Here’s a cheat sheet for your blogger relations program. If you follow these steps you’ll have a lot more success and will be well on your way to establishing a credible voice for your company or client in the blogosphere:
Start With Research — Every Blog Has:
- A unique point of view
- A particular way of interacting with PR (if they do at all)
- Opportunities to be part of their community/conversation
- Technorati authority ranking that tells you whether they are worth your time
Participate:
- You can’t just pitch old-fashioned PR pitches to blogs
- If you want any attention at all, you have to get involved through links and comments
- Once you’ve gotten involved, you can suggest stories
- You must read their blog and understand their point of view and style in order to be successful
Ethics Are in Flux:
- Some bloggers are more willing to accept freebies than traditional media
- Research will reveal who they are and what types of products and access you may be able to leverage into coverage
Journo-Bloggers Are A Breed of Their Own:
- Online mainstream journalists are more like traditional media than bloggers
- They have no strict publication schedule so you can be interviewed for a story or have one appear at any time
- Fact and opinion are mixed freely and often