BlogWorld NY: @JasonFalls No BS Guide to Advertising & PR for Bloggers
While initially sitting in a SEO session, I quickly switched once I saw that Jason Falls was presenting. Jason is one of those speakers that gives fantastic advice and he’s amusing.
The inconsiderate on this session: How bloggers can better know the world of publicity, marketing and PR to avoid common mistakes. How can we learn from the crappy behavior of the bloggers before us.
There’s a low cost of entry to become a blogger. Basically, all you need is a pulse and an internet connection. But, just because you’re a blogger, doesn’t mean you’re a diva. When you start to evolve as a blogger is when you attract an consultation. You’re still not a rockstar, but you’ll be making progress when people are paying attention to you and engaging. For perspective, many advertisers require a minimum of 100k pageviews per month. If your blog isn’t at that level, you’re still building.
Blogger eg0 = distress. Getting some attention and consultation is an accomplishment but it’s not a reason to be a dick. Jason statistic: 15-20% of people in a agreed vertical reckon they’re god’s gift to blogging.
The conflict comes for the vast majority of bloggers who are not marketing bloggers or have marketing expertise. They don’t know how the world of marketing and publicity facility.
Soliciting money is publicity sales. (Paid Media) Any time you beg money from an organization for space or exposure on your blog, that’s publicity. FTC requires disclosure of any kind of advertorial or ads. When you take money for publishing editorial content, you will degrade some entrust with your consultation – but not lose it.
The discussion you have with securing publicity on your blog might be with a media buyer, or with a larger organization, a media agency. This includes ads for media as well as advertorial.
Public relations is earned media. PR agencies or staff within companies may pitch tales to bloggers. There are PR software companies like Vocus, Cision and My Media Info that will aggregate contact information for influential bloggers within particular verticals. PR can be an information resource and go between with a brand that you want to write about. PR doesn’t buy publicity (or they shouldn’t).
Blogger Horror Tale 1: After being pitched, a blogger responded demanding that as a replacement for of the blogger writing about the brand, that the brand should advertise on his blog. While the blog was topically relevant, it didn’t have anywhere near the consultation that the brand’s media buyers would consider.
Blogger Horror Tale 2: Jason pitched a blogger about a brand he represented and the blogger responded saying that to have a conversation, she’d charge a consulting fee. Basically, this blogger responded to PR pitches with a consulting pitch.
The situation where bloggers have built up a certain size of consultation and consider themselves a diva is where blogging douchebags came from.
Blogger Horror Tale 3: Fortune 25 company, huge brand, wide array of products. Identified 15 bloggers and pitched them to go to an industry conference – all expenses paid (airfare, hotel and conference). While at the event, the brand wanted to show the bloggers their products.
A week before the event, one of the bloggers left a message saying they’ve chose to turn the trip into a family trip and requested more airline tickets. Then the blogger threatened that if the brand didn’t do this, there would be editorial repercussions on her blog.
Jason says there’s a high concentration of this type of blogger in the gaming and the mommy blogger groups.
The problem with this minority of bloggers is that brands end up not wanting to deal with bloggers at all.
As you build an consultation and gain reputation, it’s vital that there’s a difference between being a proud person and being a jackass. There’s an mind-set of entitilement plus ignorance about how publicity and public relations facility.
Entrust: Your consultation entrust you less if you’re paid for making brand content. There’s a perceived bias.
Respect: Mutual between bloggers and the brands that communicate with them. Loss of respect means loss of relationship and the benefits that come with that.
Reality: Jason shows a run of graphs that represent mainstream media reach compared to blogs – blogs barely show up, let alone compete. (There were no sources cited in these graphs and that was very disappointing, especially from a professional like Jason)
Bloggers have a house in the publicity and media world online, but in the majority of cases, do not come close to having the same reach or clout as mainstream media. Many bloggers that gain a certain size of consultation and degree of influence start to overestimate their authority and impact, plus many don’t know how relations between publicity and advertisers, media/publishers and public relations work.
What Bloggers and Brands need to consider:
- Ethics and impact of pay for play – disclosure
- Reckon of bloggers as journalists
- The effect of publicity and PR on your consultation
- There’s no right way, only a right way for you
Opportunities for bloggers:
- Make PR be helpful. When you get an irrelevant pitch, offer PR feedback.
- If you want publicity, question for the media buyer, not the PR person.
- When discussing publicity opportunity with a brand, make a compelling argument with facts from a third party on your consultation and community.
- Partner with other blogs.
Opportunities for brands:
- Know the power of niche
- Make all outreach relevant. This is a huge problem and persists across many verticals.
- Know & respect bloggers have differences. Some bloggers are not PR friendly, so don’t pitch them.
- Have a plot for when you get requirements for publicity
Check out Jason’s community online: ExploringSocialMedia.com
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