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Tips For Blog Outreach

Flacks on Capitol Hill and in the rest of Washington remain largely clueless about how to deal with the new media beast that is the blogosphere, but they are not alone. People in the corporate world are struggling with the best ways to approach bloggers, too, and they are getting some good advice, albeit sometimes conflicting.

Washington flacks should read it and ponder what will work best for them. Here it is:

-- Church Of The Customer: "Get to know bloggers before pitching them. Build a relationship before a pitch. Introduce yourself to a blogger with an email or phone call. Explain your work and your clients. Ask ... if future news about your industry or clients is of interest to them. Seek permission."

-- Emergence Media, which has compiled a guide on how to pitch bloggers: "It’s one thing to know the A-list bloggers; its another to know what mid-tier blogs they read. Just like in regular PR, you may need to hit the mid-tier bloggers (who are read by the A-list bloggers) before you get covered by the big leagues. Don't be fooled by looking only at Alexa data or Technorati rankings; see who links to them, too."

-- WebProNews: "I've been involved in several blogger outreach efforts recently. In each case, I carefully read several posts and comments, along with 'About This Blog' details, then crafted an individual message to that blogger. ... [M]ost bloggers appreciate solid content they can write about that's consistent with the focus of their blogs, assuming you approach them correctly."

Beltway-bound flacks also might be able to learn something from the example of the American Petroleum Institute, which has held a couple of conference calls with bloggers. API has smartly geared the calls toward bloggers focused on the institute's energy niche, and it posted both a transcript and podcast of its latest call (April 18) at the API Web site Energy Tomorrow.

That made it easier for blogs like Green Options that could not participate in the call to still share information from it with readers. Other reports on the call can be found at:
-- Wired's Autopia
-- EcoGeek
-- Energy Roundup at The Wall Street Journal
-- The Houston Chronicle blog NewsWatch: Energy
-- The Oil Drum, The National Association of Manufacturers' ShopFloor
-- And TreeHugger.

Posted by Danny | 12:04 PM

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