Bloggers: Judge, Jury and Executioner
Bloggers are a curious lot. They’re mostly unpaid champions of some cause or hobby. They’re usually not professional, pedigreed journalists with formal J-school training and expectations. It’s really important to realize that you can’t use old school techniques with a decidedly different breed of people. Seems obvious, but I think PR people aren’t seriously appreciating the difference between sending a press release out on the wire vs. doing effective blogger outreach.
If I was forced to give one statement about blogger outreach, it’d be that each blogger is the judge, jury and executioner. They have no editorial director to report to, no formal code of ethics and no fact checking staffers to double check their accuracy. Knowing that you can’t bond with most bloggers over drinks on the town, what’s sincere professional to do?
- Read at least 3-months woth of blog entries. You MUST follow along. Consider a blog to be a serialized story, a la Charles Dickens. A blog is a running dialog so be sure to do your homework and learn what’s been written before.
- Read similar blogs in the same industry/field. Follow along with hot topics and opinion leaders. Bloggers relish the chance to get the scoop so you’d better know what’s “been done” before and who has said what.
- Learn the personality of the blogger. Are they fun-loving and open to discussing a wide variety of issues? Maybe they’re a frustrated academic, blogging to reach out to other truists who are sick of crass commercialization. Or perhaps they’re a well-respected community leader who is trying to change the lives others online. There are millions of personalities out there — BE SURE to have a good feel for who you’re dealing with as it TOTALLY affects how you reach out to them.
- Engage with the blog. Start participating with the blog by adding comments to various posts and perhaps drop the blogger a personal note with some heatfelt comment. Keep in mind that a blog is like a club — ingratiate yourself by adding something interesting to the group before you can expect them to do any work for you.
- Pitch the blogger. After you’re educated on what has been written before, the personality of the blogger and have added some thinking to the blog itself, you’re finally in a position to reach out to the blog owner with some conversations. Don’t send a traditional press release. Seriously, no self-respecting blogger is going to sift thru a formal press release to find the story, digest it and then write about it. Instead, send them some unique ideas, some bulletized facts, some approved quotes along with any possible logos and photos. Send them “deconstructed content” and let them talk about it. Don’t put words in their mouths — they’ll hate that.
Finally, keep in mind that a blog is a personal investment. No one owes you anything. Here’s a good story that covers a bad example on blogger outreach. Basically, don’t be this lady. The future of Today’s effective media outreach is different. It’s highly fragmented and unique. That’s the bad news and good news. Never before have we had the opportunity to such targeted, niche audiences in such an impactful, efficient manner. But doing so takes a little more finesse and peronal touch. Don’t properly, its very meaninful and rewarding. Good luck and godspeed!
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