Haven’t quite thought this through yet, so bea with me while I make a fist of this argument.
There’s a lot to be said for media agencies doing outreach. How it fits within an overall communications plan, the implications upon search and display activity, and the ability to understand the importance of other paid for channels etc.
But that’s not to say we should look at outreach as ‘media’. What I mean by this is not, ‘durr, it’s just PR’, but instead that as soon as we view a blogger as a media owner whose value we judge based upon their reach and influence, it skews the proposition. It comes, in effect, transactional. ‘You have influence and reach. We want that influence and reach. We will give you something in return based upon the level of that influence and reach.’
In short, a media deal.
Now, of course we are all in agreement that a blogger outreach program is founded upon the desire to have individuals of influence within a certain field advocating and discussing our brand, campaign, project etc. But by the very nature of advocacy there has to be an irrational attachment to something. A desire to support it above and beyond the tangible value and utility it has provided you. In short, you can’t put a value on ‘love’ – and the best type of advocacy is exactly that; love. (See Apple fans)
A transactional deal, based upon the tangible value of an individual’s reach and influence will never achieve good advocacy. How can it? Advocacy needs love – and love, as the old adage goes, cannot be bought.
An outreach program should have only one objective; can I make these people fall in love with what we’re doing? The reach and influence is dependent upon yet separate to whether we achieve this – our proposition is simple; love us.
How do we achieve this? Well, what is the one thing that ties all bloggers together? Surely, if anything, it’s a belief in their expertise on a subject. Whether tech, sport or fashion, we blog because we think we have something of value to say on a subject. What we crave is validation. Approval from others that, indeed, what we say is of value, is of interest. To be called an expert is the greatest accolade. Why publish our thoughts if we didn’t want recognition for our thinking.
Understanding this creates the opportunity. If a blogger craves the status of expert, brands are in the strongest possible position to validate this. If Arsene Wenger says I’m an expert on football, Ralph Lauren lauds my fashion knowledge and Steve Jobs praises my design skills, then, my God, I must be doing something right.
And if any of the above asked me, as an expert, to get involved with their latest project, to lend my expertise and specialist knowledge, to be a partner in a project, then I may just say yes. Flattery? Yes, but it taps into the very thing all bloggers crave; recognition. And as we are all aware, involve someone in something that you do, make them feel like they are part owner of it, make them feel as if their expertise is genuinely contributing to something bigger, then they too may even fall in love with it. Oh and then, of course, they may even go and blog about it. But like I said, odd as it sounds, this is kind of separate.
Listen, my point is that the brands and agencies alike struggle when it comes to actually come to working out how to engage bloggers. Sending them a few videos and PR statements to re-post doesn’t seem to work. Asking them politely is generally ignored (now that most of the key bloggers receive hundreds of these opportunities) and a freebie here and there no longer holds the value it once did.
And I wonder if we sometimes forget what the aims of a blogger outreach program is. We’re so busy looking at the level of influence and reach of a blog post that we forget that a blogger outreach program has only one aim – to generate advocacy. To make bloggers love what we are doing. To involve them and make them feel like they are part of the whole process, that they are relied on and integral. Because if we do this, the rest will look after itself.r
