My favourite Christmas film is Jingle All The Way – a truly terrible 90s flick starring Arnold Swassenburger, or however you spell his name.
It’s about a father who lets down his son , a comic book character called TurboMan and a reindeer with a chip on its shoulder. Like I said, really, really bad. Somehow, however, one of TurboMan’s kid-friendly catch phrases seems to have worked its way into my everyday vocabulary: “Always keep your promises if you want to keep your friends” Sure, it’s pretty slushy, but for the purposes of this post, it’s pretty important.
Being a blogger can be brilliant – there’s certainly a lot of perks if you put the work in. Hard work, in the blogging world, is usually rewarded with a loyal and engaged readership, meeting new friends and potential new opportunities, and the odd freebie or two. But as the world of PR and digital marketing in general wakes up to the authority and voice you have in these spaces online, there’s more and more ‘siris biznis’ (as Snoop Dogg would say) up for grabs. Companies and brands are looking to recruit bloggers for projects, campaigns and advertising. They want to harness your creativity and your reach – it’s part of the reason we started doing what we do.
For many bloggers, being approached by brands to work on paid projects can be totally new – and many brands can often assume bloggers are all experienced freelancers. So allow us to tell you the key to making all this work: keep your promises.
There’s an odd dialogue happening online at the moment as everyone works out how this whole thing is going to work – every other week we cringe as a PR company sends an email starting ‘dear blogger’ and they are hung out to dry on Twitter. We’ve always made a point to stay out of these discussions, hey, we’re not perfect ourselves – and instead implore bloggers to follow simple rules to make sure they get what they want from working with brands. This includes being honest – whether that’s about your readership levels or your ability to meet deadlines, your expectations – whether that’s monetary or something else, and your availability – for example, can you really write fourteen blog posts on dental floss? Even if the money’s right? Even if you’re going travelling round Europe for six weeks? Really?
The relationship works two ways too, and whilst we’ve always been anti-contract (we don’t believe in tying bloggers down into exclusivity as we don’t want to stifle their potential), we will always lay out our expectations and deadlines clearly and as early on in the relationship as possible. Brands expect these to be met, but aren’t inflexible – communication is key to any relationship, just ask your Grandparents. If you take product samples and don’t respond to e-mails, or continually miss deadlines without notice, further opportunities might not come along as often as you’d like.
It all comes back to this idea of keeping your promises and it’s fundamental in making this whole thing work. Being realistic, being communicative and being honest will all ensure that brands remember you, and use you again – just ask the bloggers we repeatedly return to for work. It’s fine to be new to this, it’s fine to not be sure exactly what you’re doing 100% of the time – we’re always an email away if you have any questions: martin@bestbritishbloggers.co.uk
6 Responses
Well said, behaving professionally goes both ways. Also it’s worth PRs bearing in mind that bloggers will often take a very different approach to journalists. As a journalist who blogs, I tend to write and publish reviews quite quickly, usually as close to a product launch as possible. I want my post to be newsy and distinctive and not the umpteenth review you might have seen of a particular product.
However, I know many bloggers will take the approach that they want to experience a product very thoroughly before they write about it, so if you send them a sample then you might not see a review for a month or two. Both approaches have their merits, and it’s probably better for both brand and blogger to clarify their expectations from the start.
Well said Joanne – I completely agree. It’s all about those initial conversations where expectations are laid out for both parties to agree on. As mentioned, some companies will do this through contracts, but we actively avoid those as much as we’re able.
As an example, if we’re working with a fashion product, we usually ask that bloggers review the item within two weeks of receiving it, as we think that’s a good amount of time to get some wear out of it and to write up a post. That being said, if a blogger has a special occasion they are keen to wear it at, and they’ve let us know, we’re flexible with these timings.
I think a lot of the friction that comes from PR / blogger relations is simply bad communication and getting off on the wrong foot. Hopefully by encouraging best practise in the bloggers we work with, adhering to our own guidelines and keeping our promises, we, and the industries working in this area in general, can start getting it right.
I completely agree – I think courtesy, politeness and honesty has to be paramount on both sides. Neither the company nor the blogger should make an agreement they are not comfortable with, and I think a lot of the arguments or friction are a result of both sides not communicating clearly with each other most of the time.
That being said, I’ve never been approached by a company so goodness knows what I think I’m talking about! I just think professionalism is key, always.
It’s interesting you mention fashion, I’m sure I’ve heard bloggers say that they like to wear shoes for a month before writing about them. Speaking of shoes, I think you will like this post: http://joannemallon.typepad.com/joanne_the_coach/2012/03/how-to-piss-off-a-parent-blogger.html
Brilliant post Joanne, hilarious stuff! Thankfully I don’t think we commit any of those sins – everyone who works here at BBB are bloggers themselves (and were before they joined) – so we know your pain! We haven’t worked on too many projects involving shoes, but they are an option for some of the brands we work with, so we’ll bear it in mind, thanks.
Thanks for your comment, Seonaid – it’s great that you’ve already started thinking about this stuff before you’ve been approached, it shows that you’re proactive and professional, and when the PRs do come knocking, you’ve set yourself up for a great working relationship from the outset. Kudos to you!