As the brand manager or PR rep, part of your job is to reach out to influencers such as bloggers. You get that it’s a two-way street and you’re sincere about building a relationship. How do you get started?
Here’s are five tips to help you start out your blogger relations program:
- Subscribe to Blogs. Get familiarize with an RSS reader like Google Reader and subscribe for updates. Get in the habit of catching up on feeds for a few minutes each day.
- Create Folders in Your RSS Reader. After subscribing to a blog, add them folders based on their focus, ex. fashion blogs, tech blogs.
- Rename Blog Feeds. By default, Google Reader displays the blog’s name, but sometimes we need more detail. I rename each feed to include the blog title, author’s full name, and author’s Twitter handle.
- Create Blogger Lists on Social Networks. I suggest lists because it’s too easy to lose sight of bloggers in the stream of everyone you follow. Creating lists on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus lets you easily scan within a category, just like in tip #2 above. Make your lists consistent with your RSS reader lists.
- Add Bloggers to Your Contact Database. So you’ve built rapport with a blogger, a relationship. They have indicated they like your brand and is open to PR outreach. Do you have her email address? Phone number? There’s nothing worse than having a story that’ll resonate with a blogger, only to discover you don’t have their contact info handy.