Blogger Ethics Setback
OK, so I didn’t enter the Samsung washer and dryer contest at Twittermoms. Why? Two reasons. One being that every time I’ve researched washers and dryers, Samsung ends up on the bottom. Second, it was a popularity contest. I HATE begging for votes. In the interest of full disclosure, have I entered contests at Twittermoms? Yes, one. I entered one sponsored by Chili’s in the spring. Do I have an account with Twittermoms now? No.
So Samsung paid Twittermoms a nice fee to run this contest for them. They post the contest, and then it all goes to hell. People using automated comments to increase their chances of winning, the person running the contest at Twittermoms and PR at Samsung blowing off those who e-mail with concerns of cheating, and then lumping those who were whistle blowers in with the cheaters. I’m not sure how it can “sadden” a person when someone brings cheating to light. I guess it’s because then the people running the contest actually have to grow a pair and do something about it. Boohoo. Nothing in life worth doing is easy.
So, instead of disqualifying the automated comment offenders, it was decided there would be a random draw – after the contest was already under way. Some say this is illegal. I’m not sure on that, so I’ll let that part play out how it may. Then, a week after the contest winner was supposed to be announced, the random winner is finally announced with very little flourish.
The winning blogger doesn’t have the badge for the contest on her blog as stipulated in the rules, but I also see where people had issues with the button code and that was never addressed. Like that’s a shocker. It seems Twittermoms can’t address and fix any of their issues in a timely manner. Their ethics in running this contest just set bloggers WAY back in the fight to prove that not all of us are douches just in it for the free stuff and money to be had. Thanks for that.
As for Samsung, I’m disappointed in their company that even once all these issues of cheating and ethics were brought to light, their contests with Twittermoms weren’t pulled. Oh wait. Was that because they had a contract with Twittermoms after paying them to run the contests for them? At any rate, I won’t be buying any Samsung products any time soon, not only because I’ve seen their quality go downhill, but because they seem to back cheaters.
If you’re interested in more takes on the issue, visit these fellow bloggers:
Babes and Kids
Blog 4 Mom
The Shopping Mama
Night Owl Mama
I’d also like to point out that three of us who have posted so far are military wives. It’s not good to alienate the military community. We’re pretty tight knit and have a wicked word of mouth.
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Category: blogging
The entire thing from the beginning was handled so wrong. A BIG FAIL from both twittermoms as well as Samsung.
Kas
Good point about the military community!
After all this drama, I just hope that big mom blogging communities learned to run contests like this effectively and ethically. I also hope that companies do a little research to learn what to expect.
The entire situation was run so poorly from Megan and the company. I already deleted my account with Twittermoms.
I *think* I may have A TW account. I have never used it, but I need to look it up. Boy howdy this was a huge PR mistake!
It seemed completely shady when I got the e-mail. I ran away from it, far away!
I'm no longer with Twittermoms, but I"m sure that isn't a big shocker. Very well written Amanda, thanks for posting this!!
I closed my Twittermoms account as well. I was very disappointed in the cheating that took place and how it was handled!
I'm not on Twitter at all, so I knew nothing at all about this crap… Sorry you had to deal with all this. You're right about the military family, though, very tight knit, and a LOUD contingency!
Well i never heard of this giveaway BUT i have to say that even pointing all these flaws out, you really wrote this post out of ethical decisions and with very well thought out words. I applaud you for being the woman you are and voicing your opinion.
And i love the military point..lol