There’s a joke that often goes around on the internet, that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is the browser most used by people to download other web browsers. The company has no doubted faced tough competition from the likes of Firefox and Chrome but it hasn’t given up on IE just yet. An agency Redmond tapped to promote the Internet Explorer browser messed up, leaving Microsoft executives to do damage control by distancing themselves from the campaign. The agency was offering bloggers money to promote Internet Explorer.
Advertisements and advertorials are nothing new on the internet. They are just some of the methods that blogs use to make money, however its expected that these posts be marked as such. Trying to push a paid post under the radar is frowned upon.
Someone from SocialChorus, the agency Microsoft was working with, reached out to TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, offering to pay him compensation for writing a blog post about Internet Explorer and also share its links across social channels. Arrington publicly posted the entire message he received from the agency employee, prompting Microsoft to release a statement confirming that it has suspended the program.
The company also said that this action “is not representative of the way Microsoft works with bloggers or other members of the media.” Goes to show how a blunder on the internet can bring about negative press and create the need to do damage control.
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