Filed under: A-List Bloggers, Blog Counter-Messaging, Blog Messaging, Blog Policies, Blog Ranking, Blog Strategy, Blog Training, Blog of Personality, Blogger Code of Conduct, Blogger Effect, Blogger Engagement, Blogger Ethics, Blogger Influence, Blogger Outreach, Blogger Relations, Blogger Response, Blogger Service, Blogger Support, Blogging, Blogging Policies, Blogosphere

Apparently 48% of bloggers think that’s a good idea. That’s according to the bloggers who agreed with the statement directed to PR execs “It is okay to compensate bloggers for writing about my clients, but it is not of to me to tell them to disclose the payment” as interviewed by APCO Worldwide and the Council of PR Firms. The forty-wight percent may ot be a majority, but it is a plurality. Sixteen percent had either a neutral or no opinion on the matter. That means 36% percent had problems with the idea of bloggers getting pay for play.

PR people were against he idea of paying bloggers by a whopping 96% - 4%. That’s the camp I fall into.

The Pay Per Post model is controversial, but it’s transparent. I’m not much for paying bloggers period, but transparency is of full importance. What we have here is potentially a serious stumbling block. We view bloggers to be, in part, journalists who cover certain issue areas and are therefore the ones we’re going to target. Yet they see their blogs as their personal domain, one that they had never expected to get pitched about - but perhaps secretly wanted to earn money from.

Many bloggers have little idea of what constitutes journalistic integrity, but nevertheless maintain a sense of pride in what they produce. This can translate into them not wanting to be a shrill or a marketing piece for a product or service without some form of payment. To PR people, that seems wholly counterintuitive.

The problem is that there are no established groundrules between the PR industry and bloggers. The PR industry as a whole has its own standard while each blogger has his or her own standards. And generally we have to follow the bloggers lead - or move onto the next blogger.

6 Comments » Posted on March 25th, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

Filed under: Activating Bloggers, Blog Counter-Messaging, Blog Messaging, Blog Policies, Blog Ranking, Blog Search, Blog of Personality, Blogger Activation, Blogger Code of Conduct, Blogger Effect, Blogger Engagement, Blogger Ethics, Blogger Influence, Blogger Outreach, Blogger Relations, Blogger Response, Blogger Service, Blogging, Blogging Policies, Blogging Primer, Blogosphere, Blowback

APCO Worldwide and the Council of Public Relations Firms just released a study on the similarities and differences on how public relations executives and bloggers view blogger relations. It confirms common sense, but it also shows me that common sense is not always applied.

The first thing that jumps out to me is that 52% of PR execs think that they and/or their firms do a good job reaching out to bloggers, while 65% of blogger felt otherwise. That means that, essentially, two-thirds of bloggers believe that PR efforts are poor.

This is important for what it says and for what it doesn’t say.

First of all, it means to me that we, as an industry are at least partially failing to effectively create best practices. There are probably too many haphazard efforts that are designed for mass exposure - meaning no effective targeting. And pitches may often empty of any relevance or filled with a false sense of camaraderie. And this probably occurs because a firm gets a client and off they go promoting.

In defense of agencies, however, it’s hard to see how it often could be that much different at times. While I agree PR practitioners should familiarize themselves with a blogger’s subject matter and style, it is impossible to do it on such a large scale. There are no Bacon’s or Cision’s media guide to work off. And clients often want results fast.

This is not to excuse the practice. It means that we in the profession must constantly seek to create methodologies that work for both the client and the blogger. I also see a potential business opportunity here for online directories to enhance their listings and perhaps charge a fee for a higher level of service.

Nevertheless, that gap is too large and the 65% of dissatisfied bloggers is abhorrently high. This brings me to a second point because the study points out that 63% of the bloggers surveyed that they get pitched at least once per week, 42% get pitched once per day, and 27% get pitched more than once per day. I talked to Matt Shaw, the Vice President of the Council of Public Relations Firms to clarify who these bloggers are. Essentially, they were approximately 400 “top” bloggers who responded to their survey.

Now we’re talking. Because it’s those A-List bloggers who are key here. Because they have the ability to make or break this whole blogger relations phenomenon. They’re the ones that are going to be getting pitched to more often - often as we see as being more than once a day.

Part of the problem is seen in the further findings by the study. Only 36% of PR execs agreed with the statement that “Bloggers are journalists and should be treated as such”, yet 62% of these execs nevertheless agreed with the statement “PR firms should reach out to bloggers essentially the same way we do to traditional media.”

This shows me two things. One is that the ways we reach out to traditional media are entirely adequate as methods that can be transferred to reaching out to bloggers. And/or it could mean that PR execs have yet to come to terms as to what the hell bloggers really are in the first place.

I suspect it’s both. Often, an honest respectful engagement can win over a reporter as it can a blogger. But sometimes it can’t . Bloggers themselves often don’t have any standards. They got into blogging and had no idea that they would soon get pitched on an almost daily basis. And what at first may have been flattering has now become annoying.

More on this study to follow…

No Comments » Posted on March 25th, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

Filed under: Abraham Harrison LLC

Danny the Dragon in Second Life
Is having a successful marketing campaign in Virtual Worlds possible? I think so. Over the past year and a half there was a wave of businesses and corporations attracted to the new medium of Second Life and Virtual Worlds in general. Some, like Bantam Dell found and continue to find success in this area because they didn’t apply the “If you build it they will come” mentality. They found that by continually changing the content to suit the needs and wants of the targeted demographic, they were able to draw new users who may never have entered this virtual realm. Some, like Pontiac, had success allowing users to create the content of their builds while riding the hype-wave but pulled out towards the end of 2007 when the funding ran out.

One major issue with success in Virtual Worlds is the technology itself. The typical home or office computer that is a year or two old has difficulty running a processor, video card eating program like Second Life. Companies interested in diving into the warm waters of Virtual Worlds need to be aware of the technological issues and hold the hands of their new users while they are brought up to speed. Building a virtual presence is like building a website. In order for people to come back regularly you need to be prepared to have regularly updated content, stick with it, and develop a community with events and PR.

Virtual Worlds have the potential to change the way companies interact and do business on the Internet. It’s definitely not as easy or inexpensive to build a virtual presence as it is to build a website, but the results can be great.

No Comments » Posted on March 25th, 2008 by Daniel Krueger

Filed under: British Executives, Social Network Services, Social Networking, Social Networks, U.S. Executives

According to Neville Hobson, “only 18% of executives from participating UK companies see blogging and social networking as valuable, compared to 50% of US businesses questioned.” Very sad indeed. Via NevilleHobson.com. More info:

  • Companies in the UK are lagging behind foreign counterparts in getting up to speed with social media, with 22% of participants claiming that they are still “learning”, compared with a global average of 18%. Only 9% of UK businesses claimed to be at the “experimentation” stage.
  • 23% of respondents blame a lack of senior management commitment for the slow uptake, while 36% say it is due to a lack of skills. However, budget restrictions were not seen as hurdles in the UK, compared with a 10% global average.
  • Viral marketing in social networks is also disregarded by UK companies and, according to 25% of UK executives, viral campaigns have very little brand impact. In contrast, three quarters of US executives believe the opposite.

No Comments » Posted on March 25th, 2008 by Chris Abraham


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