Blogging becomes big business in Romania

Blogging has been generating bucks on the local market as its top exponents get recruited by companies as brand ambassadors or even social media specialists. They are regarded as key opinion formers of the younger generation and their blogs often successfully compete with the country’s most renowned publications in terms of readership.

Corina Dumitrescu

Alexandru Negrea, who has been posting online since 2006, is acknowledged as one of the most prominent bloggers in Romania. His site, www.alexandrunegrea.ro is about social media and “people”, as he describes it. Negrea became a social media manager at Banca Comerciala Romana in October 2010.

He says that the job “was never a goal for me, but I was happy to be validated in that way. The blog teaches you to socialize with people on the internet and to interact with them offline. If you are sufficiently driven and passionate, you can gain marketing and communication skills, which are essential for a social media manager/specialist/expert.”

Negrea is one of the few lucky enough to make a living from his site. “My main source of income is my blog (through sponsored articles, banners, special campaigns). Recently I have expanded, towards consultancy and workshops, among other things. The average income from blogging in Romania is insignificant: from a total of 60,000 blogs, there are a maximum of 100 marking over EUR 100 per month,” he tells BR.

One of those 100 is the brainchild of Cristian China Birta, a former journalist and now a consultant and online entrepreneur, who writes www.chinezu.eu. He has been active in social media for four years and estimates the local blogosphere at a total value of around EUR 1 million.

To him, the blog has also been an important aspect of his professional life. “I use the Chinezu brand to obtain consultancy contracts and reach faster and from a different position key people from certain companies, with whom I can develop campaigns. My strategy is simple: I give the example of my accomplishments with the Chinezu brand and the ‘trust me, I know what this is all about’ speech,” Birta says.

He lists the most important sources of income for a typical blogger: “advertorials (which are not as ‘dry’ as those in the press, but leave room for the blogger’s style), banners and event presence. All these are differently ‘wrapped’, depending on the client, campaign or targeted goals.”

The writer’s average income per month from blogging is EUR 1,832, and he also has other paid work. Birta predicts that in a couple of years, the number of people able to live just from blogging will double, or even triple.

But for now, some of the most prominent names in the game still do a day job. Bobby Voicu, of bobbyvoicu.ro, who is a well-known local online entrepreneur, was recently named general manager of Intact Interactive, the online division of media trust Intact Media Group. He says that companies are now turning to blogs for recruitment purposes.

“I don’t think any of the bloggers that started five-six years ago thought of the blog as a job finding tool, more as a contract/partner finding tool, since most of the bloggers were people that had other businesses, using blogging for marketing and personal promotion. I think blogging (especially done as a profession or an income generating activity) prepares a person for social media, but it is not sufficient in order to be called a specialist.”

Another top blogger with a day job is Cristian Manafu, a former business journalist, now a business-to-business events organizer and active blogger at www.manafu.ro, who is also considered one of the most influential people in social media. He outlines how his blog has aided him in his career. “I am an entrepreneur. I mainly look for clients. My blog helped me start a new business. I became a social media trainer and I teach big companies how to use social media.”

Manafu offers his view on the value of the local blogosphere and the average income of a blogger. “My estimation for this year is EUR 1 million, including spending on managing Facebook pages and some collateral projects. As for personal earnings, my ‘guesstimation’ for an A-list blogger is somewhere between EUR 1,000- 4,000 a month. On average I’d say between EUR 1,000- 2,000 monthly.”

IT may have traditionally been seen as a male-dominated sphere, but women also rank among the Romanian blogging elite. Miruna Molodet started as early as 2004 at what is now www.anurim.com. The blog has helped her in her career too, she says.

“It was one of the factors that brought me into the online media without me pointing it out on a CV (back then I didn’t figure it would matter to anyone). However, the blogging experience alone is not enough to make you a social media person. (…) It is valuable since companies hiring such a person get an important insight into this environment. Right now things are described in terms of ‘them’ (people on the internet) and ‘us’ (companies). I think they feel that one of ‘them’ is an important asset for their operations.”

Blogging – the end of journalism?

Numerous doom-laden voices predict that blogging will spell the death of the print press in the years to come. Birta disagrees, arguing, “The online environment does not overlap traditional media. It does ‘steal’ a bit from TV, print and radio, but it isn’t in direct conflict with them.” He adds that blogging is also an important communication tool for journalists, as many of them have started their own blogs, and so the two environments somehow become complementary.

Manafu believes that traditional media are losing credibility nowadays. “It’s about people trying to meet their need for information in ways media aren’t able to deliver anymore. Everything happens so fast these days that blogs are sometimes the first source of information. Moreover, some people are looking for personal opinions and no longer believe the news they get from big media outlets.”

However, he adds his voice to those who doubt that traditional media will be supplanted by online competition. “Television is here to stay for a long, long time, even if it becomes more ‘social’ and integrated with computers and mobile phones. Print will also stay. Many titles will disappear, but I believe for at least several years, several good years, we’ll prefer to retain the touch of a newspaper and the smell of a magazine.”

Molodet sums up the main difference between blogging and journalism. “I believe blogs have become more and more important sources of raw information, opinions and ideas, but right now the media is still taking the credit when verified information is concerned. Nevertheless, there are special situations when traditional media takes from social media the information they don’t have access to, major events such as plane crashes, protests and suchlike.”

Unbiased blogger or brand ambassador?

An important source of income for bloggers is companies who pay them to promote their products. Bloggers are often called upon to test certain products or invited to events where they are associated with certain brands, which are then expected to gain more credibility in the eyes of that blogger’s audience. But how ethical is it for bloggers to endorse certain products, when they are being paid to do so, a fact that is often omitted?

Negrea responds, “I only work with brands that I actually believe in, on that given campaign, related to the promoted service/product, or overall, on their products/services in general. There are no ethical issues, as long as this rule is respected. To me, indicating a piece is sponsored means not taking responsibility for what you write about it.”

Birta adds, “I only choose campaigns for brands that I have nothing against. (…) I only accept campaigns that do not constitute an issue for me or for my readers.” Taking a different stance to Negrea, Birta says that he always announces a paid campaign on his blog.

Manafu tells BR, “I usually choose big brands and creative campaigns. I like to believe that I am in their target audience and can easily become their customer. In fact, I have had some cases where I ended up being a client. More and more bloggers find ways to mention their involvement in brands’ campaigns. I mark every sponsored story with a tag and I’ve started a page with the history of all the campaigns I’ve done.”

He adds, however, that there are exceptions. “There are cases where is better not to mention you are a supporter. Imagine a teasing campaign. Why spoil it by telling the world ‘this is a sponsored campaign’? But I agree that usually we need to have some kind of mention.”

Alina Constantinescu, who blogs on www.alinaconstantinescu.ro, gives her reasons for choosing a certain product to endorse, which focus on the originality of the campaign she is charged with.

“Most of the time, I need to like the product/service, but there have been times I really liked the idea (being original, provocative, mysterious) and then I mentioned that I do not consume that product, but I was seduced by its campaign.”

Voicu argues that the readers are the main measurement tool for a blogger and they may not be too easily misguided by dishonest communication. “The audience will punish them for any ‘faux pas’ so bloggers that fail to meet the expectations of their readers will, in time, fade away.” Molodet puts the letter “P” next to articles about endorsed products and also believes that readers notice when the presentation of a product is not honest.

What’s in it for companies?

Companies and communication agencies also gave their reasons for hiring bloggers as brand ambassadors. Dan Santimbreanu, head of corporate communications at Siemens Romania, says, “Collaborating with a blogger offers you the chance of generating conversation and debate on a given subject.”

However, he adds, their feedback cannot be conditioned. “And in this lies the authenticity of the communication through social media tools. Everybody says or writes what he or she believes or feels. This is why this type of communication enjoys of a lot of credibility from the audience.”

Around 30 percent of the budget for a recent campaign that Siemens held with the aid of bloggers, Siemens Amazing Race, was spent on this area.

Andreea Leonte, PR director at McCann PR, explains why agencies use bloggers in campaigns for their clients. “Bloggers, more than journalists, may directly express their opinions and not just provide a simple and objective perspective on events.”

She adds, “Bloggers are selected for their influence and authority, their content, audience and rate of involvement, but also with regard to the brand itself.” On the matter of ethics, Leonte mentions Birta’s scheme, Blogal Initiative, intended as a professional association for bloggers, which will also come up with a code of ethics for the profession.

Iuliana Stere, digital media manager at Initiative, does not believe that the use of a blogger as a brand ambassador raises ethical problems, since there are numerous means of indicating a post has been bought. “There are no methods through which one can make sure that the review that a blogger posts is a positive one. It would be like trying to control social media (…). What we always aim to have is a review that is correct in approach and as relevant as possible,” she concludes.

corina.dumitrescu@business-review.ro

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