Last week I attended a Brand Meets Blog breakfast meeting at Globe Cafe in Prahran. Marketed as an opportunity for bloggers and brands to get to know one another a little better, I thought ‘why not’? Today’s brief blog charts some of the key points of the conversation, lead by Brand Meets Blog’s top bird Louisa Clare (inset below).

An intimate event, the attendees present were mostly PR’s – there were only a few bloggers there including myself, Omega Howell from Fashion Adjacent and Natalie Bloomfield from Hello Little House. Louisa led a fairly general discussion on the A-B-C’s of how a PR can best build relationships and select bloggers that will be sympathetic to their brand’s values. Topics covered included:

Where to find bloggers?
  • Google
  • Circle of Mums/Top 25 Blogger List (there was a strong focus on the family blogger identity in the morning’s discussion)
  • Louisa noted that the downfall of collated lists is that they are often based on voting, which can be doctored. She also says that more experienced bloggers stay away from voting forums, as they don’t like to bug their readership for constant activity.
  • Twitter – search #praus to see local PR activity that is going on
  • PR friendly blogger lists
  • Louisa recommended that having a true relationship with a selection of bloggers is the best approach. By investing in quality relationships and growing your online presence incrementally you’re likely to enjoy ongoing latent benefits.
What is a good response to a call-out? How do you gauge and measure?
  • Note that not all responses to collaboration are good ones. Does the blogger fit your brand?
  • What are your expectations of content? Will there be following links? If you want certain activities at/by definite times, make your request to the blogger known. What kind of reports will you expect – and statistics? How will you monitor entries to any competition you might run?
  • Look at Google Analytics Stats, as well as WordPress and Statcounter. They’ll all produce slightly different results.
  • Understand that readerships can have different levels of loyalty. The highest hits doesn’t mean the most receptive audience. Look for bloggers you can connect with and build a relationship with in earnest to be an ambassador.
Although not so useful for bloggers, the Brand Meets Blog provided a solid ‘basics of blogging’ for PRs who are perhaps new to embracing blogger collaboration.