Tag Archives: bloggers

How Bloggers Can Use PR Tactics to Grow Their Blog

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Whenever I see the words PR and bloggers next to each other I can usually expect there to be a reference about how PR and bloggers work together to spread a brand’s messaging. Two years ago I was trying to grow my personal blog’s following and decided to launch a project and test out a few PR tactics. What happened was my following grew from my two family members to over 10,000 readers that month, I was interviewed on NPR: All Things Considered and featured on a number of national and regional media outlets including the New York Times and Chicago Tribune. (Oh, and I landed a book agent). Continue reading

What Does a Blogger Really Want?

There are many articles out there on how PR professionals should seek, contact and engage with bloggers. We are focused on building a relationship with bloggers and converting them into brand ambassadors for our client. We hope that they will write amazing posts about our clients and it will spread through the blogger world like wildfire.

But as PR pros have we stopped to think about what the bloggers want from us?

I am a mom blogger, crawfishtales.com, and I have had the opportunity to be on both sides of the pitch. This has given me insight that I have used to mold the way that I, as a PR pro, engage bloggers. I constantly remind myself that bloggers are receiving multiple pitches just like a reporter and that I need to make my pitch stand out from the others. The best pitches are the ones that are thorough and have thought through the pitch from the bloggers prospective. Continue reading

5 Ways that Bloggers Are Like the Cool Kids in High School

I went to a great presentation this week by @jaykrall on Blogger Relations. He talked in depth about how PR pros can seek and engage bloggers with their brand. Great speaker if anyone is looking for one.

One thing he said is that bloggers know other bloggers. I guess I never really thought about it but of course they do. The challenge is breaking into that group. There are many similarities between bloggers and the cool group in high school. Continue reading

Social Media Politics

I may be in a minority here, but it’s getting harder and harder to tell when I’m watching politics from when I’m reading the conversations on some of my favorite blogs these days. As things change, money comes into the picture and a new wave of bloggers emerges, the “vibe” inside the social media bubble is feeling a lot less hospitable.

I don’t want to get lost in the who are the Republicans and who are the Democrats nonsense (although it would be a funny post if anyone else wants to write the damn thing), but what I do want to point out is this… At the moment, no matter what your leanings are, it has always been difficult to have a political conversation and it is starting to feel similar in Social Media. Continue reading

Five Blogger Reactions to Review & Endorsement Compensation

Last week, Nathan Burgess wrote about a very top-of-mind issue for PR professionals – blogger compensation. If you haven’t read that post yet, head over there first before diving into this one.

As Nathan notes in his article, it’s not uncommon now for bloggers to receive monetary compensation to review a product or service…in addition to getting to test out that product or service for an extended period of time.

But won’t compensation in the form of cold hard cash sway the blogger’s opinion of said product or service? And won’t that immediately move this review into the paid media versus earned media category? Can bloggers actually be unbiased when a company pays them to write about their product or service?

I reached out to a few bloggers I’ve connected with over the years to get their thoughts on the compensation topic, as well as working with PR pros to coordinate reviews. Here’s what they had to say: Continue reading

Pitch Problems

I recently had the pleasure of seeing my two good internet buddies, Danny Brown and Gini Dietrich, try to get a room full of bloggers and PR folks to play nice. As someone working on the brand side, I was an impartial witness to what is clearly a big, heaping pile of infighting.

Clearly, the explosion of Social Media and blogging has changed the landscape, with bloggers looking to be taken seriously and PR reps not quite sure how to handle this new Fifth Estate. As an outsider in both camps, I wanted to share some unemotional insights into what is clearly a highly charged subject. Continue reading

The Secrets to Success in Social Media

Did I lure you in with my snazzy headline? Yes? Okay great. Now I’m going to spend the first few sentences using buzz words so that you will keep reading my social media post. Then after you’ve gotten through the first couple of paragraphs, I’m going to provide you with these awesome bullet points packed with information that you already knew.  Lastly, I will summarize the topic which pretty much has nothing to do with my headline that I created for SEO purposes.

Does this situation sound familiar? Every day my inbox and RSS feeds pile up with articles about social media. The articles seem to always be about the same topic but recycled, rehashed, rewritten – they are offering me nothing of value. If you are like me, you’ve probably about had it. Continue reading

That’s a little ‘pitchy’ dawg

Oh yes, it’s that time of year where thousands of contestants try out to be the next American Idol. There are some great singers, some really awful ones, and then there are those that are a little ‘pitchy.’

I’ve been getting a lot more pitches lately that are starting to remind me of Idol contestants. They aren’t necessarily terrible but they aren’t that great either.

Do you want to wow the judges (the media) with your next pitch audition and get that golden ticket to Hollywood? Think of me as a sort of Marie Seacrest but taller; grab a Coke glass and sit back as we break it down for you. Continue reading

2011: The Blogger Revolution

Can you hear that sound? It’s the sound of a blogger revolution ya’ll! That’s right the blogging world is changing and I predict that this year we will see some things really come to surface. From money to marketing, bloggers are savvier than ever before and we all need to get with the program.

I spend quite a bit of time reading tweets, blog posts, etc. which are all about the blogger/public relations dynamic. After covering this territory for years, here’s what I think will go down in 20-11: Continue reading

How to Pitch a Publicist

I know, you are probably scratching your head right now. Well, the topic of pitching a publicist isn’t as silly as you might think.

Yes, that’s right, publicists get pitched too. Whether it’s for product reviews or hiring a blogger for a myriad of services (writing, conference sponsorship, and consultant opportunities) – it happens.

Bloggers and publicists – it seems we are all just trying to find a way to get along and work together. There is a lot of information out there on how to pitch bloggers, yet there’s not much material on pitching publicists or, what I refer to as “reverse pitching.”

Every day, more and more blogs are popping up and it’s making the blogging arena pretty competitive. Since I work with a lot of bloggers, I’m continually asked from a publicist standpoint on how I like being approached, or what do I look for in working with a blogger. Let me just put it out there that every company, brand and publicist looks for different things.

That being said, here are a few pointers to keep in mind when pitching a publicist. Surprisingly, these may sound familiar. Continue reading