Business Blogging to Raise Product Awareness
News Blogs Build Brand Better Than Traditional Press
Blogger relations is the new branch on the marketing and public relations tree. With newspapers and magazines closing down their print publications, online mediums are growing in prominence. In addition, there's a perception that because internet is an open medium, bloggers are more objective than jaded journalists.
Blogger relations focuses on the outreach to prominent and up-and-coming blogs in order to garner "ink" about a product or service. The important thing to understand is that while PR firms and publicists have a handle on outreach to traditional publications, the grassroots efforts required to connect to a blogger are a speciality all their own.
Pitching news blogs is a specialty all its own. It requires different techniques than those used in traditional press relations. Pitch a blogger the wrong way and the negative ramifications could be overwhelming. That's why it is so important to understand the "do's" and "don'ts" for getting good blog attention.
Don't Pitch Bloggers in a Public Forum
Leaving a pitch in the comments section of a blog is the single biggest no-no on the internet. Comments sections are for threaded conversations about a given topic. Pitches and promotional content is deleted quickly with the email address of the offending party often "banned" for spamming. When sending a pitch, send a personal email to the blogger. They, and their audience, will respect that.
Research the Blog and the Blogger
Bloggers are inundated by email and nothing clogs up an inbox more than off-topic pitches. Send on-topic pitches by matching the pitch to their blog. The internet is a wonderful tool for researching how to do just that. Remember the Boy Scout motto about prior preparation and get to know the blogger before making a pitch. Understanding the interests of a given blog and blogger allows for targeted pitches and increases the chances of a pickup by the blogger.
Keep Press Releases for Public Relations
Blog owners are a different breed. Treat them differently than reporters. Press releases and traditional press kits should be sent to traditional media outlets. Prepare a well-researched pitch for the blogger that contains key points and references other sources. Get to know who else is talking about the brand. Research keywords using Technorati.com, blogsearch.google.com and other online sources. Do their homework for them and they are more likely to respect the pitch.
Nurture Relationships with Bloggers
Blog comments are a good thing for a number of reasons. Frequent posts establish credibility and show the blogger that others are invested in what they are writing. Comment with legitimate, well-thought-out statements on specific topics and invite dialogue with the blogger before a pitch is ever made.
Be Professional When Pitching Bloggers
Personalize pitches with the blogger's name and the name of their blog. Be sure to use spell check before submitting the email. Make it easy for them to get more information by including relevant names, email address and phone numbers at the end of the pitch. When commenting on blogs don't point out typos or other errors. There's often a reason the correction wasn't made. And never, ever use profanity. Reporters and other bloggers use prominent blogs to gain inspiration future stories so businesses should take care that their representatives are always considerate and professional.
The life-span of anything posted on the internet is two weeks short of forever so post with care.
Offer Bloggers Valuable Content
It bears repeating. Don't promote the product or service. Focus on showing the blogger how their reader will benefit from it. Illustrate the benefit for their and let them handle the promotions.
Keep Pitches to Bloggers Simple and Focused
Bloggers don't have a lot of time to read laboriously long emails. Keep the pitch simple and concise. Hit them with the benefits in the beginning then offer to be a resource for more information.
While blog strategies are unique, they bear one striking similarity to other marketing strategies: they require time and attention to succeed. Relationships with bloggers take time to grow, but when they do, they flower and yield the fruits of success for years to come.
Notes to Bloggers Differ from Press Releases
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