Buzz Marketing Ethics
To protect our clients and members of the network, each member is required to pass a certification exam. It should take less than an hour to review the materials and take the exam. The certification simply lets us know that you are aware of the ethical issues around the kinds of services we all provide - and we all follow these ethical guidelines to protect ourselves and our clients.
There are three parts: The first two are reading over areas of the Word of Mouth Marketing Associations website on ethics. The last portion is our list of recommendations when working with clients on buzz.
While much of this seems common sense, clients will ask you to break these guidelines at times because they may not realize the issues surrounding some activities.
Your ability to get referrals from the Virtual Buzz Assistant network depend on passing the certification and continuing to only offer services that are consistent with these guideline. By taking the certification, you are assuring us that you will continue to only offer services consistent with these view.
To take the certification, you must log into the network itself and follow the link.
Ethics Details
This certification is based on several parts:
- WOMMA Buzz Marketing Guidelines
- WOMMA Blog Contacting Guidelines
- Buzzoodle Project Guidelines
In all three you will want to carefully read the various recommendations. The certification will be examples and situations where you chose between ethical or unethical marketing practices.
WOMMA is the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. It is a great organization that published ethics guidelines years ago and it represents the industry standard for ethical marketing in word of mouth and buzz.
Stealth Marketing is the practice of hiding your identity or faking word of mouth. Some companies will hire people to do all kinds of activities impersonating the public. We never want to work with clients that do stealth marketing.
Begin your training by reviewing this site and the related links on the left:
WOMMA Buzz Marketing Guidelines
Similar guidelines exist for contacting Bloggers. Review these guidelines and remember that it is not only Bloggers, but other message boards, online communities, etc. that all apply to these guidelines.
WOMMA Blog Contacting Guidelines
After you have reviewed both of these, consider another angle. How do you ethically deliver these services to clients?
Buzzoodle Buzz Project Guidelines
Before taking work with a client, answer these questions to make sure it is a good fit.
#1 - Are you putting in hours or delivering on a promise?
All too often, you will base your rate on estimated hours. You may even work out specific hours in your contract. The problem with this is that people begin to think that the hours are the deliverable. Instead, you must focus on the goal as the deliverable. If it takes 3 extra hours, try to do a better job of pricing your services the next time, but do what it takes to deliver on your promise.
#2 - Can you clearly measure the desired outcome of the project?
Especially with Buzz Marketing, clients will say they want buzz without defining what buzz is. Good Virtual Buzz Assistants will always boil the broad desire for buzz down to some very specific tasks that can be measure and understood by everyone.
#3 - Does the client know what is going on? Is the process transparent?
Working in a virtual setting will make some clients feel uncomfortable. The best way to change this is to be 100% transparent. Share a project management tool with them so that they can see your progress in real time. This will also help you not postpone work that needs done.
#4 - Is a client getting what they believe they are getting?
The client and you must agree to exactly what they are buying. For example, you may sell your services for website updates, and the client may think this includes complex programming on the website while you only expected normal writing of articles. Be as specific as possible.
Also, do they believe you will be available 24 hours a day or do they think they will be working directly with you when you will in fact have assistants doing some of the work? These are the kinds of things that must be defined up front.
#5 - Are you charging a client for your learning?
If you have never done a kind of buzz before, you will be learning on the job. However, it is not ethical to charge your first client all your learning hours while you learn. Instead, charge them what you believe you would charge with more training and realize that you will be making a lower hourly rate (on average) until you become more efficient.
#6 - Are you making steady progress on milestones?
Schedule your tasks to make steady progress on projects. Trying to do everything the last week of the month is unfair to your clients and stressful for the assistant.
#7 - Is Buzz right for your client?
Do not be afraid to turn a client down. Some clients do not have anything that stands out or they do not have the budget to do enough to see results. If a client is not ready, you can always politely let them know that to create buzz, you would first need them to do some things or set aside a higher budget. Your client may need a complete overhaul of their website or blog before you can get started.
#8 - Does the client understand Ethical Buzz vs. Stealth Buzz?
Clearly let clients know from the beginning that you only will help in Ethical Buzz. If they have questions, point them to the womma website. Many clients are not aware of these guidelines and may expect you to hide your identity.
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