What comes off as jealous and scorn that she was forgotten about by Kmart, International Association of Business Communicators Chairwoman, Barbara Gibson wrote a little rant about all of us bloggers who participated in the Kmart Campaign.
She does not attack me so much as she goes after Social Media guru Chris Brogan:
Then today I read a tweet by Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang about a campaign where Kmart paid bloggers to write posts about shopping in their stores. He pointed out that such tactics were cost-effective, and would lead to more of the same, and he questioned whether it would hurt blogger credibility.
Specifically about me she says:
I followed the first link he provided and read the blog post, by Jeremy Schoemaker, someone I’d never heard of. Fair enough, I thought.
So why even mention me? Maybe if you spent 10 mins on my site you would see that I don’t blog for a living. I was paid $500 plus I received a $500 gift card to shop at Kmart.
My “paid post” price is $6500 and even at that price we are very selective and do MAYBE 3-4 a year.
I will answer her question though about integrity. Since writing that post I picked up about 2500 RSS readers and 1500 twitter followers.
Hang in there Barbara- Maybe you will be asked next time. NOT
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2415 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
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{ 47 comments… read them below or add one }
Shoe in her post she does come off as scorned. Nice call out.
Despite the fact that her article is an epic fail – the traffic increase shes given you is great!!! Funny how things work out in the end – looks like shes just helping your cause, and hurting her own!!
WOW not very professional for someone in a chair position….
I agree with you. There are too many people like this that seem to get a little bit jealous of people and say something to try to hurt them somehow. It seems like people always act like they do not know that person though.
Maybe if this lady every had a following that was worth paying for a post on her site she would change her mind.
Boy, you really missed both my point and my motives. I wasn’t criticizing you or other Kmart bloggers, and I wasn’t event intending to criticize Chris Brogan. I mentioned your post because I thought it helped tell the story of how I, as a blog reader, felt about the practise. When I read your post, since I didn’t know you already (no offense meant), the whole idea of the promotion didn’t bother me. In fact, I answered @jowyang’s post saying that I didn’t see a problem with it, since it was fully disclosed. It was only when I then read something similar by someone who already had a brand position in my head (because I’d been following him for awhile), that I realized that, in fact, it could impact how I viewed the blogger. I still admire and respect Chris Brogan. And I don’t have a problem with you or anyone else who took part in the promotion. I also have no desire for online fame, though I am loving the whole social media world, and am still learning it. Sorry if my post offended you.
What was the point/motive? I’m probably just dense…
Heheheheheh! And you now know who Jeremy is. Maybe there could be future synergy if you guys let bygones be bygones?
Doesn’t she know not to mess with the Shoe? Come on lady.
Nahh, I didn’t think so, Why you think so…
LOL, everyone is entitled to their opinion, all in all I think Kmart is brilliant in this marketing strategy
Yes, everyone is entitled to their opinion that why I ask him why he think so ?
Lolz..Don’t mess with $hoe
I do not think they have done their homework about bloggers if they have not heard of you. All you have to do is check Technorati, etc. I run a social and digital marketing company as well and I would put you up their with the most influential bloggers for numerous niches from personal blogging to internet marketing..
I agree. Clearly if the Sears CMO has heard of Jeremy, the IABC should have some idea. Especially if they are “champions” of word-of-mouth marketing, truth in advertising, etc.
Pretty much. I’m not even in the same niche & I know who he is.
Wow – seems as though she HAS ruffled your feathers. There could be a cultural clash happening here as the Brits tend to question and be more direct.
The great thing happening here is the beauty of free speech in action. It allows her to have an opinion and for you to have your own opinion.
However, I am not sure why it is so upsetting to you?
Can you share your thoughts on paid to post (gift cards is payment) vs. bloggers who blog just because. Does full disclosure take away from the message?
Let’s talk about the issue without pointing fingers.
yea don’t mess with the Shoe. Don’t feed him undercooked shrimp nor call him merely a full-time blogger
Where is the link to her rant? maybe the term should not be blogging anymore maybe it should be ranting or tit-for-tat-ing
maybe she will send zeddy the teddy after you :O ( for those of you who dont know that was K’marts official mascot of sort).
I thought it was a great blog post. Its was smart on kmarts part. Now if they take all of the dvds out from behind the locked cases and update a few things in the store, I would probably go more often
I say why not get paid to do the things that you love to do. If a company was going to give me 500 dollars to shop for free why not do it. What is it going to hurt. I think everyone posted that this was a sponsored post. So this wouldn’t hurt the bloggers credibility or integrity because they disclosed it as a sponsored post. Greg Ellison
I agree with you. Better to get paid for doing something you love than to work at a regular job you hate.
I loved that post with the shopping. I don’t understand why it bothers some people.
Maybe because it has so many people participated
Does she have a blog? I can’t seem to find her by googling her name!
I thought she said that she had something against bloggers.
He he, barbie was a little cranky!
hahaha I guess she was
I love how you don’t even give a link to where she is saying this : ) Don’t buy into the link bait, although it’s highly possible she isn’t aware of that concept anyway.
I enjoyed that post! I think Kmart had a great idea in $500 blogger shopping spree. I’m sure it was very cost effective for them, and you got some free stuff. Nothing wrong with free stuff!
It was a barter exchange, and both parties benefitted, KMart most prob more than the bloggers. Smart marketing in tough economic times.
In tracking down her blog, came through a few other IABC bios and blogs. Egos run rampant there. I know in the blogosphere that is nothing new, but they take it to a whole new level.
Did you find the address to her blog??
What is the URL to her blog? Would love to go check it out and see if it is so bad.
Yeah, I’d also like to know the address. I’m going to see if I can find it.
I don’t see any problem with that…
People want to promote and they pay.. what’s the prob there.
Come on Kmart, what about me, I would have loved to blog about you and I would have taken a lot less too
, and yes, we do have Kmart in Australia.
Congrats Sire! Seems like you won a shirt too..
Don’t mess with me Ben, the excitement of winning something may be all this old ticker needs to stop functioning.
Barbara,
If I did find your Blog you look like the outdoor type that stepped in some crap, LOL.
Shoe you said you can’t even write and you get $6,500 a post, there are a lot of things I don’t do well and I can’t even give it away for free.
Wow she seems to be very rude and snotty. I hate those types. Just ignore her. She only wishes she can have the freedom as you do.
I believe the correct term is snoody, and yes I have to agree with you. Very snoody indeed!
Why would she even speak?????
Sounds like Barbara is trying to be sincere in her apology. Is there any credit given where credit is due? Your post about the situation has given you both a bit more notoriety in the long run and that can’t be bad. Even bad publicity can be good publicity and I think that quote is true in this case. Just a thought.
Milo
Wind, Rock & Ride! – http://windrocktrails.com
That URL in your signature amounts to good publicity, methinks
dont mess with the shoe man
Amazing stuff, it’s sad to know someone @ IABC would go after bloggers.
People are living in the past……It’s amazing.