Rules of engagement for bloggers
By Simon van Wyk
They’re unpredictable, opinionated, and, particularly in Australia, they’re doing it part-time. So why should companies care about engaging with bloggers?
Jason Preston, a US-based social media strategist, writes that more companies these days are turning from blogs to focus on social networking sites. “If you can generate good word of mouth and drive sales from efforts in sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, or MySpace, why bother to court the hard-to-reach and often hard-to-impress blogerati?
“Here’s why: because they’re hard to reach, and hard to impress, and everybody knows it. These bloggers have spent time building up a brand, and that carries value when they talk about your products or your messages.
“Harnessing this trust, this existing relationship, is why it still matters to work with bloggers who have a name and a following, instead of simply trusting in the effectiveness of blind, stranger-to-stranger word-of-digital-mouth marketing.”
Scott Rhodie, the head of HotHouse’s new social media agency House Party, agrees, saying companies should take bloggers seriously, because they have increasing influence with customers and potential customers.
Scott, who was interviewed for this month’s HotHouse podcast, says bloggers form part of what he calls “the influencer sphere” that consumers rely on when making buying decisions in a post-advertising world. “People look for them,” he says.” They are independent of product. And while not all of them discuss products and services, some are recommenders.”
When selecting which bloggers to approach, it’s not just about reach. As Scott points out, a blogger with 10,000 readers may be more authoritative than one with 100,000 followers, and if they blog on a topic closely related to your business, there are powerful targeting benefits.
He says the first thing you need to determine is whether blogger engagement will work for your company. “You need to ask yourself: Am I reaching the right audience? Blogger engagement isn’t right for everyone.”
One way to work out whether there’s value in blogger engagement for your company is to search for terms important to your business and your customers, and see what blogs turn up on the first page of results.
Steve Broback writes on the Blog Business Summit blog: “The best bet is to find approachable bloggers with the right topical alignment…. if you are topically aligned to a significant degree, even a relatively popular blogger can find your message of interest…. find bloggers who are writing about things your customers are interested in, and have aligned posts that are prominent in search.
“Significant and growing numbers of shoppers begin their buying process in a search engine. Anyone with a retail site can attest to the fact that their server logs show the bulk of their traffic is coming from search. Blog posts are featured prominently in results your customers are finding, and these are the bloggers to engage.”
So once you’ve determined which bloggers you want to engage, how do you work out the best way to approach them? Scott Rhodie says, “Do your research. Find out who you’re talking to, research their interests, speak to them in their own language. You should never cold pitch.” Some experts recommend reading at least six months’ worth of a blogger’s posts before getting in contact with them.
The global head of WPP, Sir Martin Sorrell, says “You certainly can’t spin your way to a blogger’s heart. Respect and engagement are essential. Handing over product to bloggers would not be enough. If, however, you invite bloggers in to get their ideas on a brand, you might succeed. Get them involved; give them something of value. The prize for getting it right? The stakeholder becomes a brand loyalist and tells other people.”
There’s a big difference between blogger engagement and traditional PR, according to Scott. “Blogger engagement requires a different approach that traditional PR and the use of press releases. Each blogger is different, so you need to approach each one individually.”
Amid all the bad publicity surrounding companies who offer products, etc. in exchange for positive blog posts, Scott says it’s imperative to be honest, upfront and ethical when dealing with bloggers.
“When approaching a blogger who you haven’t dealt with before, introduce yourself, who you are, and start the conversation by saying something along the lines of, ‘I don’t know if you do product reviews, but here’s what we’re on about.’”
Like with traditional PR, Scott recommends you look for an angle. “You need to take it to them: ‘Product A would benefit you because…’
And once you’ve established contact, you need to make sure you don’t leave them hanging. If you said you would send along information or a product to review, do it promptly. “Don’t leave them hanging,” Scott says.
He also encourages companies to think beyond individual campaigns. “A blogger engagement strategy has to be long term – like social networking, it’s about building relationships. You need to allow at least three months before you can expect to see results.”
WPP’s Sorell says the “willingness to surrender control is essential, because in digital and social media there is an inverse relationship between credibility and control. The more control you keep over the message, the less credible it is. And vice versa.”
And in a final word about selecting the right bloggers and developing that relationship, I like what US blog strategist Teresa Valdez Klein has to say. She writes: “Reaching out to bloggers who can influence your niche is smart. Reaching out to bloggers who already like your product and have some reach within your niche is smarter. And reaching out to bloggers who have said negative things about you and trying to improve their experience with your company is the cleverest move of all.”
Tags: blog, blogger, bloggers, Blogging, customers, Marketing, Media, podcast, PR, Scott Rhodie, Social Media, social networks
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