12. Overview
• Matured - blogging has now matured
as a phenomenon to cross all
consumer interest areas
• Extensive - vibrant communities can
be found collecting around vast
ranges of topics
• Culture - blogger outreach carries
with it different expectancies in
regards to form of communications
than traditional media
13. Opportunity
• ‘Link etiquette’ of the blogging world encourages quick viral
dissemination of well-targeted stories and engaging content
• SEO - this ‘link etiquette’ is also responsible for blogs faring extremely well
in search returns – ranking highly in Google
– As a result, blog posts can be extremely visible and influential
– Impacting consumer opinion
– Driving mainstream coverage
• Brand advocates - the highly focused nature of blogs – with bloggers
becoming passionate opinion formers on very specific topics – offers
distinct opportunity to encourage strong advocates of a product or service
14. Overview
• What is a blog?
– Short for Web Log
– A publication
– A diary
– An information tool
• How many?
– Range between 50-70 million
– Relevance
15. Blog types
• National Publications
– The London Paper, London Lite
• Professional
– Londonist, Shiny Media
• Corporate
– GM Fastlane
• ‘Hobby’
– A Welsh View, Lazy Laces, Eat Like a Girl
• Dormant
– Blogs that haven’t been updated in months
• Link Farms
– Blogs built specifically to up advertising revenues under the
guise of legitimacy
16. Blogging
• Why do people blog?
– Share information
– Create an online persona
– Establish credibility
– Gather information
– Network
– Catharsis
– Passion
19. Scoring
BlogScore™ is Social Media Library’s unique rank system that provides
an easy measure of both a blog’s influence and its visibility in search
engines. A top score of 10 indicates a blog that is highly regarded by
other, relevant, influential sites; in addition to a high propensity to rank
well in search returns.
28. Preparation
• It is vital to know who you’re pitching to. Specifically this includes:
Reading the site’s about page
Reading the last week or so of posts or news stories
If possible, finding a specific, concrete example and URL that
proves why the editor would be interested in writing about the
campaign?
If not a URL, the site should be very specific to your
client/campaign
29. Digging Deeper
It’s essential that you ask yourself…
Are you going after an active blogger or a fair-weather blogger?
• If your blogger is very active online, chances are he or she
has received a pitch before and will at least know the drill. If
not, he or she may still be a good target, but you may have to
explain the process a little more in-depth.
Is the blogger is interacting only in the blogging community or if
are they active elsewhere?
• Twitter? Facebook? Flickr? MySpace?
30. More Digging
How does the blogger interact online?
• Is he or she cynical or critical? Is he or she part of a
community that is characteristically anti-PR?
Search for terms…
Pitch
Public Relations
PR
Marketing
Flack
Your client or the client’s product
Client competitors
31. Blog Pitching - Ethics
Transparency
• Honesty of Relationship: You say who you're speaking for
• Honesty of Identity: You never obscure your identity
Specifics
• No monetary exchanges
• Commitment to represent blogger and client
• No dodgy dealings, bribery
• No pestering
• No anonymous posting or commenting
• No spamming
32. Step One: The Pre-pitch
What it does:
• Ensures that a blogger is
interested in hearing from PR
Why it’s important:
• One disgruntled blogger has
the power to tarnish the
reputation of the agency and
client with the click of a button
33. Step One: The Pre-pitch
Includes:
• Short introduction of who you are and what you do
• Opt-in clause of participation
• A hint of what might be in store
• Chance to be placed on a ‘Do Not Pitch’ list
Does not include:
• Press releases
• Hard sells
• Attachments
• Unsolicited advice or information
34. Step Two: Relationship Establishment
What it does:
• Ensures that the blogger
understands your objectives
and that you understand theirs
Why it’s important:
• Each blogger is different -
some want to review products,
some want Google juice, some
want advertising, some don’t
know what they want… This
gives us all a chance to start off
on the same page.
35. Step Three: The Pitch & Maintenance
What it does:
• Keeps an ongoing
conversation with the blogger
Why it’s important:
• The blogger will be much
more likely to take your other
pitches if they know you
36. Step Three: The Pitch & Maintenance
What it includes:
• Knowing what’s going on in
the blogger’s life
• Thinking before you pitch
• Short, to the point,
correspondence
• Follow-up
• Personality
38. Case study - Beck’s Canvas
Key Outputs
• Over 120 pieces of online coverage
achieved
• 40,148,733 unique users
• £257,000 equivalent online media
value
• ROI – 9:1
40. Overview
• Blogger events can be run in a very similar way to media events
• These can either be run in tandem with mainstream media events or
independently
• Successful blogger events tend to adopt very tailored methods of syncing
specific elements of an event to bloggers’ personal tastes
41. Opportunity
• With bloggers currently not invited
to a large number of events, they
offer a powerful means by which
to build strong relationships and
brand advocates
• Face-to-face time allows impact to
be made far beyond that possible
during normal email
communications
• Following blogger events,
bloggers frequently post detailed
and well-branded reviews and
posts
