This document discusses blogger outreach as a strategy to promote products and services. It notes that bloggers and social media now rival traditional media in driving traffic and influencing opinions. Case studies show that targeted outreach to influential bloggers can help boost beta users and return on investment. The key aspects of effective blogger outreach are researching bloggers and their interests, building relationships over time, pitching only relevant content, and respecting bloggers' preferences. While some debate whether bloggers truly move public opinion, immersed participation in blogging communities can help identify emerging trends.

1. The Reality Check Guide To Blogger Outreach Heidi Sullivan @hksully Vice President, Global Media Research Cision

2. Why Bloggers?

3. The Conversation Shift The Public The Media Traditional Media Model PR/Marketing Us Social Media Model

4. If the news is that important, it will find me. college student quoted in New York Times, March 2008 Bloggers and voices on social sites vie for influence directly with traditional media. Facebook now drives more traffic to PerezHilton and the Huffington Post than Google does. WebProNews, May 2009

5. Case Study & Goal – increase beta users by 100K Method – Targeted Blogger Outreach

6. Case Study & I saw your post a couple weeks ago, “Think Before You Voicemail,” so I know how you feel about voicemail, and I agree with you on all points. I try to avoid leaving people voicemails, at work and in my personal life, and would much rather send and receive emails or texts. But, as you mentioned, sometimes you need to use voicemail – to convey tone or emotion, or because you’re on the road and need to relay more information than you can type while driving or otherwise multi-tasking… - Pitch to

7. Case Study & I work for a PR agency and have a client that just launched a new service today. I thought of you because this service has the potential to make the celeb dating scene a lot more interesting, if that’s even possible! It even has a cool name – slydial! If LC could leave Heidi a voicemail without the possibility of Heidi picking up the phone, what do you think she would say? What about Mario Lopez? He got caught cheating on his long-time girlfriend…. - Pitch to

8. Case Study & Resulted in 381 Blog Posts in 1 Month (including TechCrunch and Perez Hilton) ROI: “By hitting online consumers from all angles, the program helped boost slydial’s 5,000 private alpha users to more than 200,000 beta users in less than two weeks.”

9. The Niche Nature of Blogging

10. I’ve got blogs whose target audience is 100 people – the right 100 people. Chris Anderson Author of The Long Tail and Free

11. Using social data for long-range predictive analytics Acceleration of conversations on blogs often precedes both the manifestation of a trend and its news coverage By identifying new opportunities for investors, bloggers helped bring green tech investing out of its 2009 slump “Green technology” investment, blog discussion and news coverage Sources: Cision Media Research, Treehugger.com & Cleantech Group Solar-powered coffee maker

12. Why are blogs ahead of the curve? Many blogs are focused on niche topics which news outlets tend to cover more sporadically and reactively Blogs are where industry tastemakers lay out their thoughts and predictions, which get re-circulated on Twitter and Facebook Influential blogs are updated constantly Photo courtesy Alan Levine via Flickr

13. The devil is in the details About one quarter of bloggers tracked in Cision’s media database cover one of 26 “first tier” general topics. The rest cover more specific topics. Source: Cision Media Research

14. The Who, Why & How

15. Blogger Outreach The Four “R”s: “Tailor to how we cover beauty. Demonstrate that you get our approach.” Research Relationships Relevance Respect – Lesa Hannah, Beauty Director for FASHION

16. Research Look at writing style, voice and tone Research past coverage (bylines, reports, posts) Know what they DON’T cover Be aware what they’re looking for Update your lists

17. Relationships Compliments never hurt! Follow them on Twitter/social networks Comment on blog posts Connect IRL It takes time, nurtureand maintain them

18. Relevance Better to send out fewer, personalized messages Never send a pitch without some introduction Make it clear, keep it brief Only send material you know they’ll read

19. Respect Know their preferred method of contact Don’t leave long voicemails or follow up via phone If you haven’t heard back, don’t panic Know when to step back and when to push When in doubt, include an opt-out Keep your word!

20. Do Bloggers Really Influence Opinions?

21. of any population will be active content creators will be participants will simply "consume" that content online 1% 9% 90% Data from:

22. Anyone Can Be an Influencer It used to be that in order to have a powerful voice in the Momosphere, you had to do what I did: write four books, appear on dozens of national morning shows, speak at parenting groups and more… Now thanks to social media, moms have been able to - from the basement in their house in Iowa, to the deck in their backyard in San Diego - build an audience not by going to traditional media or writing a book, but gather audience based on the power of their voice, the clarity of what their expressing and the resonance it has with their audience. Stacey DeBroff@momcentral

23. Do bloggers truly influence the masses? Duncan Watts: Trends are Unpredictable “A rare bunch of cool people just don’t have that power. And when you test the way marketers say the world works, it falls apart.” Gladwell’sLaw of the Few “The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts.”

24. Who is right: Watts or Gladwell? Both. Trends still begin with a small few and are spread by those with connections. Bloggers can change over time – and anyone can become an influencer. However, a general rule of thumb is that bloggers and influencers tend to talk to each other. Immersing yourself in that community will help you spot trends as they emerge.

25. Remember the 10% Regardless of whether or not bloggers truly influence, only 1 out of 10 people is truly sharing and creating content online. Spreading the word makes them influential. Know your community. Read, read, read! Identify what’s new.

26. Connect with me! Heidi Sullivan Vice President, Global Media Research Email: heidi.sullivan@cision.com Homepage: us.cision.com Blog: blog.cision.com Facebook: facebook.com/hksully Twitter: @hksully LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/heidisullivan