1. Bloggers are your friends
How to build and leverage
relationships with the online masters
to power your online campaign
2. Why Bloggers?
• Bloggers are real, relatable people
• People read blogs
• Bloggers are “social”- they share what they
post
• Bloggers provide backlinks
• Blogs drive traffic
3. The benefits
• Product/brand feature
• Quantity of results
• Social media & PR
• Shareable content; User generated content
• Brand ambassadors
5. The Do’s
• Personalize: Learn names and use them
• Read their blogs: both about me & the posts
• Ask for what you want
• Take demographics into consideration
• Be consideration of their time and content
6. The Don’ts
• Fake it…in other words, don’t LIE
• Belittle a blogger
• Assume
• Stereotype
• Spray & Pray
9. Create an offering
• Bloggers aren’t there to just serve you. It must
mutually beneficial. Offer them something in
return for their services:
– Social media mentions
– Products to review
– An expert article or tip sheet
– An exclusive example to feature
– An interactive project
10. Dessert a Day
Cookie company wants to engage dessert bloggers for National Dessert
Month
Offers each a chance to participate: Every day one dessert is shared that
the blogger makes with cookies provided to the by the company
Benefits:
- Creates tons of backlinks
- Engages ideal audiences and provides one-of-a-kind content
- Photos, videos, and recipes to share with both audiences
- User generated content
- Builds a person connection between brands and people
- Google results galore
11.
12. Oxygenics $50 a Day
Showerhead company wants to increase brand awareness specifically by
growing Facebook fans
Purchases gift cards to top retail outlet (that carries their product) and
build a Facebook tab to giveaway one gift card every day
Target giveaway blogs, sweepstake Facebook pages, etc, with a
predominantly female audience to help spread the contest
Result was adding over 9,000 fans to the page
Benefits:
- The female audience was an ideal target for the company and prize
- The blogs and FB pages targeted were able to spread it that far over
only 3 months
- Reached goal of fans. Fans were engaged, boasted of buying the
product even if they didn’t win, and referred / shared with friends
13.
14. Tips
• Plan a campaign with a specific and measurable goal
• List out your offerings, what exactly you would like to see, and what
you will do in return for the blogger
• Make sure you provide links to website & social media channels
• If you have no prize to giveaway, make the campaign creative and
worth the effort
• Ask for photos
16. Find ‘Dem Blogs!
• You’ll want to start first by figuring out what style of blogs appeal to
your target demographic: “mommy”, travel, food, pet, etc. Know your
niche
• Use tools use as AllTop, Technorati, and even a simple Google Blog
search (for those of you who don’t have fancy systems like Vocus)
• Use networks of bloggers such as BlogHer to find appropriate blogs
• Keep a running log of all blogs you find with URLs, notes, and contact
info
17. Assess
• Read the content. Think: Is this the kind of blog that would post your
content or participate in your campaign?
• Read the About Me: Some bloggers specifically state “No PR people
allowed”. Respect that
• Visit their Facebook fan pages, Twitter accounts, etc, to see if their
audience is: the type you’re looking for, varies, is engaged, etc.
19. Start Your Engine
• Begin drafting a personalized pitch to each blogger. This is time
consuming, and a bit of a template can be used for each, but make
sure you’re smart about it. Remember our pitching blogger rules!
• Bullet points are great: they keep bloggers from having to read huge
paragraphs. They have lives, too
• Make sure you keep up on communications after the first email. Let
them know when samples are sent, when you’ve kept up your end of
the bargain, and be generally attentive.
20. Close It
• Make sure to follow-up and see if they need anything further
• Don’t put too much pressure on the post date- just enough for them
to know you’re excited
• Ask if you can get copies of the photos. And make SURE you give full
credit when posting and provide the link back to their blog
• Give extra social media shout outs to everyone who participates
• Send a thank you email
21. Thanks for listening!
Constance Aguilar, Social Media Strategist at The Abbi Agency
@ConnieAguilar
Facebook.com/theabbiagency
www.theabbiagency.com/blog & www.constanceaguilar.wordpress.com
That’s me!
Got any questions?! ASK AWAY!
