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Reality Check Guide to Blogger Outreach - Social Fresh Charlotte September 2011

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Why blogger outreach is different (and the same) as consumer and media outreach... and how you can learn to spot trends and influence communities through bloggers.
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The Reality Check Guide To Blogger Outreach Heidi Sullivan @hksully Vice President, Global Media Research Cision
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Page 1: Reality Check Guide to Blogger Outreach - Social Fresh Charlotte September 2011

The Reality Check Guide To Blogger Outreach

Heidi Sullivan @hksullyVice President, Global Media ResearchCision

Page 2: Reality Check Guide to Blogger Outreach - Social Fresh Charlotte September 2011

Why Bloggers?

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The Conversation Shift

Traditional Media Model

The Public

The Media

PR/Marketing

Us

Social Media Model

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Bloggers and voices on social sites vie for influence directly with traditional media.

If the news is that important, it will find me.

college student quoted in New York Times, March 2008

Facebook now drives more traffic to PerezHilton and the Huffington Post than Google does. WebProNews, May 2009

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Case Study

Goal – increase beta users by 100K Method – Targeted Blogger Outreach

&

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I saw your post a couple weeks ago, “Think Before You Voicemail,” so I know how you feel about voicemail, and I agree with you on all points.  I try to avoid leaving people voicemails, at work and in my personal life, and would much rather send and receive emails or texts.  But, as you mentioned, sometimes you need to use voicemail – to convey tone or emotion, or because you’re on the road and need to relay more information than you can type while driving or otherwise multi-tasking…

Case Study&

- Pitch to

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I work for a PR agency and have a client that just launched a new service today.  I thought of you because this service has the potential to make the celeb dating scene a lot more interesting, if that’s even possible! It even has a cool name – slydial!

If LC could leave Heidi a voicemail without the possibility of Heidi picking up the phone, what do you think she would say?  What about Mario Lopez?  He got caught cheating on his long-time girlfriend….

Case Study&

- Pitch to

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Case Study

Resulted in 381 Blog Posts in 1 Month (including TechCrunch and Perez Hilton)ROI:  “By hitting online consumers from all angles, the

program helped boost slydial’s 5,000 private alpha users to more than 200,000 beta users in less than two weeks.”

&

Page 9: Reality Check Guide to Blogger Outreach - Social Fresh Charlotte September 2011

Section Divider

The Niche Nature of Blogging

Page 10: Reality Check Guide to Blogger Outreach - Social Fresh Charlotte September 2011

I’ve got blogs whose target audience is 100 people – the right 100 people.

Chris Anderson Author of The Long Tail

and Free

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Using social data for long-range predictive analytics

Acceleration of conversations on blogs often precedes both the manifestation of a trend and its news coverage

By identifying new opportunities for investors, bloggers helped bring green tech investing out of its 2009 slump

Q3 2008 Q3 2009 Q3 2010

166 VC in-vestments

61,300 blog mentions

8,540 main-stream news

mentions

“Green technology” investment, blog discussion and news coverageSources: Cision Media Research, Treehugger.com & Cleantech Group

Solar-powered coffee maker

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Why are blogs ahead of the curve?

Many blogs are focused on niche topics which news outlets tend to cover more sporadically and reactively

Blogs are where industry tastemakers lay out their thoughts and predictions, which get re-circulated on Twitter and Facebook

Influential blogs are updated constantly

Photo courtesy Alan Levine via Flickr

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The devil is in the detailsAbout one quarter of bloggers tracked in Cision’s media database cover one of 26 “first tier” general topics. The rest cover more specific topics.

General 23%

Specific 77%

Source: Cision Media Research

Page 14: Reality Check Guide to Blogger Outreach - Social Fresh Charlotte September 2011

Section DividerThe Who, Why & How

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Blogger Outreach The Four “R”s:

ResearchRelationshipsRelevance Respect

“Tailor to how we cover beauty. Demonstrate that you get our approach.”

– Lesa Hannah, Beauty Director for FASHION

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Research

Look at writing style, voice and tone

Research past coverage (bylines, reports, posts)

Know what they DON’T cover

Be aware what they’re looking for

Update your lists

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Relationships

Compliments never hurt!

Follow them on Twitter/social networks

Comment on blog posts

Connect IRL

It takes time, nurtureand maintain them

Page 18: Reality Check Guide to Blogger Outreach - Social Fresh Charlotte September 2011

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Relevance

Better to send out fewer, personalized messages

Never send a pitch without some introduction

Make it clear, keep it brief

Only send material you know they’ll read

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Respect Know their preferred method of contact

Don’t leave long voicemails or follow up via phone If you haven’t heard back, don’t panic

Know when to step back and when to push

When in doubt, include an opt-out

Keep your word!

Page 20: Reality Check Guide to Blogger Outreach - Social Fresh Charlotte September 2011

Section DividerDo Bloggers Really

Influence Opinions?

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of any population will be active content creators

will be participants

will simply "consume" that content online

1%

9%90%

Data from:

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It used to be that in order to have a powerful voice in the Momosphere, you had to do what I did: write four books, appear on dozens of national morning shows, speak at parenting groups and more… 

Now thanks to social media, moms have been able to - from the basement in their house in Iowa, to the deck in their backyard in San Diego - build an audience not by going to traditional media or writing a book, but gather audience based on the power of their voice, the clarity of what their expressing and the resonance it has with their audience.

Stacey DeBroff @momcentral

Anyone Can Be an Influencer

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Do bloggers truly influence the masses?

Gladwell’s Law of the Few

“The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts.”

Duncan Watts: Trends are Unpredictable

“A rare bunch of cool people just don’t have that power. And when you test the way marketers say the world works, it falls apart.”

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Who is right: Watts or Gladwell?

Both. Trends still begin with a small few and are spread by those with connections.

Bloggers can change over time – and anyone can become an influencer.

However, a general rule of thumb is that bloggers and influencers tend to talk to each other.

Immersing yourself in that community will help you spot trends as they emerge.

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Remember the 10%

Regardless of whether or not bloggers truly influence, only 1 out of 10 people is truly sharing and creating content online.

Spreading the word makes them influential.• Know your community.• Read, read, read!• Identify what’s new.

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Heidi SullivanVice President, Global Media Research

Email: [email protected]

Homepage: us.cision.comBlog: blog.cision.com

Facebook: facebook.com/hksullyTwitter: @hksullyLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/heidisullivan

Connect with me!


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