Bloggers and ballyhoo
Text 100’s global blogger survey 2009 tells us a few things we should already know but perhaps just haven’t been arsed to put in practice often enough. Here are some highlights, with my comments in italicised parentheses.
1. Most bloggers welcome contact from a PR firm or other corporation. The preferred means of contact is email and, particularly in APAC, they appreciate receiving an email or F2F introduction prior to receiving PR material. [You wouldn't ask someone for a favour without first telling them who you are, what you do and what's in it for them, would you? Poor manners = poor pick-up.]
2. Computers, technology and the internet are the subjects most commonly posted about. Bloggers like to hear of new products and interviews with key people, and hate receiving corporate news announcements. [It's only natural that the message is so closely aligned with the medium. Technology and current affairs are the two subjects with a constant stream of blog fodder, and you wouldn't expect commentary on the latter from young turks such as this one who claims to be "one of Singapore's youngest professional tech bloggers and a social (media) expert", would you?]
3. Treat bloggers like partners, not journalists; but don’t insult their intelligence. Give them social media releases with photos and RSS feeds to buttress their posts with. Some choice quotes:
Not being a professional journalist doesn’t mean unprofessionalism in writing and content. (Finland)
PR people generally send us the standard press releases, so I don’t participate proactively. (South Korea)
Press releases don’t work for bloggers, we are not journalists. We don’t need to copy and paste the nonsense we get. If you are sending the same release to the press, why would I want to blog about it? I am not unique then, and am the same as a paper. (Ireland)
[I think journalists and syndicated news bureaus will have something to say about what's implied there. Regardless, the need for targeted pitching is rather obvious - I certainly wouldn't send identical cover letters and resumes to different prospective employers.]
