Building a relationship needs to be done with enough smartness. The business development team of the company plays an important role in doing so. You need to set a goal in terms of what kind of relationship you are looking for. It is good if it is done in the form of a peer-to-peer engagement.
Bloggers often complain that the PR people do not spend enough time on knowing what the bloggers want. The PR people are expected to engage with the customer. The PR people do not have enough information about the product until the bloggers provide them with quality information. It is not only telling a story but, it is almost like selling a story. You cannot head toward a fruitful solution until you get your research done completely. You need to have enough information about your target customer too.
Approach a blogger from all directions. All a blogger can think of is the traffic to his/her page. You can take a good write up by the blogger and submit to a social media site. Get the mutual friends call the blogger on your behalf. Just be on their radar. Nothing can make a blogger happier than the traffic. Make the blogger feel that you put the content first. It is easy. The story needs to be bookmarked in Delicious using their tag.
You need to Digg the write-up by a blogger. Try to know how the bloggers get information for their stories. You can reach out to them through Twitter or Facebook. This is the way you take baby steps towards building the relationship with a blogger. Leave comments after reading their blogs. If possible, try to read their blogrolls. You also need to know who they enjoy reading.
There is a million ways to start a conversation if you are willing to. It is not even bad to take the back door to initiate the process. Bloggers are often at loss of content to write on. Provide them with what they need most. Often bloggers lay out their favorite ways of being contacted by the PR people. The two-way traffic should be there. Otherwise a fruitful relationship won’t materialize. They should also take care that the PR personnel does not face much problem in the process. The blogger also has the responsibility to cover the market in the best possible way.
The new era of customer service has unique demands. The blogsphere has people who have opinions of their own. Bloggers are customers. So, you are spared of the trouble of getting press releases written.
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