The Tendo View

Last I checked, Dr. Eric Schmidt wasn’t jumping on to Google financial briefings to preach about Apple’s latest iPhone firmware update.  And last I checked, the same good doctor wasn’t running across the stage at MacWorld–or whatever events Apple’s keynoting now–arm-pumping to the chant of, “Google!  Google!  Google!”

That’s because of a little thing called conflict of interest. I come from a print journalism background, and these three words are akin to the Great Wall of China for content creation.  That’s not to say that an average marketer or businessperson has no moral code, but it can be a tapdance to do what’s best for a brand without looking like a complete shill–be it for your company, your clients, or your competing interests.

Marketing on Someone Else’s Dime

Consider Sarah Lacy, the Bay Area’s favorite female tech journalist–or, at least, one that’s been talked about a great deal since her big Facebook interview snafu in 2008.  No stranger to inserting herself into the story, Lacy writes about Facebook, of all things, in her BusinessWeek column this week.  The premise of the story is simple: Facebook employees are cashing out their shares of the company’s stock at a high enough rate as to overload the company’s $100 million share buyback program.  Simple.  Done.

Instead of pointing to similar occurrences across the tech sector and drawing some kind of parallel between the companies’ respective situations, or taking the larger spin on the effects of an economic recession on an individual’s desire to keep money close at-hand, what does Lacy do?  If you guessed, “shill for her other job,” you got it.  She references her employment as a blogger at TechCrunch, talks about the site’s awesome environment and strong financial growth, and even uses her BusinessWeek column to jokingly beg her boss, Michael Arrington, for stock options.

Talk about eating where you… well.  I’ll let you finish the metaphor.

Suffice, the entire ordeal makes Sarah look like a wide-eyed fangirl for her other paychecks.  The weight of her words loses legitimacy.  BusinessWeek looks like it has no idea how to manage its employees and, worse, is effectively sponsoring the endorsement of a competitor.

So what?

As marketer, it’s important to realize the walls in which you play.  You can’t just blast your marketing message in every  medium of interaction, otherwise your constant attempts to bring your brand to the forefront of any and all discussions will look like an official kind of astroturfing. The conflict of interest is one of you, an everyday person trying to say everyday things, versus your hidden agenda.

If you’re going to try and frame a brand within the context of a larger, topical issue, at least do it with grace. In Lacy’s case, her TechCrunch employment might be relevant as it relates to working for a startup and the subsequent issues of stock options.  The context of her blog, however, makes this relationship sound like an advertisement–not a genuine piece of insight sparked by insightful comparison, rather, one that’s arisen out of hubris.

You can talk about your brand.  You can be passionate about your brand.  You can even shill for your brand a little bit–it’s okay, everybody else does.  But crossing the line is like the difference between a martini with a twist and a straight shot of booze.  One keeps life pleasant; the other gets you hammered.  Don’t get hammered by your community because you couldn’t keep your words straight.