Even if bloggers accept compensation or free products for reviews, those perks don’t necessarily lead to endorsements, report researchers.
In a study, most technology bloggers who have accepted compensation, including free products, for reviews actually reported that they feel more empowered in their relationships with companies that pitched them products, rather than feeling indebted to them.
“We were concerned with how accepting compensation or products impacted how control mutuality—where both groups feel that they are winning from the relationship—was experienced by organizations and bloggers,” says Marcia DiStaso, associate professor of public relations at Penn State.
“What we found is that we don’t have an off-balance relationship. In fact, we actually found that the bloggers who accepted compensation tended to believe they have more control over the organization that provided the compensation.”
New Rules, Few Changes
The Federal Trade Commission revised product endorsement guidelines to cover online media in 2009. Since then, the commission requires blogs and social media outlets to disclose any compensation they might have received for online reviews and endorsements.
“Of course, the idea behind this is that if someone is paying you, or someone is giving you a really cool product, you may be more likely to write more positively about product,” says DiStaso.
