BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH BLOGGERS

From the earliest bloggers through today’s modern bloggers, relationships are a key reason people love to blog (and they are also one of the reasons bloggers love blogging conferences so much). Establishing relationships with bloggers can be a valuable part of your blog strategy for a number of reasons, including the following:

• Allows blogger to be an expert on your company. Many of the best blogging companies work with people who serve as blog “groupies” or blog fans. These bloggers watch what that company does and regularly report on the interesting tidbits. Many have inside contacts at the company, do interviews with staff members on their blog or podcast, and generally get and stay involved. Neville Hobson (www.nevon.com) covers GM’s blogs, for example, and his insight was valuable as I was putting together information in Article 4. Having these blog experts work with your company is powerful because they will not only frequently link to you, but they’ll compare other companies who blog to how well you blog, and then blog about the differences. You can read your blog experts’ and blog fans’ blogs to find out how you can better use your blog.

• Offers feedback on how well you are blogging. Having bloggers read your blog, and establishing relationships with bloggers, means that they have no problem helping you out with your blogging like a musician teaching you a new chord on the guitar or a new melody on the piano. As you begin establishing relationships with bloggers, feel free to ask questions, because giving and receiving is part of every successful relationship.

• Builds positive experiences with a blogger who has a public profile. Most bloggers aren’t publicly recognizable, but that doesn’t mean that individual bloggers don’t have a measurable amount of influence. As you build positive experiences by building relationships with these bloggers, they will happily use that influence to help your company. Most bloggers believe that any company who is willing to ask for help and to establish real relationships is worth talking about.

STEPS FOR BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

While no single process can be used to build relationships with bloggers, as with other types of relationships, most blogging relationships follow a natural progression:

1. Read the blog. For most non-business bloggers, a blog is a great way to get to know someone. Reading the blog or subscribing to the feed will give you occasional, if not regular, insight into who the blogger is, what he or she likes, and his or her personality and passions. This foundational framework of understanding already puts you miles ahead of when you are first introduced to someone in real life, and provides a great framework for conversation going forward.

2. Comment on the blog. After you’ve read a blog for awhile, the natural next step is to comment on the occasional entry. You don’t need to comment on every entry, but leaving a note or an opinion on half a dozen posts over a couple of weeks should be enough so that the blogger at least recognizes your name, and he or she will likely click through to read your blog.

3. Link to the blog. Since links are a measure of respect, one of the best ways to show a blogger respect is by linking to his or her blog. Once is good but several times is even better, as it means you are actively reading the blog instead of just finding one item of interest.

4. E-mail the blogger. After learning about the blogger, reading his or her blog, and participating in it, followed by linking, you’ve established enough of a basic relationship to e-mail the blogger. This isn’t to say that you couldn’t begin a great relationship with a blogger by sending e-mail, as most bloggers love e-mail as much as they love a link. But building a foundation of respect and conversation means that when you do begin using e-mail, the first message won’t be something like, “Uh, hey, you don’t know me but….” You can simply extend the conversation you’ve been having in comments in posts into e-mail, and then grow it from there.

5. Talk to the blogger. If it isn’t obvious by now, bloggers love to talk. Blogging is an extension of the blogger’s desire to participate in conversations, especially with interesting and engaging people (like you). So don’t be shy about asking for a phone call to talk things over, and don’t be afraid to try other real-time methods such as Skype. (See “What the Skype?” for more information on this software application.)

6. Meet the blogger. The absolute best way to build a relationship with a blogger is to meet the blogger face to face. Most every blogging conference sells out because bloggers love to talk with other bloggers. In fact, hosting a blogging conference for your industry may be a great way to get to know bloggers who are interested in your business. Blogging conferences are rarely just about blogging; they’re about the socializing the drinks, the chats, the dinners, and the parties. Consider attending a blogging conference either to learn more about blogging or meet interesting bloggers from around the world.

WHAT THE SKYPE?

Skype (www.skype.com) is an instant-messaging application, similar to Windows Messenger or Yahoo! Messenger, with a twist: it’s also a phone. Using Skype, you can place free calls anywhere in the world to other Skype users (more than 100 million of them). This free little application also lets you call the regular phone network (for a nominal fee), receive calls from that network (for a minor monthly fee), and have a voicemail system (for a small fee). Most bloggers love Skype because of its simple design and because it lets them make phone calls, send instant messages, and send files all things bloggers love to do. Consider using Skype as an alternative to telephoning a blogger, as Skype can be less intimidating since it’s more socially oriented. Some of these tips may not be practical for you, and if bloggers actually initiate relationships by sending you e-mails or posting about your company, you’re already there. The goal of establishing a relationship should be so that both you and the blogger find value, so whatever gets you to that point is a good thing. In addition, you can, of course, include other steps, such as asking for help, interviewing the blogger, being on his or her podcast, or interacting in dozens of other ways. You know you’re establishing a real relationship when you begin caring less about how the relationship affects your business and more about the person on the other end.

PITCHING TO BLOGGERS

Pitching bloggers is in many ways similar to pitching journalists, but it’s also completely different. Pitching to journalists is called media relations, which is one of the reasons that I affectionately call pitching to bloggers blogger relations. Both are powerful sources that help you spread the word about your company, so when you are looking for them to mention you specifically, you want to make sure you’re being as effective as possible in making the pitch.

Public relations and marketing professionals first started waking up to blogs in 2004, and, as such, the principles and tactics that are being tried to maximize blogger relations are fairly diverse it’s all so new that nobody’s sure how to do it best. In early 2005, as I was starting to get daily pitches from PR professionals, I wrote a post on this subject offering the following top three things to know about pitching bloggers:

• Make it personal. My blog provides more than enough information for anyone to know my interests and to provide a cursory understanding of who I am. Any pitch to a blogger should at least sound like it was written to the individual. (Hint: it’s even better if it is individually written.)

• Make it applicable. Don’t send me pitches for industries in which I’m not interested. Not only is my blog clearly labeled as a business and technology blog, but it’s also immediately obvious to anyone who reads it that those are my passions. Don’t pitch me on new innovations to panty liners (which I’ve received) or gardening (also received).

• Make it short and sweet. Generally, the shorter and more concise a pitch to a blogger, the better. There’s no real point to sending the press release and hoping it will have an impact. Tell me why I should be interested in your news in 50 words or less, and then provide a link to more information. If you can’t tell me why this new thing is interesting to me in 50 words, you probably can’t do it in 500. Steve Rubel noted the following (located at www.micropersuasion .com/2005/02/how_not_to_pitc.html) in response to my post: The only thing I would add here to what Jeremy wrote is leverage exclusivity. Plant a powerful idea with an influential blogger and then ride the Long Tail (www.webpronews.com/news/ebusinessnews/wpn-45- 20041117HowToPitchIntoTheLongTailNewsCurve.html). Note: Rubel has written extensively on the subject of pitching. See “How to Pitch Into the Long Tail News Curve,” at www.micropersuasion .com/2004/11/how_to_pitch_in.html; and “Abandoning Email in Favor of RSS,” at www.micropersuasion.com/2004/07/dan_gillmor_ to_.html.

CRAFTING EFFECTIVE BLOGGER RELATIONSHIPS

Nick Wreden, author of ProfitBrand: How to Increase the Profitability, Accountability and Sustainability of Brands, noted seven keys to crafting an effective blogger relations strategy.1 His post from February 2005 is excerpted here (with permission):

• Never pitch, personalize. A longstanding tenet of effective PR has been to read the publication and, ideally, the reporter’s work. That has been like preaching abstinence to teen-agers: great in theory, but not very applicable to the real world. No PR person could be expected to read all publications pertaining to a company or an industry, much less of a reporter’s work. But a blog has everything a blogger has written, complemented by relevant links. There is absolutely no excuse for not knowing what a blogger’s passions and idiosyncrasies are before you converse about not pitch a concept.

• Respect a blogger’s time and intelligence. Start emails with an informative subject line. “Press release” is grounds for immediate deletion. Make emails short and concise. Avoid attachments. Especially avoid PowerPoint attachments. If anyone can show me a corporate PowerPoint presentation worth the bandwidth it takes up, I will personally clean your cat’s litterbox for a month. Do not send HTML email, which has dangerous potential. Do not kowtow; remember it’s a conversation. No more “read your great post” or other pickup lines. Do not send an email to a blogger until your website is in order, with the information and a contact easy to find and read.

• “A blog is not about you, it’s about me.” Never, ever use the words, “I think your readers would be interested in this story.” To a large extent, bloggers are more interested in a point of view or the power of an idea than they are “readers.” While the thought of a worldwide audience is certainly an ego rush, many bloggers would continue blogging for an audience of one. Think less about what I can do for you and more about what you can do for me [and for your readers]. Can you get immediate access to a top exec? Provide a customer to talk? What about metrics?

• Quality, not quantity. Here’s a new rule for agencies. Never send out more than one or two communications to blogs a day. Use the remaining time to research the industry and relevant issues, study the blogger’s hot buttons and craft a finely tuned email. Make the email seem like it’s coming from a knowledgeable best friend, not a direct mail house. • Feed the food chain. In the distant days when I had a PR agency, clients would ask, “How do I make the cover of BusinessWeek?” First step: Make the cover of your industry publication, and inevitably coverage in better-known publications will follow. Already, almost every industry has its blogging superstars, the go-to bloggers for both insight and buzz. Instead of stuffing their inbox, start by conversing with the bloggers who are likely being read by the superstar. That’s not hard; just read blogrolls of the superstars. Not everyone has blogrolls, but for those who do, it can provide insight into who they value, as well as providing great reading material.

• It’s no longer about the media. Many PR professionals focus on the prominent journalists and influencers who have blogs. That is understandable. But remember that customers, prospects, suppliers, industry associations and others who can influence your brand also have blogs. Converse intelligently with them as well. It needs to be recognized that pitching influential bloggers is just another method of getting in front of their face, something they are dealing with on a growing level every day, online and off. Respect and consideration is key: the last thing you want to do is become yet another “junk mail” sender it’s far better to invest the time to establish a real relationship.

• Keep learning. According to a blog monitoring organization, the number of blogs worth tracking has grown from 1.5 million to 7.5 million in less than six months. This emerging field is changing so fast that even these tips will have to be revised in a year. Keep up by reading at least the blogs of two experienced and thoughtful professionals: Tom Murphy and Steve Rubel. Tip: A great source for all kinds of blog-related information is the NewPRWiki (www.thenewpr.com/wiki). Originally designed to contain PR-specific info, it now contains a wealth of business blogging information, including a large roundup of information on how to pitch bloggers, available at www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php/Resources/ PitchingBlogs.