Know-How Exchange : Social Media

Here are answers to a similar question:
https://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstID=24648

Dear Mic,

As well as the great resources on the link from Jay above, consider using www.alexa.com and www.quantcast.com to check traffic. Note, not ALL sites will be quantified by Quantcast, but that might not matter much if the Alexa rankings come back showing healthy traffic.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

Hi,

Please check the reputation of the blogger. These are my checklist.

1. Tweets posted on his blog posts
2. Twitter followers count.
3. Technorati Authority Rank.
4. Alexa Rank
5. Feed burner stats
6. Yahoo & Google Back links

Thanks,
Mary

Hi Mic! I actually worked with an agency earlier this year to target bloggers that would help them raise awareness of a webcast for their client. Here's a post I wrote that recapped what we did:

https://moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com/2009/05/case-study-citi-uses-social-...

One of the issues we had, which it sounds like you are struggling with as well, is how do we determine who the influential and trusted bloggers are?

My thinking was that you can't simply concentrate on subscriber numbers, because many bloggers have a large subscriber base, but rarely have any interaction on their blog. So instead of focusing just on larger subscriber numbers, we targeted bloggers that had active blogs where their readers interacted with them. We did this because these bloggers had developed a trust and relationship with their readers, whereas the other bloggers didn't seem to have that level of interaction with their readers. So I guess you could say we weren't looking just for a 'following', but an engaged following, if that makes sense.

I think it ended up working out for us, as webcast signups doubled what we were hoping for. So I would caution you against looking at just subscriber numbers, as I think that only tells part of the story.

Good luck!
Mack

Mic,

Targeting bloggers without having a relationship with them might prove to be unfruitful regardless of their rankings, comments or traffic.

Pitching bloggers is similar (in some regards) to pitching the media, it's about who you have a relationship with AND if you are pitching something they actually blog about. For example, you might be trying to pitch your client's new book, but the blogger might not do book reviews. You just wasted a pitch and annoyed a blogger.

Ask yourself "Why should this blogger care about my client? Is there a mutual relationship here?"

Numbers don't tell the whole story... Do they have a large following but no one ever tweets about them or their posts? Do people link back to them? Are they lacking conversation at their blog? There are a lot of bloggers that have HUGE numbers on Twitter, but when you look at their blog there is little to no commenting. That's an indication of their lack of influence (usually because they are not following targeted people on Twitter).

You might be better off with reaching out and developing relationships with bloggers that have smaller reader counts but a vibrant community. You can tell when a blogger is influencial by how they are regarded within their 'real' community.

Here are some posts on blogger relations. Hopefully they will provide useful steps to help you and your client.

1. Blogger Relations: It’s easier than you think… https://bit.ly/pNIzx (This is my post)

2. 10 Steps to Building a Better Blogger-Relations Program https://bit.ly/1D5gNz (Brian Solis)

3. Blogger Relations 101 https://bit.ly/2g4AYQ (Lee Odden)

4. Blogger Relations: 5 Basic Cultural Facts https://bit.ly/3oIbXd (Kami Huyse)

5. Six Steps to Better Blogger Relations https://bit.ly/35CgLW (Media Bullseye)

Hope these help!

Beth Harte
Community Manager, MarketingProfs
@bethharte