#BloggerBlackmail Lessons for Businesses and Bloggers

This post originally appeared on Utter Digital.

Twitter is alight with #bloggerblackmail tweets today as @angesdesucre, a bakery in the UK, goes toe to toe with a food blogger following a poor review.

After reading both sides of the story, it’s clear that there were different expectations on both sides about what to expect from the review experience.

It’s an issue which has now exploded, causing the hashtag to become one of the top trending topics in the UK.

 

#BloggerBlackmail – what happened?

Here’s what happened in a nutshell:

• Blogger contacts business to offer a review of their products
• Bakery agrees, and invites blogger in to review
• Upon arrival, blogger is offered a selection of small treats to sample and review
• Blogger decides the small treats are not enough, and asks for more goodies, to the value of circa £100
• Bakery staff check with owner by telephone, who decides the blogger will now only be offered hot drinks
• Blogger gets angry, buys a couple of treats, takes some pics and leaves
• Angry blogger then posts nasty comments and images on social media

Pic courtesy of Anges de Sucre

• Bakery is now angry too, so they retaliate with a blog post about how the blogger tried to ‘blackmail’ them into giving free stuff
• Blogger responds with a blog post defending her position, dubbing the bakery ‘bullies’, and admitting that the social media posts were done in anger

 

#BloggerBlackmail – the Twitter response

And Twitter is going a bit crazy over this one, with support for both sides of the argument, but the majority seem to agree that both the bakery and the blogger are in the wrong here.

Some believe the bakery have acted unprofessionally, and have come across badly for publicly condemning the blogger in question.

 There aren’t many standing up for the blogger in question however, with a general air of disbelief at her attitude.   

And many believe they’re both in the wrong…

 

Lessons for all

  Whatever your stance on this particular incident is, there are important lessons for both businesses and bloggers to heed from the saga:

1. Agree terms up front. A clear agreement is crucial to avoid any such misunderstanding.
2. Think about how a public argument will affect your reputation. We’ve seen how social media can be a minefield for businesses and brands before, and I stand by my view that businesses should stay away from negativity, controversy and public arguments.
3. Don’t be hasty. Blog in haste, repent at leisure!

  How this pans out remains to be seen, as the Twitter world is still going crazy about it, and how this impacts on the reputation of both the bakery and the blogger in question will be interesting to watch.

Awww no, I’m going to lose the rest of the afternoon to reading abut this #bloggerblackmail drama, aren’t I? *Gets popcorn*

— Amber McNaught (@foreveramber) August 17, 2015