Difference number 1: Most Bloggers Want to Hear from You (Barriers to Feedback and Communication)While I'm sure a blogger would probably never get the name of Social Media Club Louisville wrong, as a Business First story about SMC Louisville's next meeting did, with no serious barriers to comment and communicate the author would have been quickly made aware of such a mistake and fixed it.
I wanted to leave a comment on the story to nudge Business First toward correcting Social Media Club's name in their article. To do that however I had to register for an account.
Registering to comment on a blog post or online articles
should be a very quick, non-invasive procedure. Username, email
address, password done. Not so with Business First and many other mainstream media outlets' websites. The Biz First registration offers
no way to select a user name, it's real name all the way. OK no
problem. But first and last name + zip code + gender + won't I
please sign up for daily email blasts? No. Those additional
requirements for registration are barriers that make most people not
bother to register at all. They are barriers that make people say "oh
forget it, this isn't worth it." And those people are right. I wanted
to comment to let Business First know they'd made a mistake so they
could fix it. With so many unnecessary registration barriers in
place though I figure they don't actually want feedback. As I write this, it has
been 24 hours since they posted the story, no one has commented and the
mistake is still present.
Difference number 2: Bloggers Actually Get This Whole "Internet Thing" (Online Tools for Online Users)
The Biz First registration form actually had one more barrier to registering in place: by registering you agree to the Business First privacy policy. That policy includes the following gem:
Online works fine for commenting and registering but to request not to be spammed you must pull out your quill and parchment, draft a treatise on why you don't want your info sold and then send it out with the postman.
Of course the real takeaway here is that Business First knows 1) people don't read privacy policies or user agreements, they just click through and 2) even if people do read the privacy policy and object only a very, very small percentage will go through the trouble of mailing a letter to request that their email address and other info not be sold. If they provided an email or online form option nearly everyone would opt out of having their data sold. That's why I should probably reassess and say that the number 2 difference between Mainstream Media and Blogs is that bloggers don't actually hate their users and try to squeeze them for every single penny theoretically possible.
Difference number 2: Bloggers Actually Get This Whole "Internet Thing" (Online Tools for Online Users)
The Biz First registration form actually had one more barrier to registering in place: by registering you agree to the Business First privacy policy. That policy includes the following gem:
Unless otherwise specified on the Website, Service Provider may sell or share personally identifying information with our affiliates and with carefully selected companies who we think can offer you services and products of interest to you. If you do not wish to have your personally identifying information shared, write to us at the street address set forth at the end of this document.Got that? By registering to comment you grant them permission to distribute and sell all of your personal information (email address, first and last name, gender, zip code) as they see fit. So in exchange for commenting on a Business First story you have to agree to be spammed by anyone Business First might feel like selling your data to. If you disagree with that, if you "do not wish to have your personally identifying information shared", you have to send them snail mail to say so. Snail mail. You have to send an actual letter through the U.S. Postal Service to request that your email address and other personally identifying information is not sold.
Online works fine for commenting and registering but to request not to be spammed you must pull out your quill and parchment, draft a treatise on why you don't want your info sold and then send it out with the postman.
Of course the real takeaway here is that Business First knows 1) people don't read privacy policies or user agreements, they just click through and 2) even if people do read the privacy policy and object only a very, very small percentage will go through the trouble of mailing a letter to request that their email address and other info not be sold. If they provided an email or online form option nearly everyone would opt out of having their data sold. That's why I should probably reassess and say that the number 2 difference between Mainstream Media and Blogs is that bloggers don't actually hate their users and try to squeeze them for every single penny theoretically possible.
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