« The Geography of the Internet | Main | Road Work »
June 11, 2007
Working the blog
By Nichole Woodcock
Newbie alert! This is my very first post since joining MS&L BlogWorks. In May I transitioned from four years of good old-fashioned public relations at MS&L Atlanta to the new media world of BlogWorks. When I arrived, I couldn’t believe some of the differences between the blogosphere and traditional PR realms.
Here are some of my immediate observations:
Traditional PR’s bread and butter for media is traditional print and online outreach. PR professionals want to place stories at print publications and the online versions of those publications. Hardly any thought is given to the thousands of blogs that could provide a great service to clients and impact a highly influential niche market. Many think (I was guilty of this too at one time) that simply by using blog search tools such as Google blogsearch or Technorati you can create a master list of top blogs and begin outreach. On the contrary, without knowing the blog industry there is no way to sort through the numerous blogs on a topic. Instead of trusting the list of blogs found doing a general search, you have to put effort into it and get to know the material.
PR and blogs help drive media results, but the avenue to garnering coverage can vary between the two. All clients want to receive coverage and no client really wants negative press. In traditional PR you develop plans of strategic messaging and outreach to deliver the appropriate information to the media. In blog-based outreach you have the product or promotion, and this is what has to speak to the target audience. By removing the filter, blogs have the ability to express whatever opinion they desire about what you're sending them.
Some clients have learned to embrace blog postings on their products and appreciate that they are hearing directly from the consumer and target audience, and others have not warmed up to the idea that blogs provide relevant information to the masses.
At the end of the day we are all here to help our clients receive meaningful coverage. The great thing about MS&L is that each office has so many specialized areas. I am excited to be on the other side of the fence and still have a lot to learn!
Posted by Alicia Dorset at June 11, 2007 02:09 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.mslpr.com/blogworks/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/570
Comments
Welcome to the blogosphere (though your vet letter has appeared earlier)
Looking forward to more from you! Keep driving the conversation.
Posted by: Mike Sansone at June 11, 2007 02:52 PM
Great debut, Nichole! You know, something I hope to discuss on the blog at a later date includes managing client expectations. This is an important side of PR and perhaps a side we should look at a little closer here at BlogWorks.
Posted by: Charlie Kondek at June 11, 2007 03:53 PM
Thanks for recognizing the freedom but also the opportunity in the blogging community.
While it's true that we can provide a negative opinion, we can also provide a realistic portrayal of a product and we generate trust.
If I tell one of my blog readers to by this CD or go see that movie, there's a great chance they'll do it. The opposite also applies. But that's not a bad thing.
People are being bombarded non-stop by ads, spam, and useless information. Sometimes they want a good online friend to tell them what to do.
It's a resource on the marketing world is only now discovering it's power. And it's not something you can fake.
It's going to get interesting...
Posted by: L.A. Daddy at June 14, 2007 03:52 PM
