Community Sponsors and their Content

Just this morning a very interesting firestorm blew up and blew out within about two hours, that got me thinking about the relationship between a community and its sponsors.

What happened was we sent out a monthly community newsletter, and one of the sponsored ads linked out to a page on the website of one of our partners. Not surprisingly, this partner sells more than just stuff that works with our products. They also sell stuff that works with our competitors' products (imagine!). A zealous sales agent spotted the ad, clicked on the link, and then was distressed/horrified/outraged to see information about our competitors on that page.

It just took a few hasty and histrionic forwards to arrive at the desk of our Chief Technology Officer. By then, most of the facts had evaporated and the shorthand for the issue was something like "They are trying to get our customers to migrate to a competitor."

It took two jumps down the foodchain to arrive in my inbox asking how this could have happened.

In a few minutes I could see the problem: someone expected a sponsored ad (we actually call them Shameless Plugs), AND the corresponding page, to carry content that was 100% focused on our own products.

As I pointed out, our partners are under no obligation to sell and support only our products. (Although that would be sweet of them...) So if they purchase ads, or sponsor events, or host webinars with us, we should not expect that this means they have abandoned all other lines of business. And we definitely shouldn't be distressed/horrified/outraged to find evidence that they are supporting our competitors on their website.

Have you ever seen this issue come up with the execs at your company? Post a comment and let's discuss.