Edelman and Intelliseek have released a report (see here) that warns the corporate types to get hip to the blogosphere, or all us fringe lunatics will out you.

Joe Lepper

[from PR crises loom for firms that fail to 'respect' bloggers]

[The report] urges firms "to respond quickly, with the facts and with respect" to unfavourable comments made on blogs. Above all, firms should never lie because "those in the 'blogosphere' will find out and humiliate you".

Key blunders by firms include making unfounded criticism against bloggers, pretending to be someone you are not and paying people to write kind things about your firm.

When approaching bloggers to attempt to get publicity, correspondence must be: short; snappy; relevant; fit the tone of the site; and never an obvious advertisement. Useful information such as website links and offers to answer questions are also popular among bloggers.

I am not so sure about the "short; snappy" idea. I would rather that it was crafted to meet the sensibilities of my blog.

The report highlights Mazda's BR (Blog Relations) disaster:

One of the worst examples of an attempt to engage with bloggers, highlighted in the study, was a move by Mazda last year to gain publicity via blogging for its Mazda 3. Blogs, purportedly from anonymous bloggers, were found to be sponsored by advertisers working for Mazda.

Pete Blackshaw, chief marketing officer at Intelliseek, said: "Mazda totally ignored the importance of transparency. Corporate blogs are OK, but they must be labelled and identified as such.

"Bloggers are savvy, inherently sceptical, defensive of their medium and able to sniff out imposters quickly."

[Pointer from Ben Silverman, who states "I haven't read the report yet, but probably will once I have some time and I'm bored out of my skull."]