The changing shift in blogger relations
Posted: Thursday 28 October, 2010
Ed Fleming
Punch has a long history of producing media relations campaigns for clients. From product launches to strategic brand positioning, Punch has worked with big businesses to liaise with journalists to create news stories their target audiences will find interesting. Over the last two or three years, however, Punch has focused on working with different types of bloggers [from bedrooms warriors to professional bloggers] on behalf of its clients. This has created a new method of achieving the same and, in some cases, better results for clients.
It was therefore interesting to see the fallout coming from work undertaken by another PR agency for a mobile phone handset client. The agency had started a blogger engagement campaign; persuading bloggers to run a half marathon and to blog about the training schedule on behalf of their client, in return for product, links and general support in this challenge. A good strategy to get bloggers on side? Yes. But only if you make good on your promises it would appear.
All agencies make mistakes, so it's not right to dwell on the specifics of this case, but instead it allows us to ask the question; can digital PR agencies now count ‘the blogger' as important to a client's brand as a journalist? Had this series of events happened to a journalist, the likelihood is their editor wouldn't have allowed them to write about their negative experience in the magazine or newspaper. But the blogger can say what they like and, in a number of cases, will have a captive and influential audience at their fingertips.
Blogger relations are an integral part of a new age of communications; let's not forget their power and influence.
