Frost Miller Group

23

May

2011

Gaining Online Attention through Blogger Relations
Labels: Social Media, Public Relations, Blogs
Written by Elizabeth Johnson   
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You’re likely familiar with the term, “media relations”. You and your PR team work with reporters to cultivate reciprocal relationships of sharing news and expert information. Strong, positive, trusting relationships take years to develop.

Now, how are your “blogger relations”? If your PR team hasn’t mentioned this term, they should. Today, good blogger relationships are as critical as good media relationships. Bloggers offer influence online and through social media reaching national and international audiences. They often hold the key to the coveted idea of “going viral”. When a blogger with a large following blogs on a particular topic, his/her readers will tweet/Facebook it or write subsequent blogs on the topic and yes, readers include traditional media reporters who write blogs of their own. Google’s spiders will also pick up on it and include it in organic searches.

So where to begin with this new public relations effort? While some reporters might disagree, I believe bloggers require even more personal attention than reporters. Most reporters will accept relevant press releases tied to their beat interspersed with one-on-one contacts via phone or email. Bloggers on the other hand, are largely “self-employed”. They don’t have an assigned beat or an editor to report to so they can pick and choose their topics more freely. Therefore, they generally do not appreciate press releases and only respond to direct, focused pitches.

  1. Start by creating list of bloggers that meet your target topic separate from your media list.
  2. As you would with a reporter, study their past posts to understand what they like to write about.
  3. Contact them individually only when you have news that interests them.
  4. When they post about you, they may ask that you reciprocate and write about them on your blog.

This takes at least as much if not more time and effort than your media relations campaign, but when your news is the hot topic online, it’s worth it!

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Elizabeth Johnson 
Director of Public Relations & Content Development
 Frost Miller Group

Whether it’s reaching new customers or targeting the media, Elizabeth takes concepts and puts them into words that speak to specific audiences. She’s created strong sales pieces for organizations in a variety of industries. Through her work in public relations, she establishes companies as recognized experts in their field by pitching story ideas to the media; creating supporting collateral; and utilizing the latest Web 2.0 technologies to deliver messages to the public. Her association background means she knows what members are looking for and can deliver that message. Elizabeth holds a degree in advertising from Penn State, so yes, every Monday in the fall we listen to a Nittany Lion football update. She maintains memberships in ASAE, NYSAE and IAEE.

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