Wordsworth - A Cincinnati Public Relations Agency

Good PR August Issue

Working Day & Night | On The Road Again | Print Media Still Alive

Day Job: PR
Night Job: Blogger

The Dos and Don’ts of Working with Bloggers

As PR pros and bloggers, Wordsworth’s social media team uses learnings from both realms to impact the recommendations we make. Here are a few dos and don’ts to consider when working with bloggers for the first time:

Research, Research, Research
Research is the foundation on which successful blog strategies are based. When identifying bloggers you’d like to work with, take time to make sure what they write about matches what you’re pitching.
Be Patient
Bloggers are busy, and few maintain a blog as their full-time profession. After reaching out to a blogger, don’t stalk them. Give them time to respond. Once they are on board to work with you, be flexible in terms of their deadlines.
Be Transparent
This is a big one. Let bloggers know exactly who you are and your connection to the company, product or service you’re pitching. Use this same rule of thumb when responding to blog posts about your company. In other words, don’t wax poetic about your company, product or service when responding to a post, without first identifying yourself as someone who has a vested interest.
Request Transparency
Ask bloggers to be transparent too. If you’re giving a blogger a free sample of your product for review, ask them to disclose that the product was provided by your company. This level of transparency is becoming increasingly important, since the Federal Trade Commission recently announced it is considering guidelines that will require bloggers to make this kind of disclosure when they are paid – whether in cash, or in product samples – to talk about a product or service.

Seeing two sides of the same issue is often a good thing. But in the case of counseling clients on social media issues it is almost essential. That’s why at Wordsworth Communications, all the members of our social media strategy team are PR people by day, and bloggers by night. As experts in both fields, we straddle the fence, so-to-speak, and the insight we've gained has been invaluable.

Blogher 2009 Conference Shannan Boyer is a good case in point. She is a social media supervisor at Wordsworth Communications, a parenting blogger, co-founder of Cincinnati Women Bloggers, and our resident expert in all things blog-related. She says her experience as both a blogger and a public relations pro have helped her do both better.

"Our social media team lives and breathes social media, and takes time to really understand what’s happening in the space both as users and consumers," said Shannan. "We’re able to turn that experience into great programs and results for our clients…some have become leaders in social media within their respective industries. Seeing social media from both sides has become a very valuable perspective."

Cincinnati Women Bloggers Recently, Shannan attended BlogHer ’09, an annual conference designed specifically with women bloggers in mind. While she picked up a few tidbits that she’ll put to good use for Wordsworth clients, she also attended the conference as an official representative of a Chicago-based Wordsworth client. As such, she was able to meet many of the bloggers the social media team has worked with throughout the year, as well as connect with many new bloggers who expressed interest in learning more about our clients and work.

Her attendance at the conference – in addition to other members of the Wordsworth team who regularly attend industry events such PodCamp, BlogWorld and Cincinnati's own social media breakfasts – are further indication of Wordsworth’s continued investment in understanding and employing emerging social media tactics.

"Social media is nebulous and constantly shifting,” Shannan stresses. “You have to stay in a constant state of learning, to provide value to social networks as bloggers, and also provide important expertise to our clients."