More Blogs That Are "Flogs"

Fresh on the heels of the Wal-Mart/Edelman sponsored blog flap comes word that McDonald's hase been doing the same thing.

I think these things highlight the biggest challenge a lot of marketers face when dealing with social media like blogs and social networks: changing their thinking. Much as we all like to talk about markets as conversations and getting closer to our customers, it can be very hard to let go of old thinking: marketing as a way of pushing messages out to a passive audience.

Try as you might, you can't manufacture authenticity. It takes time and effort, and I expect we'll be running across more of these blogs with stealth editorial control.