The Ethics of Blog Monitoring

In the corporate world blog monitoring is becoming a more and more popular means of conducting primary research. Unlike focus groups or one-on-one interviews, the blogosphere is seen as an uninhibited universe where consumers discuss anything and everything without the influence of researchers or other respondents. And it makes total sense – consumers are literally living out part of their lives online. We certainly cannot ignore what they are doing there. Furthermore, it is proven that what people say about products, service and brands has significant impact on buyer behavior. How many times have you researched a product online before buying it?

Having done blog monitoring first hand, I know that the insights that emerge are rich and valuable. But as an anthropologist, ethics have been engrained into my brain. I can’t think of a single graduate course I took that didn’t spend a significant portion of the time discussing the ethics of conducting anthropological research. I committed to being candid about who I am and why I’m conducting research. Also, I promised to reciprocate for the things that I learned. And finally, I pledged to make my findings open to the public for the greater good of the communities I study. But there are some major conflicts here. How does this translate to the online space, where the identity of myself and those I study are often anonymous? This is further complicated by the fact that as the employee of a corporation, my findings are more often than not proprietary.

I’ll admit, that while I made these promises and I’ve certainly pondered the ethics of this type of research I don’t have all the answers. I’d like to think that the work I do studying the blogosphere in the end is for the greater good, rather than an attempt to sell people more things and services they don’t need. Often my findings identify need gaps and concerns that consumers have, allowing my clients to address them. But what would consumers say if they knew that their blog was being monitored. Would they change what they wrote?

I wonder who’s looking at my blog right now…?