blog till you drop!
A cocktail of advertising, social media, and technology
Blogger relations – the good, the bad and the ugly
Feb 9th
Engaging with bloggers is by far the hardest aspect of digital PR; emailing news releases to bloggers often won’t do the trick – bloggers want good content but they also want to get something out of being approached, a product perhaps an invitation to an event, some may even ask for cash (I think we all know about how I feel about bloggers getting paid, so we’ll skip this one)
This blog post is very much a summary of my experiences as someone who engages with bloggers, but also regularly gets pitched.
2007 – The honeymoon period
I was first pitched by a PR agency back in 2007 – I was overwhelmed back then. Wow, someone was actually sending me a phone to review, because they cared about what I had to say, AND they had taken the time to read my blog. So far so good…
In 2008 the cracks started to appear
2008 saw an even bigger growth for Digital PR with brands increasingly wanting a piece of the digital cake. Some PRs did a pretty good job at engaging with bloggers whether it was through commenting or saying hello on Twitter, whilst others still sent long boring press releases *sigh*
In 2009 things got out of control…
… and bloggers started to express their discontentment
Have I ever told you about the SEO agency who sent me a one-liner email with an attached very long and boring press release for sex toys? When I told said PR that I write about social media marketing, she responded that I was on a database – #hugemassivePRfail
I believe that 2010 will be the year of crowdsourcing. French High Street shoe retailer Andre, approached a few lifestyle bloggers last year and a new limited edition shoe range, created by the bloggers themselves “Quand les bloggeuses s’ent melent”* will be on the shelves this coming Spring.
Sorry to disappoint your boss, but creating a media list containing 100+ blogs isn’t the way forward – it’s tedious and a waste of time.
But how do you engage with bloggers:
1) Content is king – bloggers write out of passion. Don’t expect bloggers to write anything if your content sucks
2) Is your content relevant – so you’re working on this ‘awesome’ travel campaign and want to engage with travel bloggers. Make sure the bloggers you include on your media list are highly targeted. There are lots of different types of travel bloggers – those who write about their adventures around the world, those who write about the travel industry in general (think Cranky Flier or Travel Rants) and the professional travel writers. Even though they fall under the travel bloggers umbrella, they are not interested in the same type of content.
3) Whenever possible target your influencers, in other words those who have written about your brand in the past – they’ll be thrilled to receive the latest news about your brand
4) It’s quality that counts not quantity – shorter, more targeted media list are better for everyone’s sake (think about your poor unpaid intern who’s spending days engaging with bloggers), plus if your list is shorter, you’ll have lots of spare time on your hands to find out more about the blogger you’re trying to engage with.
5) Engage with bloggers – I am not talking about sending a nice paragraph about how much you enjoyed xxx blog post, but a leave a (thoughtful) comment, or engage in a Twitter conversation. With (secret) Twitter lists, keeping an eye on your pitching ‘victims’ is easier than ever.
6) My first ever boss told me that clients buy people, not companies. I believe that bloggers ‘buy’ PRs. I wrote about clothes2order a number of times last year as their approach was spot on – friendly and personable
Are there any other blogger relations tips that should be added to this list?
Best social media campaigns of 2009 (part 2)
Dec 26th
Thanks to everyone who re-tweeted my best social media campaigns of 2009 yesterday. Hope you guys are ready for some more!
Ongoing – Meet Zack, the teenager who woke up one day with girl parts…
A really weird social media campaign for Tampax (yes!!) by Leo Burnett in the USA. Even tampons can be marketed through social media!
Zack is an average teenager who wakes up one day with ‘girl parts’. Uncertain as to what to do, he decides to share his experiences via his blog and Twitter feed.
It’s a little weird at first, but his adventures are disgustingly addictive!
July 2009: Harry Potter Tweet – enchant your followers
As a huge Harry Potter fan, I really enjoyed the Harry Potter Tweet campaign that generated a fair bit of buzz around the launch of the wizard’s latest adventures.
All you had to do was log onto the site using your Twitter login to gain access to potion preparation and the list of spells, including love spells, curses, invincibility spells and other magical elements of the Harry Potter universe before casting a spell onto one of your followers!
August 2009: Hula Hoops Golden Hoops awards
You might have seen this funky Hula Hoops TV ad by Publicis earlier this year challenging consumers to create Hula Hoops hand puppets and upload them onto their micro-site. Correct me if I am wrong, but we’re not exactly a nation of YouTubers (unlike our American counterparts), however some of the videos created for this campaign were indeed pretty amazing.
September 2009: Jack Johnson – get a free music track against a Tweet
US musician Jack Johnson, launched an innovative Twitter campaign, which rewards users who tweet a message promoting his new album with free music. By going on a dedicated website, users could download a free track from his latest ‘En concert’ album, and help spread the word by Tweeting about the album. Simple and clever!
November 2009 – The Marmarati Secret Society
Crowdsourcing has been the buzzword of 2009. Marmite, enlisted the help of 40 bloggers to create an extra-strong variant of the brand and the product will be launched exclusively through social media channels such as Facebook and blogs next year. Marmite ‘lovers’ can try the new variant before it hit shelves next year by proving their love for the brand.
December 2009 – using social media to generate sales: spotlight on iTunes and Coach
Whilst social media has been primarily used to raise awareness of products and services, some innovative brands are now selling products via their Facebook Fan Pages.
Apple’s iTunes has recently rolled out a new feature on its Facebook fan page that allows US users to create custom iTunes gift cards and send them directly to friends through the social networking site or via email.
Luxury brand Coach (managed by the lovely Julia Roy, whom I had the opportunity to meet during my recent New York trip) have also recently rolled out a Coach Facebook gift finder – pretty cool, huh?
I hope you find this post useful. Feel free to leave me a comment with any other cool campaigns that caught your eye! 
Best social media campaigns of 2009 (part 1/2)
Dec 25th
Inspired by Adam Vincenzini’s the top 99 of ‘09 , here’s a list of my fav social media campaigns and digital shenanigans of 2009:
January 2009 – The United Sites of Obama
The Obama election campaign was arguably the greatest social media media ever orchestrated to date.
Like a lot of web innovators, the Obama campaign did not invent anything completely new. Instead, by bolting together social networking applications, both niche and mainstream under the banner of a movement, they created an unforeseen force to raise money, organize locally, fight smear campaigns and get out the vote that helped them topple the Clinton machine and then the Republicans.
January 2009 – The Whopper sacrifice
I really loved Burger King’s Whopper Sacrifice Application. Instead of encouraging you to join a group, find new friends, or spread the word, Burger King’s Whopper Sacrifice Application gave users a free Whopper if you de-friended 10 people from your friend list. Part of the application makes sure that each of the 10 friends you choose to ditch get a nice note alerting them to the fact that they have been de-friended.
Brutal, bold, and quite frankly, pretty awesome.
March 2009: Skittles trending on Twitter
Do you remember the day where Agency.com turned the Skittles homepage into a simple display of Tweets? The blogosphere was divided over this move but at the end of the day, all publicity is good publicity, right? It certainly helped with their SEO
April 2009: T-Mobile’s flahsmob round 2
The T-Mobile’s Dance became a YouTube hit in a matter of minutes, and will remain one of the most spectacular marketing initiatives I’ve ever seen! Back in April, the T-Mobile guys were at it again, this time organising a giant karaoke in the middle of Trafalgar Square.
April 2009: The nation fell in love with Aleksandr Orlov
The compare the meerkat campaign is a great example of how companies can combine their online and offline marketing initiatives to create a popular brand and have a direct influence towards increasing online traffic and brand awereness. Aleksander now has over 30,000 Twitter followers, over 600,000 Facebook fans and even a non-official group with over 10,000 fans. Impressive.
May 2009: Be careful what you wish for
Wieden + Kennedy were given the task to reinvent the way you market a movie and created an amazing campaign to support the launch of Coraline, by coordinating online/offline mass-intrigue and buzz around the film, truly mastering the art of blogger engagement. An awesome campaign and an awesome movie!
2009 – ongoing: The Ford Fiesta Movement
To promote the launch of the Ford Fiesta in the USA (a market where C-segment cars do not traditionally perform well), Ford solicited applications for brand ambassadors who think they’re cool enough to be seen in the 2010 Ford Fiesta. That’s right, this Fiesta is invitation only.
100 people – 6 months – 600 missions. They saw, they blogged, they Tweeted… that’s a LOT of content for sure!
To be continued…
Getting under the skin of the Flickr community
Oct 2nd
If you work in Digital PR, chances are Flickr will be included in your overall social media strategy. But what if instead of just creating a Flickr group where users can add their pictures, you instead identified the Flickr influencers and engaged with them?
Consumers (and not necessarily consumers who blog or read blogs) often take pictures of products or brands they like, and this can influence their community as a result. Why not find your brand evangelists on Flickr and include them in your PR campaign?
