If you want to reach more customers then get your blogger outreach programme in shape
How I built a team of brand evangelists with (almost) no marketing budget
March 26, 2012Having everyone involved in customer service helps create a better customer experience
April 3, 2012
This post came about following my own experience and conversations with @adders and @thepaulsutton regarding PR agencies, blogger relations and blogger outreach.
We live in a world of influence. That’s not news. That’s the way it’s always been. The opinionated and opinion-makers have always been there whether they had an official office or position, expert status or not. There have always been amateur or enthusiastic or popular commentators and your customers, staff, partners and suppliers in whole or in part have always listened to them.
What’s different about now is not about opinion, it’s about reach, extended reach, potential reach, influence, the permanence of digital content and how bloggers are playing an increasingly big part in that influence game.
Why? Because people trust independent opinion. They trust the opinion of people like them. And bloggers, I believe, are viewed as people like them. I wrote about the research that supports this here.
Therefore, blogger outreach or blogger relations is becoming an essential part of many new and effective marketing campaigns. So, if that is the case, why do most PR agencies do it so badly?
Why, oh why, is that the case, given that the customers of their clients will be listening to or reading the opinion of these bloggers?
Is it because it is hard, different, beneath them or just doesn’t fit in with their model or way of doing things?
Why is it that most PR agencies treat bloggers like journalists when some are but most aren’t? Bloggers may be journalists but they tend not to be. Therefore, don’t assume they are and don’t treat them the same. If you do then the only thing you actually achieve is creating a bad first impression.
So, as a person who helps businesses build better relationships with their customers and their people as well as blogging about all things customer related, here’s my two-penneth on what PR agencies or any company doing its own awareness and outreach can do to engage bloggers.
- Realise that bloggers are people. They don’t necessarily get paid for writing stuff like journalists do so don’t treat them the same.
- Get enthusiastic. They are enthusiastic and passionate about their subject so get enthused about yours or go home.
- Using names is good. They are people with names and most people with names hate spam or broadcast emails. If you want to engage a blogger use their name.
- Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone. Calling someone up can really make a difference. Two things here:
- One, don’t assume that bloggers are independently wealthy and have nothing else to do. Respect their time. Even after introducing yourself be polite as to ask whether This is a good time to talk.
- Two, if you call and they ask you to call back then please do as they may be really interested in what you have to say. You never know. Not calling back makes them or me feel like something more important has come up and that I am, or we are, not that important.
- Measuring influence is not as simple as Klout or PeerIndex. Don’t always trust Klout or PeerIndex or the other influencer scorecards. Sometimes they work but often they don’t. By the way, not every blogger is onTwitter! Or should be for that matter. Broaden your horizons people!
- Influence is not limited to celebrity or A-lists. You don’t necessarily need an A-list blogger to make your outreach campaign successful. Your approach should depend on your client and their product/service. However, realise that A-list bloggers (who are they anyway?) will get inundated with outreach requests. May better to spend your time recruiting 10 smaller audience or more local or more industry focused or more niche bloggers than just one big name. More work, perhaps, but possibly a bigger and better return.
Now, assuming you get all of that and you are thinking about how you get started identifying and managing your bloggers and the process of engagement, here’s a link to a great process for managing blogger engagement.
However, a process doesn’t tell you how you should engage each and every blogger. That’s the human bit. Or, seemingly hard bit. Best advice I would give you is this….if in doubt about how to engage a blogger reach out and ask them. If you are too shy to do that then ask me I’ll be glad to help.
13 Comments
Nice post Adrian
A bloggers perspective:
1. I am not independently wealthy (and I have a wife and children) time is tight
2. The only only reason I do this is I feel passionately about it
3. Influence on the net may be small but elsewhere it can be substantial
Oh, and I can be bought, but it will be expensive
James
Hi James,
Thanks for your comment and perspective.
I particularly like point 3 and your last one 😉
Adrian
If you want to reach more customers then get your blogger outreach programme in shape | Adrian Swinscoe http://t.co/dmZqpDob
Interesting read Adrian.
Blogging is something I have been doing for many years as part of my “personal” alter-ego.
In my professional career as an independent consultant, I have recently (last week) ditched my “traditional” look and feel website for a blog approach for my business also. We have to realise that the internet is now a very social affair.
To truly engage with potential and existing customers people want to feel part of something and a blog gives this community feeling at a stroke, allowing for opinions and discussions. As well as the benefit of rapid updating and response, even when on the move.
Invariably comparing your average blog to your average website, a blog is far more up to date and relevant giving your visitors new material each time they visit.
Hi Chris,
Thanks for your comment. Glad to hear that you are fully embracing a blog approach for your business.
By the look of it, we may be in the same business. Worth a chat to see how we can help each other?
Adrian
Hello Adrian,
Definately, lets speak after Easter.
Look forwards to it.
Kindest Regards
Chris
You already know my opinions, Adrian, but to summarise, the answer to your question “why do most PR agencies do it so badly?” (which is nicely put, by the way) is laziness.
It really is not rocket science to treat a person as a person, is it? But the issue is one to do with how comms/PR has developed. In the old, old days we treated journos as people by calling them and meeting up with them. Then in the old days email took over and it become very impersonalised. And now with social, the humanisation angle is back and bloggers have appeared, and that’s where PR’s are struggling. They’ve become used to an impersonalised approach – and that sucks. I know plenty of PRs who would disagree with me but continue with the crappy processes they know.
But until we (collectively as an industry) get our heads out of the sand and stop being lazy about learning and adjusting, it’s not going to change.
Mini-rant over.
Hi Paul,
Thanks for your perspective and insight into how the PR industry has developed. ‘Crappy’ processes and ‘laziness’ sounds like a great market opportunity for some in the industry with the courage to do something differently or for a new kid to appear on the block who’s not quite so lazy and isn’t tied down to the same old way of doing things.
Adrian
Absolutely it is, and let me be very clear that not ALL agencies are how you (and I) have described them here. There are some fantastically progressive agencies doing some great work. My hope is that they/we will mop up in the years to come…
If you want to reach more customers then get your blogger outreach programme in shape http://t.co/7cpjsNvg via @adrianswinscoe
If you want to reach more customers then get your blogger outreach programme in shape http://t.co/7cpjsNvg via @adrianswinscoe
If you want to reach more customers then get your blogger outreach programme in shape http://t.co/7cpjsNvg via @adrianswinscoe
RT @thepaulsutton If you want to reach more customers get your blogger outreach programme in shape http://t.co/TmQNwIPC via @adrianswinscoe