How to Engage Bloggers Down the Long Tail

How to Engage Bloggers Down the Long Tail

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Chris Abraham

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My Personal Digital PR Philosophy

Find people where they live (and meet them there even if it’s a forum or message board)

Explore the long tail (there are millions of people blogging, sharing, and posting online – and PR tends to pile on the same 100 “influentials”)

“We want you to take 50 million of us as seriously as you take one reporter from The Wall Street Journal”

(#83 of the 95 Theses from The Cluetrain Manifesto)

Spoil everyone (like you would Guy Kawasaki)

Be grateful (nobody is required to help you)


Campaign Questions

Goal: what is it you need to do?

Monitor: what are you looking to find?

Discover: where are people talking?

Learn: who are these talking people?

Collect: what groups do you need?

Engage: how best to connect?

Outreach: how best to pitch?

Analyze: how did you do?


Goals: What Do You Want to Accomplish?

Build brand awareness?

Increase community engagement?

Prospect new brand ambassadors?

Drive sales, traffic, membership?

Drive conversation volume?

Improve organic search?

Get a feel for your neighborhood?

Launch a new product, service, investment?


Monitor: Listen/Look Before You Leap

Google Search is the best tool to get a feel

When it comes down to it, Google does an amazing job of giving you a 30,000-foot view of the blogosphere

Spend some time understanding the space

It’s not always obvious how people engage with you, your brand, your space, or your industry. Allow your community to lead your exploration; do not be willful: people don’t always use your language

Include message boards, forums, etc., in your recon

Try out all the tools: it’s a buyer’s market

SDL SM2, Radian6, Sysomos, Sprout Social, Lithium


Discover: Finding People Where They Live

Social media is much bigger than Facebook

There are a multitude of social networks, self-run message boards, threads deep in reddit, and ad-hoc discussions everywhere online (Dailymile.com, etc.)

If it exists, there is blog of it (Rule 34 variant)

There are more than a billion active blogs worldwide

Always start with Google

Influencer discovery

GroupHigh – grouphigh.com

Little Bird – getlittlebird.com

Alltop – alltop.com

eCairn – ecairn.com


http://dailymile.com/

http://grouphigh.com/

http://getlittlebird.com/

http://alltop.com/

http://ecairn.com/

Learn: Do They Want to Be Engaged? And How?

Blogs (including online journalists, curators, aggregators, group blogs, and bloggers)

Can you find their name and email address?

If contacting them is hard, maybe they don’t want to be

Look for a “how to engage/pitch” message

Follow their directions to a T (or don’t engage them at all)

Forums (including bookmark & link aggregators)

Engage forum owners directly, don’t jump in there!

Social Networks (including FB, Twitter, etc.)

Engage before befriending before pitching


Collect: Demo-, Geo-, Psycho-Graphic Lists

The A-list (the crème de la crème of influence)

Generally professional bloggers and journalists, including the blogs and profiles of mainstream media platforms, celebrities, high Klout scores, high-traffic blogs, authors, actors, scientists, pundits, newsmakers, and people with mad followers

Will blog for free, but only if they’re compelled to (exclusive content, big news, financial releases, new investment, etc.)

Never, ever, include A-list bloggers in a bulk email pitch – hand-written only

Prepare your kid-gloves and your checkbook – find ways to woo them personally (over lavish meals, inviting them to HQ, or meeting them down at one of the many conferences they attend)

Become a persistent “bestie” – either as someone who is a communicator pitching them good, consistent, and valuable content or, even better, a personal friend who doesn’t just collect them as a method of access or a sign of prestige



B-D-List (the mid-section of the long tail often asks for money)

While not all B-D-list bloggers lead with an advertising rate sheet, many do

Most PR campaigns aren’t budgeted for advertising spend so I don’t pay for posts

Ideally, earned-media is the goal of PR campaigns, so it’s up to you

Many of the B-D-list bloggers can get you what you need for less than a strong ad buy

While disclosures are essential everywhere, they’re doubly so for “advertorial” content

I tend to put any blogger who asks for money into a DNC* list

Midrange bloggers are easier to access, harder to garner earn media mentions from, but a worthy investment of time and attention toward a long-term relationship

People help out their friends, so becoming close may curry favor for earned media pitches

I generally include B-D-list bloggers in general long-tail bulk email outreach

*Do not contact list



E-Z-List (the long-tail of the blogosphere, including ~1 Billion bloggers)

While a billion active blogs are well out-of-scope, please remember:

No matter how obscure your product or service, there’s probably a blog about it

The original Rule #34 is: “If it exists, there is porn of it;” same for the blogosphere

Collect email addresses, blog name, and maybe location only for E-Z-list

While I might be willing to chase down the contact info of A-D-list bloggers via forms or hunting them down via LinkedIn or Facebook Messenger, Dailymile mail, or Twitter DMs, I only engage long-tail bloggers if they share their email address gladly

If bloggers don’t make it easy to contact them, they may not want to be contacted; and, if you contact someone who doesn’t want to be, there will be serious blowback

Send everyone in your list a bulk email pitch but be ready to engage in person

Don’t worry, most people aren’t fanboys – a cold-pitch is fine if your “gift” is generous


Engage: Pitch It Slow and Right Over the Plate

Pitching is speed dating

You don’t need to overwrite

Allow people to be intrigued

Less is more

Attention span is limited

Pre-masticate message into easy-to-understand pabulum

Don’t include attachments or inline content

Don’t BS, brown nose, lie, or flatter

"Please don’t say you read and love my blog, then pitch me on something that I never cover here" -- Mack Collier


Outreach: The Catch Is the More Important Part

The informational microsite

Internally, I call it an SMNR

Social Media News Release

The kitchen sink theory

Don’t limit the SMNR to just the pitch

Bloggers are libertarian contrarians

Give a lot to look through – give them options

Steal me, steal me!

Optimize content to be copied-and-pasted

Pre-embed embed codes

Pre-link and optimize for SEO, etc.

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www.mizunorunningnews.com


http://www.mizunorunningnews.com/

Outreach: The Magic Happens in the Inbox


Analyze: It All Comes Down to the Bottom Line Track using site analytics tools

Google Analytics tracking code in the SMNR

Server-side analytics tools: AWstats, Webalizer

Track both SMNR & target site

Track using media mention tools

I presently use SDL SM2 (Alterian SM2)

Primary, secondary, tertiary, etc., mentions

Lots of free and fee-based tools

Google Analytics is becoming more SM-savvy

Track using specialized landing pages

Using affiliate tricks-of-the-trade


Analyze: The Proof Is in the Pudding

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133 earned media blog posts, 1,350 Tweets, 40 other


Final Words

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“Hugs not horns” – Chris Abraham

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a

hard battle” – Philo of Alexandria

(or Plato or Ian MacLaren or John Watson)


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Email: [email protected]

Mobile: +1 202-352-5051

Twitter: @chrisabraham

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How to Engage Bloggers Down the Long Tail

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