Recently, I was explaining to someone why I wanted to shift the mix of my consulting business to include more blogger relations projects, both hands-on projects and strategic consulting to companies executing their projects themselves.
It’s simple. Nearly every organization, regardless of size, is going to have to engage in blogger relations. Because blogger relations is the evolution of customer relations.
I hear the objection … "But isn’t blogger relations just PR campaigns aimed at bloggers to get them to write about products and services? How can that be customer relations?"
Outbound blogger relations, or blogger outreach, is only one part of blogger relations. It’s also more, or at least should be more, than "just PR." Remember: the blogger is the customer. When companies engage with bloggers, they are strengthening, or weakening, their relationships with their customers.
For the moment, though, let’s step away from the outreach discussion and remember that an interaction can be initiated by either party in a relationship.
It is equally likely that a blogger — the customer — will effectively reach out to a company by offering an unsolicited opinion about the firm or its products on her blog. How a company handles this blogger-initiated interaction, whether it be kudos or complaint, is equally blogger relations.
In my personal experience, companies rarely engage with bloggers under these circumstances. I’ve mentioned a number of different companies here, both positively and negatively, over the past three years. So far, only one company has left a comment on the relevant post. Other bloggers report similar results. The question is, why?
Are the companies not paying attention, or do they just not know what to say?
It’s probably a bit of both. That’s the opportunity for companies willing to step up and really start talking with their customers. Wherever the conversation may be.
It starts with monitoring what people are saying about the company — on blogs, microblogs like Twitter, social networks like Facebook, Forums, your customer service or support lines — wherever customers talk about you, whatever else comes along. But it can’t end there, or even with solid outreach programs that offer relevant information to the appropriate people.
You have got to be willing to respond. To answer the question, acknowledge the comment, accept the compliment and address the concerns. Publicly.
That’s the challenge for blogger relations. Engaging with your customers on their terms as well as yours, on their turf as well as yours. Consistently and for mutual benefit.
Ready, set, go.
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I’m off to BlogHer Business tomorrow morning, so blogging will be light for the rest of the week, although I will be on Twitter. I will try to get my posts up about the sessions on the train ride home Saturday. While you are waiting, check out:
- SciFi Sunday on Snapshot Chronicles, a review of the Stargate SG-1 direct-to-DVD film The Ark of Truth, and an action figure giveaway. I’ve got some extra SG-1 figures and rather than mess around with E-bay, I’m going to give them away on Snapshot Chronicles.
- Coaching Tips from the Simon Cowell School of Professional Development from client Caras Training’s blog For the Face of Your Business.
Tags: blogger relations, customer relations, Stargate SG-1, Ark of Truth
Susan, this post is true in so many respects. My entire job here at Lijit is to make sure I’m an advocate for the blogger. I’ve found that while many companies may scoff at blogger relations, it’s something that has helped us to build our reputation and our product. Thanks for sharing your knowledge on this topic and I look forward to meeting you in a few days at the BlogHer Business conference.
Susan, you’re of course absolutely right.
Far too many companies STILL (I don’t know how) have the belief that bloggers are crazy nutjobs, rather than their customers. They’re afraid of blowback from said “crazy people,” so they’d rather cover their ears and pretend they don’t hear. They still laugh and put it into that “attack of the bloggers!” category.
The sooner these companies accept the fact that these bloggers are really just concerned customers with large audiences, the sooner they can change these customers’ experiences with their product for the better.
Susan – this was hugely helpful for me as a PR professional. I really enjoyed talking with you on and off camera at the conference. Thanks for your wonderful advice.
This is a very thoughtful and helpful post. I have been chewing on your comment “So far, only one company has left a comment on the relevant post. Other bloggers report similar results. The question is, why?”
I work in PR at Comcast, and found your descriptions of the whole J&J incident on this blog really interesting and look forward to tracking your posts. I’d be glad to dive in when it’s relevant or helpful.
Part of the concern in PR is a sense that sometimes you can’t win whether you respond or not – so why take the risk of making things worse? I’m just speaking for myself, and just trying to be honest. Here is a recent posting, for example, where an exec responded to a blogger and the company is criticized for it (“We’re guessing you folks didn’t get personal calls?”:
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Suffers-Through-Major-Weekend-Outage-93372
Frankly, that reaction surprised me; you would have thought the company would have got points for at least trying.
I think it’s unfortunate if someone did not respond to your posts, that are clearly pretty thoughtful based on the last ones I have read. But perhaps the above example shows that the blog atmosphere is uncertain enough that PR people might move pretty cautiously. I sure welcome advice.
Walter, thanks for your comment. Timing is everything, and it’s hard to know how to respond in a crisis. But it shouldn’t be that hard to respond in the normal course of events, to a normal comment or complaint.
Remember: companies aren’t responding to positive comments either, and I for the life of me don’t know why they aren’t out there saying a simple thank you.
And yes, I’ve heard the argument that the reason is they don’t want people to perceive that the positive comment was somehow “bought.” Sounds more like an excuse to me.
One of my very first posts on MGM concerned Snappy Auctions (they sell your stuff on eBay and take a cut). I was floored to receive an email from a Snappy Auctions exec who found my blog and read my post.
But that’s been it ever since.