Blogger Relations - No Socks or Astro Turfs
Brittany Medeiros, a recent graduate from the University of Connecticut and our current London intern blogged the other day on the blogger relations training that some of us here at Ruder Finn were involved in. Following that training we thought it would be useful to share some of what we learnt –
What follows are 12 blogger dos and don’ts that we thought were the most important for anyone looking to take their first steps into blogger relations:
- DO actually read the blog
- DO build a relationship with the blogger before pitching
- DO follow their social media accounts
- DO find common ground with the blogger
- DO comment when something of interest turns up
- DO get a feel for the online community of the blog
- DON’T sock-puppet or astro turf - unfortunately not as fun as it sounds
- DON’T come across as insincere
- DON’T bombard their page with comments
- DON’T re-tweet your client’s tweets unless you’ve made it explicit that they are your client
- DON’T demand lots of the blogger’s time
- DON’T do a mailmerge – they never work and Dear {insert name} is a massive turn off
A key learning for me personally is that you can’t simply replicate your approach to the rest of the media for bloggers. Often bloggers don’t blog as their main day job and you absolutely must be mindful and respectful of this.
Blogs are prolific, and an excellent resource for us PRs to tap into - I for one am looking forward to cultivating new and important relationships with some of the great bloggers that are out there - I’ll let you know how it goes!
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