Interacting with Other Bloggers-Why It's a Good Thing

Responding to blog posts on topics relevant to your organization or company can be an effective way to engage customers, clients, co-workers, constituents in a discussion about issues or to get the word out about your work or product ot company. Interacting with bloggers, however, can be very time consuming. A little advanced thinking and strategizing can help you engage bloggers and their readers more efficiently to get the desired results. So why interact with other bloggers and web content creators? Why not just read and maintain your own? Lots of good reasons:

1.Interacting with other bloggers can create a portal to your website. Commenting, sharing and liking other blogs can intrigue other readers and followers. This can position you as a contributing authority and make readers curious about your company or brand; a kind of give-and-take in the blogging community.

2. From Writer’s Digest 10 Ways Writers Lose Blog Traffic, Number 7 reminds us all to read (and comment) on other people’s blogs. To read the whole piece, click on this link: http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/10-ways-writers-lose-blog-traffic-and-alienate-readers

3. Don't know where to start? Find some blogs you like that tend to post material of interest to your company, and follow them. You can use a free service—like Bloglines.com—to capture posts from all your favorite blogs so you can track and read them all in one location.

4. Find at least one or two blogs with a regular audience of significant size. These blogs will offer the best chances for discussion and a large enough audience to get wider distribution for information about your topic.

5. Bloggers love getting comments, so you can respond to blog posts whenever you read one that inspires additional thoughts or that you find useful. Include insights you’ve gained, while respecting the privacy you might reference. Compliments may be preferred, of course, but constructive criticism or corrections are also generally welcome. It is not in your interest, though, to chastise a blogger or question his or her expertise.

6. Contact the blogger after you have a good understanding of the blog’s focus, point of view, and style and feel it would be an appropriate venue for promoting your product or company. Suggest that the blogger write about your product, and give reasons: there is timely news about your product, it will be of interest to your readers, etc. It is best to contact bloggers by e-mail if you can find their address, but you may also do this through the comments button if necessary. Your message can be informal, but professional. You are more likely to get the blogger’s attention if you refer to specific posts he or she published or a recent news item that provides a timely peg for writing about your product.

7. Once you get a blogger’s attention it can often lead to additional coverage by other bloggers or news organizations. Getting coverage on a popular blog could also help you spread the word about the value of your products and promote a positive image about you to the general public.

Product Reviews/New Product Releases are Your Best Sales Tools

Most of us read reviews of movies, books, games and CDs before making a purchase decision. Well, it’s often the same with other products too. With so many choices in every product category, we generally look for critical reviews of a class of products to help guide our decision making.

Find the trade publications, consumer magazines/newspapers, web sites and our social media networks that publish product reviews on a regular basis. If you have a tech product, contact the publication’s test labs or other staffers to find out if and when they’re evaluating your type of product. As them what the evaluation procedure is that they follow. If all goes well, you’ll get some kind of “Editor’s Choice,” or “Top Pick” ranking in the published review, which, believe me, looks just great in article reprints, in sales collateral, on your web site – and, yes, as the subject of a news release.

But be aware that you can’t control or influence the evaluation process or results. They do have editorial integrity. So while a rave review can do wonders for your sales, a negative ranking can have just the opposite effect. Take a “warts and all” look at your product’s overall strengths and weaknesses before going forward with a product review.

In consumer publications we call these reviewers new product release editors or gift guide editors. And bloggers must come clean on product reviews. FTC regulations on blogger payola and freebies went into effect on Dec. 1, 2009. Bloggers, Twitterers and others who write online reviews or endorse products using new media must disclose when they receive free merchandise or payment for writing about an item. This is a controversial subject. Fueling the controversy over the new guidelines is the fact that mainstream media, such as newspapers and magazines, are exempt. But in an age of media transparency, bloggers must play fair if they want the public’s respect.