Transparency seems to be the theme so far today. The panel takes the position that if you want bloggers to post about your products you, as a company, need to be transparent. Give them the information they need, answer their questions, tell the blogger why you chose them. At the same time, don't send them too much information - pitch them, give them tasty tidbits and get them to ask for more.
Secondary, but just as important is to build a relationship with a blogger - read their blogs. Halley especially stressed that you need to read the posts of potential bloggers - learn what they are interested in, how they write, how they view the world on their blog. If you or your company is ready to engage bloggers in your product or service, remember that you company needs to be ready to be transparent. The genie is already out of the bottle and bloggers are going to talk about you anyway. The key is to be open, honest and don't give bloggers the chance to find something you want to hide.
That goes for criticism - engage your critics, comment on their blog, ask for their input. Offer to fix the problem or explain why it works the way it is designed.
RSS and Aggregators
There was much conversation about RSS and Aggregators and the lack of knowledge about them. I think that is an extremely good point. The first step in getting people to read multiple blogs is teaching them what RSS is and how to use them via aggregators.
I agree with your comments and it is clear there is some uncertainty over how PR agencies should engage with the blogosphere. I have just posted some thoughts on our blog - http://www.stonkblog.com/
It's clear that both parties can ultimately help each other out if they engage in the right way. If a PR agency is sending you the latest news that may be of interest to your readers, it's at your discretion as to whether you publish it or not. If you don't agree with the news or don't like the product, tell your readers.
As long as you maintain your own opinions this can't be bad.
This then opens the debate...
Posted by: Adam Clatworthy | November 30, 2006 10:05 AM | Permalink to Comment