Through 2013 the notion of digital public relations and blogger relations have trended in Google. Both have become much talked about among marketers, and particularly blogger relations as an influential tactic to build brand credibility. This Google Trends chart below shows how these two have progressed in 2013, and there’s no indication this will stop in 2014.
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- Blogger relations in blue
- Digital public relations in red
In Technorati’s Media 2013 Influencer Report, we are told that markters spent 10 percent of their budget on blogger relations last year, while the lion’s share of monies were doled out to digital advertising. The irony, however, is that “[blogger and influencer relations] rank high with consumers for trust, popularity and influence.” Consider this:
When making overall purchase decisions, for consumers, blogs trail only behind retail and brand sites. With regard to overall sources for information on the internet, blogs rank among the top five “most trustworthy” sources.
So why would marketers spend more on digital advertising, which consumers trust less? My hunch probably won’t be well received. But here it is. Buying advertising is easier than developing relationships that will deepen consumer relationships and brand loyalty, because that take time.
To be honest with you, consumer sentiment is very clear — “blogs are more influential in shaping opinion than Twitter, and when it comes to affecting purchase decisions, more important than Facebook.”
Are we just ignoring what people are saying, or are we confused about how to go about blogger relations and, because of that confusion, just rely on the easiest course of action? For brands that take an easy road, might I cite Shel Israel on Jeremiah Owyang in a Forbes article of early this month. Israel says the economy has changed and collaboration is more important to success and using resources. One of these, I believe, is trust, a human resource in short supply. The idea of investing in blogger relations is born out of the new “collaborative economy,” and brands will benefit greatly from building lasting relationships with bloggers. The first step is how to identify bloggers worthy of your time.
Blogger Relations: What to Look for
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Some may believe social scoring such as Klout and Kred are good indicators of influential bloggers. Danny Brown, author of Influencer Marketing, points out “that social scoring for influence is merely an entry point component, and shouldn’t be used as a key metric in an influencer campaign.” This is only the beginning.
It’s not rocket surgery to determine which bloggers are important for your outreach, you just need to identify six points:
- Audience index
- Twitter followers
- Facebook friends
- Facebook likes
- Blog unique users
- Blog Page views
This research takes time, but it can be done and scaled. *GroupHigh happens to be a very good blogger outreach tool that helps make this research more efficient.
The Value of Micro Over Macro Relationships
Another interesting point Technorati’s study tell us is this. It’s not how big your community is, but how connected it is that creates value.
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There is no doubt this is as true as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. When I was a literary publicist, I found communities of niche book lovers more valuable to building awareness around my client’s book. One of my colleagues found this especially true with sci-fi books, and another colleague of mine used the power of small communities to launch her new tech books. These communities are prolific across the Internet. For instance, take note of the Nerdfighters — a very powerful well connected community formed author John Green and his brother Hank.
Without getting too long-haired and tangled in statistics, blogger relations will become ever more important to digital public relations professionals this year because of Google’s updates to its algorithm of late 2013. Earned media will become more valuable and more difficult to acquire.
Here are some points to consider if you dare to build a blogger relations program:
- Context is important. Matching the right bloggers, with the right interests, to the right brands, at the right time is paramount.
- Don’t rely on social scoring as an ends to identify important bloggers. Dig deeper.
- Remember smaller is better for online communities because the members are typically more connected, share a higher level of trust, and are more accepting of new, socially relevant members.
- Blogger influence will only increase and consumer trust will continue to decline if do not listen to them and bring them messages in the mediums they trust most.
In the coming weeks, I will share with you how to build a blogger relations program that are guided by these principles. Stay tuned, there will be freebies available throughout.
Disclosure Statement: *Statements about GroupHigh are not paid endorsements of the service.