Mar
07
One of the best ways to increase blog readership is to have other bloggers notice and link back to you. In fact, you can’t have a truly successful blog without having that critical cross-pollination from other bloggers. Luckily, with a little time and effort, you can become a part of the conversation. You just need to take care not to do it in a ham-handed fashion.
If your goal is to get noticed by bloggers, you’re not alone. Corporate clients and PR professionals frequently ask me “how can we pitch the bloggers?” I’m happy that traditional marketers have recognized the influence of the blogosphere, but i cringe every time that question is posed. The quick answer is that you don’t. Pitching is not the proper word for what needs to be done. A far more appropriate question is “how can I engage with the selected bloggers that our market trusts?”
This inappropriate focus on the “pitch” is one of the reasons that bloggers generally distrust the messages PR firms deliver. In a 2006 study conducted by Technorati, 1021 bloggers were asked how much they trust messages sent from PR firms, on a scale of 1 to 10. The average response? A dismal 4.1.
I’ve watched many organizations reach out to the blogosphere in a myriad of ways, and have a pretty good feel for what works and what doesn’t. Whether you’re trying to get bloggers interested in your products, or in your blogging efforts, here are few no-no’s:
- Don’t be indiscriminate. Carefully decide with whom you want to converse. It’s far better to target the top 10 bloggers in your arena for engagement than annoy 1000 bloggers that were on somebody’s email press list.
- Don’t send messages that aren’t tailored specifically to the blogger you’re reaching out to. Do not send a generic email blast. Take the time to refer to a post they’ve made, or mention a common associate or other linkage.
- Don’t send press releases. Most bloggers feel that being sent any marketing-speak whatsoever is an indicator of significant “cluelessness” on the part of the sender.
- Email is okay, but there are better options. Commenting on their blogs and writing your own blog posts that then link back to them creates open dialog, and resonates with bloggers. To do this just Start The Blogging Conversation.
If you take the time to consistently read the blogs that relate to your editorial or market arena, you’ll probably find many opportunities to respond intelligently. Agreeing, disagreeing, and expanding upon what’s been said by those with some influence is a terrific way to get noticed and be a part of the dialog.
A great way to expand on the dialog is to interview a knowledgeable blogger who has said something relevant to your space. For example, assuming that the solar energy market presents an opportunity for Acme Widgets, Acme might want to interview an expert who has blogged about the growth potential of solar energy, and may even probe the blogger to comment on why widgets might be relevant to this emerging power source. Recording and podcasting the interview can be an easy way to get the content up quickly, and you are almost certain to get an inbound link from the interviewee.
Reading, commenting, and blogging are the best ways to get the relevant bloggers to notice and link to you. Being a participant in the conversation and contributing valuable insights can reap rewards that far outweigh those of any calculated “outreach” campaign that the PR pros come up with.
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It’s far better to target the top 10 bloggers in your arena for engagement than annoy 1000 bloggers that were on somebody’s email press list." — Very well said Andy. I also agree that a great way to expand on dialog is to interview a knowledgeable blogger on the topic. Nice post
Andrew Pavelski’s last blog post..Get Into A Daily Blogging Routine: Take The Challenge
Ah - Comment Marketing, formerly known as Forum Marketing.
All marketing, per ClueTrain Manifesto, is starting/joining in a conversation. Blogs are a near perfect venue for this. Conversations have to be sequitur. So all advice as a comment needs to be appropriate to the earlier content.
Press Releases are their own promotion animal and are put on those lines. Email, also, is best done through an auto-responder, through an opt-in list (they give you permission to market that way to them).
You mention podcasting - a great venue. There are also videos, which can be uploaded for free to YouTube, Google and a host of others, then embedded in your own blog. Check out Slideshare.net, which has greater exposure and better rankings in Google right now. (Posting both a video and slideshare with the same content gave me 80 to 1 advantage on using Slideshare - and the quality is much, much higher.)
The interesting point about social media such as blogs is that they cross-connect and give richer discussions on any topic. I am constantly amazed as the quality of images which abound on the ‘Net, due to Flickr and others. These are then free for re-purposing and add value to that conversation - as well as new people to contact through that link.
Very good post, as usual, Andy.
Robert Worstell’s last blog post..SexySEO tells you how to behave yourself…
Great post Andy!
Blogging is a conversation, but many bloggers don’t yet realize it.
I think community is important too! I visit many blogs over and over again. In time, I become part of the community at the blog and the blogger and I develop a relationship.
I think one problem is that folks are looking for a "quick fix" from blogging. That’s not what it’s about.
Laura Spencer’s last blog post..Are You Communicating?