Filed under: Abraham Harrison, Abraham Harrison LLC, Abraham Harrison Staff, Activating Bloggers, Blog Messaging, Blog Strategy, Blogger Activation, Blogger Code of Conduct, Blogger Engagement, Blogger Ethics, Blogger Gifts, Blogger Influence, Blogger Outreach, Blogger Relations, Blogger Response, Blogger Service, Brand Advocacy, Brand Ambassador, Brand Promotion, Brand Reputation, Branding, Chris Abraham, Circumadvertising, Direct Email, Direct Marketing, Email Marketing, Email Outreach, Gift Giving, Gifting Bloggers, Give Swag, New Marketing, New Media Marketing, New Media Strategy, Norman Birnbach, Online Advertising, Online Advocacy, Online Brand Promotion, Online Branding, Online Communications, Online Community Outreach, Online Engagement, Online Entertainment, Online Evangelism, Online Influence, Online Marketing, Online Media, Online Messaging, Online Outreach, Online PR, Online Pitch, Online Public Relations, PR Back Talk, PR Blogging, PR Blogs, PR Ethics, PR Hubris, PR Industry, PR Pitching, Pitching Bloggers, Pitching New Media, Pitching Social Media, Pushing Swag

This morning, Norman Birnbach wrote an article wherein he suggests that I emphasize giving swag:

One of his tips is to “Give swag” — a point that Chris Abraham emphasized in a recent interview. The reason is that blogging is often a second career and there are few perks so swag can make a difference to get bloggers to respond.

He is not wrong, but I think I need to clarify my definition of “gift-giving.” I don’t emphasize giving away swag, necessarily — what I do emphasize is gifting — and giving ’til it hurts, “What a gift needs to be is super-valuable to the recipient — the value of a gift is based on perception.”

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2 Comments » Posted on June 16th, 2008 by Chris Abraham

Filed under: Abraham Harrison, Abraham Harrison LLC, Blogger Activation, Blogger Outreach, Blogger Relations, I Will Not Be Broken, Survivor Corps

A big part of what my firm, Abraham Harrison LLC, does is online outreach and blogger relations. We’re doing our first book promotion campaign for our client, Survivor Corps, and Jerry White’s new book, I Will Not Be Broken: Five Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis, and we have been having a lot of fun and plenty of success. We are very proud and excited by our work on this campaign. Here are a bunch of the blog posts that we have been able to collect over the last few weeks of active campaigning of people and bloggers who have chosen to be responsive to our blogger promotion in the form of blog and forum posts (via Chris Abraham):

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No Comments » Posted on May 24th, 2008 by Chris Abraham

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: Ad Buys, Ad Sales, Blog Policies, Blog Strategy, Blogger Activation, Blogger Code of Conduct, Brand Promotion, Citizen Generated Media, Citizen Journalism, Citizen Media, Community News, Community Service, Disruption, Industry Reputation, Influence, Influencial Bloggers, Influentials, Networks, New Media Blogs, News Aggregation Strategy, News Organization, TV Advertising, Television, Television Over IP, Television on Demand

On Monday, CBS Television Stations announced the launch of what I think will be a great step in the direction of web based mainstream and citizen generated news. They are launching the CBS Local Ad Network in which local stations will syndicate new content to local bloggers and social media sites. This news will be delivered via news widgets that will link to video and text news of the local stations.

IN exchange for hosting the widgets, the bloggers will receive a share of the local ad dollars that are sold by the station.

How is it a win-win-win-win situation?

The will extend the CBS news media brand both on a national and local level by integrating news content with local blogger with a following. While it takes some of the focus off the broadcast model, it could potentially easily be made up via web usage. The network will seem innovative while the local affiliate could develop deeper ties to the local community. Bloggers and social networkds could increase their visibility and bring in more traffic. Advertisers will get greater exposure.

I like the idea.

4 Comments » Posted on March 20th, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

Filed under: 2008 Elections, A-List Bloggers, Abraham Harrison LLC, Activating Bloggers, Blog Messaging, Blog Strategy, Blogads Advertising, Blogger Activation, Blogger Effect, Blogger Influence, Blogger Outreach, Blogosphere, Blowback, Election Strategy, Online Polling, Online Strategy, Political Blogs, Political Strategy, Polling Data, Popular Culture

I don’t understand how certain story submissions pass the smell test.

In a release yesterday, Reuters reports, in an article written by Ellen Wulfhorst, that “Most Americans Don’t Read Political Blogs”. No shit. There is so much wrong with this article that I barely know where to start.

The story was based on a poll by Harris Interactive that found “Only 22 percent of people responding to the poll said they read blogs regularly, meaning several times a month or more, according to the survey conducted by Harris Interactive.”

First of all, it attempts to frame the story right in headline. I think most people, or perhaps more importantly, most online political types would not be surprised of the fact that most adults don’t read political blogs. I don’t know of one legitimate consultant who has said otherwise.

It then says “only” 22 percent of American adults regularly political blogs - meaning several times per month. I don’t know why the word “only” is used. It creates bias, making the number appear to be paltry.

You then have to go the second page of the article to find that this was strictly an online poll. That means the whole spin of the poll is skewed. It’s not about “most adult Americans”, it’s “most online adult Americans”…making that 22% actually SMALLER. And an online poll is self-selected, which skews it even further. In what direction is anybody’s guess.

But if we stick with what we’ve got - that 22% of online adults who responded to this poll regularly read political blogs, we’re looking at an impressive figure. More than 1 in 5 of these Americans get at least part of their political information from blogs. Blogs that are conversational. Blogs that are opinionated. Nothing to sneeze at.

No Comments » Posted on March 12th, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

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