Outreach programs go far beyond a typical pay-per-post or sponsored posting strategy. Outreach programs involve getting out there and getting involved with the conversations that are happening with the brand. They require an upfront declaration that clearly identifies yourself, and your position with the company you represent.
We start by finding the conversations. The easiest way to do this is to search Google Blog Search and Technorati for bloggers currently talking about our products. Let’s look at Mercedes-Benz for example. To put the universe in perspective, there are nearly 23,000 blog results on Technorati for ‘Mercedes’. Making sense of the results is the next hurdle. With 23,000 results it’s difficult to know which blogs are worth connecting and establishing a relationship with. That’s where the Authority comes in. Technorati Authority is defined as:
… the number of blogs linking to a website in the last six months. The higher the number, the more Technorati Authority the blog has. It is important to note that we measure the number of blogs, rather than the number of links. So, if a blog links to your blog many times, it still only count as +1 toward your authority. Of course, new links mean the +1 will last another 180 days. Technorati Rank is calculated based on how far you are from the top. The blog with the hightest Technorati Authority is the #1 ranked blog. The smaller your Technorati Rank, the closer you are to the top.
We need to identify tiers of bloggers we would like to reach. The tiers should be ranked by influence and reach (these are not the same thing) within the niche(s) you’re focusing on, and Technorati Authority helps us do that for Mercedes. Tier 1 bloggers should get the most attention, tier 2 should get a bit less and so on. This will ensure that time is being allocated to achieve the best impact.
For tier 1 we can point to autoblog.com (A: 3,895), jalopnik.com (A: 2,398), and leftlanenews.com (A: 469) as examples of very influential and highly trafficked auto blogs. Often times, getting involved with content seeding on these sites usually results in the viral spreading of links across social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us and reddit, as well as posted on social news sites like digg.com. This is how the buzz begins.
Tier 2 examples include blogs like carscoop.blogspot.com, emercedesbenz.com, automotive.com, cardomain.com, seriouswheels.com, autoweek.com, internetautoguide.com, autoextra.com, autobuyguide.com, automedia.com, worldcarfans.com, and motorauthority.com.
Once you have identified key influencers of all shapes and sizes, it is reasonable to begin to group them by unique characteristics, social status, outlooks, levels of interaction/participation on their blog and within their community, and by theme. Tailoring your approach for each group must be distinctive, but all groups and influencers must be treated as equal. Every opinion counts.
The next step is to start developing real relationships with the bloggers themselves. The best way to do this is ask what you can do for them before you need anything from them. Try to add value to the community they’ve created. We will do this by providing Mercedes seeding content, teaser video and imagery. News about launch dates and launch event information is extremely relevant and popular conversation material. Participating in the comments of E-Class Mercedes-related blog posts will add much needed authority to the blog and often times will be gladly welcomed by the owner.
When we are seeding blog content to our chosen sites, it’s important to be prepared in case the owner asks for more information on the release. We should be able to readily follow up with more information including pre-packaged social media content such as quotes, videos, photos, widgets, and logos that are blog-ready (often in a social media news release).
The most important thing to remember is to write for the blog’s audience. The message needs to be to the point and tailored to the blog as much as possible. You can break through the clutter just by writing clearly and focusing on the value and relevance to the blog’s community.
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