A Blogger is Like You or Me

Its undeniable that blogging is a significant medium for sharing news, information and opinions for everyone and everything from the enterprise CEO to rants about the new Indiana Jones movie.  What’s most fascinating is the growth and power dedicated bloggers have accrued online. Clearly guys like TechCrunch, Huffington,Kos and Gawker hold more weight than some traditional media in terms of audience and influence.

So as a PR professional, how do you engage with these influencer bloggers in an appropriate manner?  This seems to be a question many people ask, thousands answer (similarly) and still people are flush with irresponsibility.

Think about it this way, a blogger is like you or me: everyday people.  Bloggers don’t want to get spammed, they certainly don’t want a 5gig pdf attachment and they most definitely don’t want to get hundreds of irrelevant and out of context emails. How annoying are the emails from the royal family member in Africa who’s looking for your help in transferring money from their bank account? Unless you’re in the business of getting robbed, you wouldn’t want to get these emails 400 times a day.

Here are a few tips for best practices I employ and share with my colleagues at Peppercom:

   1. Always let the bloggers know who you are and what company you’re representing.  You wouldn’t misrepresent yourself at a conference or in a board room would you? You shouldn’t do that online either.
   2. Read the blog and join the community. Bloggers are always more inclined to listen and comment on news when you’re a regular contributors and reader of the site.  This will also keep your content/news relevant and appropriate.
   3. Send an email when requested, otherwise share your news through a comment or private chat. Keep it short and to the point.
   4. Use your digital assets; urls, video links, pictures and podcasts are always better than heavy attachments and lengthy verbose emails.
   5. Like a reporter; bloggers want access to executives, unpublished papers and exclusive news too. Don’t save all the information for the traditional media, you’ll be more successful in the long-run.

Follow these tips and you’ll be more popular and successful with the blogging community and your clients.

Joe and PD team

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