As our society moves away from traditional media and we begin to go to web-based resources for our news and entertainment needs, the public relations game is shifting as well. Connecting to online sources such as blogs is now an important aspect of many public relations campaigns.
If you’re thinking of using blogger outreach for your business, here’s my quick primer on how to approach this tactic.
Qualify blogs based on their audience
There are over 200,000,000 blogs on the WWW and the vast majority have little to no following. Not to say that more is always better (if what you are marketing is a very niche product then that niche blogger with a small but loyal following could be an incredibly effective media outlet) but in general, a decent size audience is important. The other thing that I think should be obvious is that the blog’s audience should directly correspond to the target market of whatever it is you are marketing.
Read the blog
This is also part of the qualifying step because there is nothing worse for a blogger than to have to waste time going through pitches that aren’t relevant to their blog or their audience. Engaging through comments or on twitter is also a good way to start to build a relationship with the bloggers you are hoping to gain coverage from.
Optimize your release for the web
By and large, we are a “snacking society” especially when it comes to the content we consume on the web. Bloggers know this any many of them try to limit the amount of text in their blogs focusing instead on rich media like images and video. To that end, keep copy short and to the point and attach engaging videos and images to supplement your text. If this seems like common sense, I apologize but I have seen PR companies mass-email multi-page, text-only releases to a list of hundreds of unqualified bloggers. Successful bloggers are simply don’t have time for this.
Give bloggers the respect they deserve
I think something that not everyone realizes yet is that certain blogs are becoming more trusted by the public than traditional media channels. Even though this is happening, I still don’t think that bloggers are always granted the same amount of respect as their traditional counterparts. If you want to gain favor in this community don’t ever patronize a blogger (no matter how big or small) by making it seem like you are doing them a favor by sending a sample, providing a “hot tip” etc. and don’t ask directly for coverage. If the blogger feels that what you have is news that pertains to their audience and, if their editorial calendar has some space, you will get covered.
Everything I’ve touched on here is really all about building authentic two-way relationships with your online media sources. If you reach out to these individuals and consistently provide them with the newsworthy content and new, creative ideas, you’re likely to get a great return on that investment. If you blast out your traditional press release to every blogger’s email address you can get your hands on, you’re unlikely to get any favorable coverage and could even generate some negative press.
If you’re serious about this stuff, do put in the time to get to know this community online and, if at all possible, take it offline too (as in, meet them in person). If this seems extremely time-consuming, it’s because it is. If you don’t see yourself or your company having the time to execute this type of strategy properly, consider outsourcing to an agency that has experience with this type of thing and that has existing relationships with bloggers in your industry.
As I mentioned, this is only a very basic intro into blogger relations. Please feel free to add your additional tips in the comments.
Huge thank-you to Erica Lam and Nicole Soon, two smart and savvy bloggers who were very helpful with this post. You can find them at www.thestylespy.com and www.lemodedujour.com respectively.
- Rosa Meyer
