What’s So Bad about Travel Bloggers? Jul 6, 2010
Don’t you hate it when you come across a great article, save it, and then spend half and hour afterwards trying to find it? Errg. Anyway, I was reading an article that had some very good statistics about the effectiveness of PR firms reaching out to bloggers – the figures were shockingly low, actually. As a “travel blogger” myself (our sister website is a travel lifestyle magazine), I see both sides of this PR/blogger relationship, and I have to say that both are to blame.
- They often take a heavy-handed approach, not understanding that bloggers prefer a relationship-based approach and often work on their blogs part-time.
- There is sometimes over-emphasis on numbers and not taking a closer look to see if there is actually a community spirit.
- They are often not from a journalism background, so their approach to PR can be a bit amateurish.
- They’re juggling a lot of balls – and often not getting paid much to do so.
I have great relationships on both sides, but you don’t have to look hard to find PR and bloggers not meeting eye-to-eye. But now that you have your expectations set, your approach will be different, right?
Why Bloggers Are the Small Business Owner’s Friend
Bloggers are your friend, my dear small business owner! You see, they provide the do-it-yourself PR approach with easy to access fodder. If you keep all of the above in mind, you’ll have some good results I think. Some ways you can utilise an effective business-blogger relationship:
- SEO: As mentioned above, bloggers are usually operating on a shoestring budget, so most offer the option to buy links. Yes, I know I know, that’s totally not cool in Google’s book, but people do it.
- Content: Similar to the above, many blogs accept sponsored content – meaning you can buy a place in their editorial. Yes, advertorial. It sounds gross, but it can be done very very well – in fact, to do well in a blogging environment, the less your advertorial looks like an advertorial, the better.
- Access to Niche Markets: The strength and the USP of a blog is niche. Niche niche niche. Are you a travel agency known for your knowledge in adrenaline tourism? Then target adventure blogs. Are you a gay tour operator? Time to hang out on the gay travel blogs. Luxury B&B nobody’s heard of? Time to tweet the luxury travel bloggers.
- Direct Access: Unlike a New York times journalist, bloggers are usually pretty accessible – just send them a tweet or an email. Others can be harder to get ahold of, but overall I’d say they are very approachable. They might even have a connection to someone else in their network you might be interested in getting access to.
I’m sad to hear PR folk are not finding success with bloggers – because these niche platforms in many cases have a huge following and can do wonders to get the word out. Take advantage of them by taking some time to evaluate the blogs that you feel are a good match for your offering and ethos, then make an approach! The worst they can say is no (or, actually, not reply at all…).
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Photo by oneras.
