Why Trust and Disclosure are Absolutely Necessary in Web Marketing

Not only is disclosure ethical, ultimately people will find out if your web marketing isn't open and honest with users...and then your company/organization may have a PR faux pas (or nightmare) to deal with.

For instance RealAge, which we mentioned in last week's Tip, is reportedly selling sensitive personal information obtained in its surveys to drug making companies. This controversy has already hit the Twittersphere:

According to a PC World article titled "The Hidden Secrets of Online Quizzes", RealAge sells some sensitive personal/medical answers to drug companies.

Apologies from Karl and Rick: We're sorry if you took the RealAge survey as a result of reading our last Tip of the Week as we were not aware of RealAge's transgressions at that time. However, we stand by what we said about about how RealAge finds and tests AdWords. Also, we still feel that surveys can be useful for segmenting your eNewsletter list so your emails can be targeted to specific groups of your audience if this is done ethically and with adequate disclosure. Clearly RealAge should have used much more disclosure than they did prior to people completing their survey.

- And we should all take that lesson to heart in our own online marketing efforts.

~~~

Another Tip from the same PC World article:

Facebook may allow marketers to access data within your Facebook profile by just opening a Facebook application.

- Source: http://bit.ly/ceGw9

Bottom Line: "Look before you leap."

~~~

Ironically the PC World article mentioned above was delivered by PC World's email newsletter which Karl opted-into, perhaps even using segmentation about Karl's demographic/profile (techno-geek & marketer).

IOP News

Last week, Karl was interviewed by The Rotarian Magazine about "Ethics in Social Media" after the interviewer found his presentation on Slideshare.

FYI, this Slideshare presentation has had over 1,200 views now!

If you'd like to see how/why this is working as a great marketing tool, see Karl's blog post:

"How to Use a Slideshare Presentation to get Top Ranking in Google search - Case Study"

As Karl mentioned on slide #5 in his Slideshare presentation titled: "The Importance Of Ethics In Social Media In Marketing & Advertising 03-10-09", Social Media (like Facebook) is really all about: Disclosure, transparency, authenticity, and trust.

- Source: http://bit.ly/79ZL3

If only Facebook and RealAge had seen this first!

Have a topic idea?

The primary reason that Karl and I've together this website is to help you make more money. We know the things that you need to know, but we also want to hear about the topics that are of special importance to you.

Email me with your topic ideas at:

rick@increaseonlineprofits.com

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