• Adweek, Tuesday, March 3, 2009 10:45 AM

A new Forrester Research report says that "sponsored conversations" -- paying bloggers with goods, services or travel to talk up a marketer's products -- are a cost-effective way for brands to ignite word of mouth online, Brian Morrissey reports. It advises marketers, however, to insist that the bloggers they work with disclose that that they are being compensated to mitigate potential backlash.

These "influencer programs" appear to be catching on. Panasonic flew several top social media bloggers to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where they posted about the show and Panasonic products. And Mercedes recently gave a top mommy blogger use of an SUV for a week in exchange for posts about it.

The programs are attractive because they are cheap compared to traditional media buys and the bloggers bring a loyal audience. "Consider a brand that sells products like batteries or mufflers -- products that may not get a lot of discussion on blogs but may be quality products," writes Forrester analyst Sean Corcoran.

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