I’m asked constantly by traditional PR types how they should approach the blogger in the wild. As if bloggers were some strange species found only in exotic locals and incapable of responding to an email or phone call. Kami Huyes touches on some of this in her recent post Blogger Relations: 5 Basic Cultural Facts so I’ll throw in my own theory here.
There’s a woman in our town, let’s call her Louise (real name Louise). She has no official position as far as I can tell but if you need to know when it’s time to register your daughters for Girl Scouts, ask Louise. If you lost the flyer and need to know when you can drop off books for the Library Book Sale, ask Louise. If your son is of Scouting age, Louise just might remind you that registration is coming up. And more importantly, if you are peeved about funding for the school arts program and are looking to find other parents interested in getting something done, Louise knows who to call.
Louise is what I call a proto-blogger. She’s connected, interested, opinionated and is generous with what she knows. The only thing missing is a TypePad account.
The point for PR folks is this – bloggers blog because they have something to say and like being recognized for whatever expertise they have. They don’t blog because they want to be ignored, or talked to with market-speak. They like conversation, not lectures. They believe in sharing, not controlling knownledge. Keep that in mind and you have the basis of a good blogger-relations program. Ignore it and you’ll be on the Bad Pitch Blog.
I’ll have more to say on this subject in the not too distant future.
Related Posts:
- Release the Egyptian journalists and bloggers
- Writers/Bloggers for Social Change themed blog
- New York Women Social Entrepreneurs (NYWSE) Chief Blogger
