My friend Kimberly, who is the genius behind the super fantastic Australian Beauty Blog, The Plastic Diaries, recently wrote about her disdain for blogger contests run by brands or magazines that claim they will crown the best blogger or similar title by holding a popularity contest. In her post "Getting Personal: Popularity Contests Are Banned" she says, "The thing I hate most about popularity contests is that it ultimately says one being is the “winner” based on nothing to do with skill, often with some kind of voting system." The "Vote for Me" requests you most likely have seen are merely a result of a blogger being in a contest where the only way to win is to shill for votes from their friends and followers and strangers and anyone else that gets caught in the social medial tidal wave of the "vote for me" requests. I have been guilty of this, at least once that I can remember. I entered the Rescue Beauty Lounge contest to come up with a fan inspired color. I honestly did this on a whim and didn't really put much thought into the color. I mean, I didn't think about when the color would be released or the fact that the color I chose would be a) old news by the time voting came around, and b) not seasonally appropriate by the time the voting came around. I did ask you all to vote for my color, but in retrospect I think I wouldn't have entered at all if I actually stopped to think about how "winning" would be achieved. I will say however that that specific contest wasn't based entirely on popularity, but it did have a lot to do with it. There was that element of being creative enough to get the concept of your color and to get that concept across to the audience voting for the color. The three colors that did win were remarkably pretty and well thought out. However, there were some other colors in that contest (not mine) that certainly were beautiful ideas and could have won if the creators of those colors had the social media "gravitas" to garner votes. I would bet that the ones (other than mine) that only received a few votes may have been from fans that did not have a blog or large following on any other social media venue. Anyway. That's history. The reason I bring up voting in contests is because I was recently contacted by a company to enter my blog in a Top Blogger contest. The criteria were that I had to post my blog URL on the brand's Facebook Page, and then ask for people to "like" my post on that page. While the prize was something I would have LOVED to win and while I truly do like that brand, I decided that this wasn't the right contest for me. First of all I didn't want to beg for votes. I genuinely hate hounding you and my friends to "like" something on Facebook. Secondly, that sort of contest is against the Terms Of Service for Facebook. It wouldn't be a strike against me, but it isn't a good idea for the brand that is asking for the likes. Lastly, The "contest" did not judge my blog on how good the content is, how well I write or anything related to skill. It simply judged me on how many people I could get to "like" my post. There are some other bloggers that I am friends with that did enter this contest. I hold nothing against them, and I do not judge them for entering. I mean, the prize is pretty impressive. Entering is their choice, and they are obviously more comfortable asking for votes than I am. That's fine. I hope someone I know wins. I would rather be recognized, as Kimberly put it, "...for the countless nights I have stayed awake editing photos or to compensate the amount of times my lips have bled from swatching too many lipsticks..." and for effort I put into coming up with creative ways to review a 60th red lipstick, 140th taupe eyeshadow or 78th nail polish on this blog. You know what I mean? So from now on I pledge to not enter these types of popularity contests again*. You will not be harangued about voting for me. I will not send e-mails and set up Facebook "events" asking for your vote.* And most important, I will NOT be made to feel that the work I put into this blog is anything less than awesome because I didn't get enough "likes" "re-tweets" or votes. If I'm going to be made to feel that my blog is anything less than awesome, then it's going to be my own inner voice telling me that.
On To The Poll!
1. Lip Of The Day? - Guerlain Rouge G Le Brilliant in Betsy. A sheer, cool toned, plummy pink. I need to have a spring-y looking lip to battle the cold temperatures today.
2. How much has your collection of makeup increased since you started to read beauty blogs? - Oh i would say about 100 percent. But I'm a blogger, so it's hard to gauge. Before I started blogging I would say my makeup collection has increased by 50%
3. Have you ever won a contest, lottery, or something similar? If so what was the most recent or most memorable? - I once won $5 in a scratch off ticket for the lottery. The ticket cost $5, so I broke even. Meh.
4. What one makeup item do you have a major weakness for? In other words, what makeup item can you not resist buying? - Lipstick. I will always pick up a lipstick if I see a pretty color or new formulation. I'm a total sucker for that.
5. If you won a million dollars in the lottery what would be one of the first beauty items you would purchase? - I guess this is more of a service rather than an item, but I would buy a years worth of facials and products to make my skin finally acne free!
* Unless the prize is so wondrous and so spectacular I am willing to throw my principles out the window and become a hypocrite in order to win.
On To The Poll!
1. Lip Of The Day? - Guerlain Rouge G Le Brilliant in Betsy. A sheer, cool toned, plummy pink. I need to have a spring-y looking lip to battle the cold temperatures today.
2. How much has your collection of makeup increased since you started to read beauty blogs? - Oh i would say about 100 percent. But I'm a blogger, so it's hard to gauge. Before I started blogging I would say my makeup collection has increased by 50%
3. Have you ever won a contest, lottery, or something similar? If so what was the most recent or most memorable? - I once won $5 in a scratch off ticket for the lottery. The ticket cost $5, so I broke even. Meh.
4. What one makeup item do you have a major weakness for? In other words, what makeup item can you not resist buying? - Lipstick. I will always pick up a lipstick if I see a pretty color or new formulation. I'm a total sucker for that.
5. If you won a million dollars in the lottery what would be one of the first beauty items you would purchase? - I guess this is more of a service rather than an item, but I would buy a years worth of facials and products to make my skin finally acne free!
* Unless the prize is so wondrous and so spectacular I am willing to throw my principles out the window and become a hypocrite in order to win.