l-r: Suzanne Kantra, Rebecca Levey, Nancy Friedman, Amy Oztan. Picture courtesy of Heidi Leder.
Three-fourths of the Blogging Angels had the opportunity during CE Week in NY to speak on a panel about how brands can better work with bloggers. It was moderated by Suzanne Kantra, founder and editor-in-chief of Techlicious.com. (We sorely missed our fourth Angel, Heidi, who was working behind the scenes in her role as Techlicious’ Head of Blogger Community Outreach.)
The panel was amazing, thanks in large part to Suzanne’s preparation. As part of that she had each of us come up with our most important tips to help brands work better with bloggers. While the room was packed, most of you did not have the opportunity to be there, so I’m reprinting our tips here. This is the “tip” of the iceberg, but if you pay attention to these things you will go a long way towards having a mutually-beneficial relationship with bloggers.
Check the blogger out before asking to work with her. Look at her tweet stream (not just the last few, but the last few days or weeks), read her entire “about” page, read any pages she’s posted about PR or advertising. If she’s cared enough to put something in her about page, it means that she expects you to know that about her before you start negotiating. If you don’t have time to do this then you should really be hiring a company that knows bloggers to find them for you.
Figure out if the site is informational or personal. (For example, my youngest is seven and my blog is a personal blog – why would you want me at your baby food event?). Otherwise, you’re wasting the blogger’s time, as well as your own.
Look beyond a blogger’s stats. If you see that a blogger has a lot of Twitter activity, or that she’s on the PTA board at her kids’ school, or that she’s very active within her IRL community — those things count, too. The whole idea of working with mom bloggers is to get a grass-roots buzz going. That means that a blogger’s entire community – both online and off – is part of her ability to get people talking.
Pick bloggers who are genuine fans of your brand and listen to them. They will be your biggest source of ideas and authentic amplification. Build on that instead of trying to get masses of links around the web with no context and no thought.
This is a business relationship. Be upfront about what you expect or want from the blogger and expect to pay accordingly.
A diaper bag is not payment. Sure, sometimes product can count as compensation. But if you’re asking a blogger to attend an event, give you a list of their blogger contacts to invite, tweet about it while they’re there, promote it on their Facebook page, write a post about it, and post to you own website about it as well…well, then a 20% coupon off whatever it is you’re selling isn’t gonna cut it. That’s what coupons.com is for.
Don’t negotiate with what you’re paying other bloggers. If a blogger turns down your offer, whatever it is, don’t come back with “But so-and-so is doing it for XXX.” If the blogger was willing to do it for XXX she would’ve said yes. Telling her what other people are doing it for makes you look unprofessional, and if that other blogger knew you were sharing her rates she’d be pissed that you were giving that info to other bloggers.
Consider the timing. Don’t hold an event you want moms to bring their elementary school kids to at 11am on a Tuesday. Kids are in school. Sounds ridiculous, but it happens all the time. In the same vein, don’t hold a no-kids-allowed event at 4pm on a weekday afternoon. You want Moms because they’re Moms, that usually means they’re “momming” at 4pm on a weekday.
Don’t ever expect a blogger to pay out of her own pocket to promote your product. If you’re holding an event, consider offering a car service or money for a sitter. If you’re inviting a blogger on a trip make sure all of her costs are taken care of. If you’re giving away a product on someone’s blog make sure you take care of sending the product out – do not send it to the blogger and then expect her to go to the post office. This is not “the cost of doing business.” Many bloggers don’t have a steady paycheck – they look at event invitations and opportunities one at a time and consider whether or not the time and money they will cost will be worth it. Consider offering to pay for these expenses before wasting money on more Flip Cameras or pedicures.
Don’t ever tell a mom blogger that being a mom is hardest job in the world. It’s not empathy, it’s a cliché and it’s condescending.
And don’t ever, ever start an email with Dear Mommy Blogger!
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