There’s something bothering me here & I really need to write about this to get it off my chest. At the recent BlogHer10 conference there were many great companies that purchased booth space for which I am very grateful! Follow up emails are now starting to stream in from various brands, respectful, fun emails for the most part..except for an email that has me sitting here fuming the more I think about it. The brand doesn’t even address me by name, just “hello” they included a pile of press attachments about their product clearly intended for use in posting a review (you send me that stuff AFTER we’ve agreed on a review)  after I email you back in confusion because I didn’t receive your product but merely dropped my business card in your booth’s raffle bucket, you email me back advising that you gave product info along with the product and just wanted to know if I intend to post a review on my site and oh you can do a giveaway while you’re at it as you got a few extras you can pass out to my readers. Hello? even if I was willing to do this, how can I review a product that I never tried?

Make your Expectations very clear when passing out samples

Passing out samples at a convention is different than approaching a site owner & asking “if I send you this product will you review it?”  IMHO accepting a sample at a convention should not obligate anyone to write a review of anything & if a brand’s PR people feel that accepting such implies a contract or obligation they should spell that out clearly when the blogger is accepting the sample! The emails I received while they did not DEMAND a review made it very clear that the brand fully expected one in exchange for passing out samples at BlogHer10.

My efforts & time have value,please don’t demean me!

I am a very new, very young site, I am grateful for any interest a company shows & always eager to discover new stuff to share with my readers. However hearing that a brand wants me to do a full review, including using their press releases as well as posting, promoting & overseeing a giveaway all for a product with an ARV of under $10? This does not make me feel the company in question values women, it does not me make feel valued as a product reviewer, nor does the offer make me confident that this company “gets” social media. What this offer did do was to leave me feeling hurt, insulted & with a marked distaste for the brand in question.

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