Bad Advice at Disney from Chris Brogan

Chris Brogan is a social media superstar. He was also a headline speaker at the Disney Social Media Moms Conference. Most of his advice was good. But at the end he dropped such a huge stinker, such bad advice, it deserves rebuttal.

- by Bob McLain, March 22, 2011

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Chris Brogan's presentation at the Disney Social Media Moms Conference was a huge hit. He got applause, and maybe he got a few social media mom phone numbers, too.

Among the points made by Chris: blog twice as often each day to increase traffic. Sure. But another of his suggestions runs counter to what responsible bloggers - assuming they also want to be responsible journalists - should be doing.

Chris said that bloggers should 'raise up everybody instead of tearing them down'. Why? Because 'what brand wants you to represent them if you're doing that'.

Bad advice!

And given solely for the purpose of sucking in brand sponsors. Of course, if all you care about is brand sponsors, than it is good advice, right? Wrong...

If you 'raise up everybody', why should anyone take you seriously? Not everybody deserves to be raised up. Some people and some products deserve to be torn down.

I would quickly ignore a 'social media mom' who cheerfully blogged every day about the merits of everything and everybody. That mom would be a shill, writing peppy posts only because she's getting free products to review.

I would, however, pay attention to a social media mom who sometimes writes a negative review, sometimes writes critical commentary, because I'd trust that mom to tell me the truth. That mom, at least, is attempting good journalism and giving her honest opinion about a product that her readers might purchase on her recommendation.

Sadly, most of the moms at the conference probably think Chris Brogan brought the word of God down from the social media mountain, and the integrity of their blogs may suffer a bit from his advice.

My advice is to develop a personality, a style, and stick with it. Put a little edge on it, too. Be interesting. Have an opinion, an honest opinion, and state it. Even if it's negative.

Just because someone sends you a gizmo doesn't mean it's a great gizmo.

If you write a negative review of that gizmo, you may lose the sponsor but you'll gain readers who appreciate your honesty - and once you've gained enough readers, you won't have any problem with sponsors, either.

Don't stop there! More Tidings Await...