Monday, PR guy and fellow highly-caffeinated person Jeremy Pepper posted a few thoughts on using bloggers as a means, not an end unto themselves. I’d encourage you to bop on over there and read it if you haven’t already, but the part that was swirling around in my head in particular was the part about “blogger junkets,” the “pay me mentality” and what might be, for lack of a better and less touchy-feely term, a sustainable model for brands and bloggers to work together.
Everybody has an iPhone, and every corporation thinks they need to have an app! However, the real question is, “does your brand really need an iPhone app?” With the increasing rise in popularity of the iPhone, its easy to think that the only way to reach the consumer is through the latest and hottest trend. Sounds good, but before you run off and spend thousands of dollars having an app designed for you, it would help to answer a few questions.
Let’s say a group of these brand enthusiasts wanted to hold a party to celebrate your brand, or what it stands for. Let’s say they contacted you and said “Hey, we’d like to have a big party with a few thousand people who thing your company is just great. We’ll come up with the entertainment. We’ll promote it. We’ll get as many people as we can to attend.” Would your response be “That’s great. Tell us how it goes.”?
… and we’re totally stoked! BlogWorldExpo is going to be a great opportunity for David and I to get inspired by the best-in-breed work going on in the world of blogging, new media and social media.
But we’re not forgetting about you guys…
I agree that integration is an important goal for agencies who want to offer both digital and traditional services. In fact, in my opinion, integration between traditional and digital/social is the biggest challenge facing advertising agencies and public relations firms right now. That said, integration is an incredibly difficult process. I have a hard time believing that there’s One True Way to get there. If you’ve committed to a strategy to get there and you’re making progress, kudos to you, I say.
Can I share a little secret? I really don’t like doing blogger outreach. I know, I know–I’m a sad, sorry excuse for a social media manager.
There are a number of reasons that blogger outreach is considered the slogfest of social media work. One reason is that it’s a fundamentally awkward process. Journalists and other traditional media members expect to get calls and emails from media relations reps. they may not always like it, but it’s a known part of their job.
