As a mummy blogging evangelist and founder of the British Mummy Bloggers social network, I've been following the debate about blogging ethics and reviews/sponsored posts with great interest. This is now official business in the US, with the FTC about to launch guidelines this summer.
Things seemed to hit a crescendo when Mom Dot, a social network for US mommy bloggers, announced a PR Blackout Challenge aimed at urging mommy bloggers to get back to basics after loosing the plot to the allure of giveaways, reviews, and blog trips.
In response, I wrote May British Mummy Bloggers Never Need a PR Blackout, more as a warning to our growing community of what may be in store if we don't learn from what has happened to mommy bloggers on the other side of the pond.
After several conversations and comments, it became clear that British mummy bloggers don't need a code of ethics. That would take all the fun out of blogging and make it seem more like work. Rather, we could all use a reminder of the issues of ethical blogging. Hence, British Mummy Bloggers Do It With Integrity was born.
The “British Mummy Bloggers Do It with Integrity” badge stands for blogging with principle. By displaying the badge you agree that you will strive to:
- Make transparent any relationships with products or companies;
- Clearly label advertising, advertorials and/or sponsored posts;
- Always write as truthfully as possible about a product or company;
- Observe intellectual property rights.
If you would like to join in our campaign to keep doing it with integrity, please feel free to grab the code and display it on your blog:
<a href="http://www.amodernmother.com/2009/08/british-mummy-bloggers-do-it-with-integrity.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss248/violetposy/integrity1-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
Thank you to the Blog with Integrity people for their inspiration for this post. They have a more indepth campaign and pledge, please check it out and sign their petition.
And a big thank you to Liz at Violet Posy for designing our lovely badge! Liz is the technical help behind the network and does a FAB job.
I'm also adding some examples of disclosure pages:
