It was billed as a fight-out between London’s bloggers and PRs. But in the end broad agreement for how the two camps should work together was the outcome of last night’s London Bloggers meetup.
Cate Sevilla, Bitchbuzz.com; Pete Stean, The Londoneer; and Chris Osburn, Tikichris; lined-up against Matt Churchill, Edelman; Laurence Borel, Mindshare; and myself.
Follow #lbm on Twitter for the conversation around the event. Here’s what we discussed:
- If you’re planning to run a sponsored blogging programme do it properly and transparently. All bloggers targeted as part of a campaign should be treated equally
- Bloggers can help PRs by clearly signposting their likes and dislikes on their blog. If you don’t want unsolicited pitches say so
- Databases of blogs are the enemy of good PR and blogger relationships. PRs should plan campaigns by understanding the blogs that they are targeting and not spamming an email list
- Relevancy, relationships and respect are the key to successful blogger relations. Abuse of these fundamental tenets of PR has been an issue for the industry for the last 20-years
- Bloggers wanting to generate income from their blog should be aware of their part in the role in the client-agency-media supply chain. Is a PR agency seeking favourable comment, feedback or a link back? Is there an opportunity for an ad or to write a sponsored post?
- The PR industry is a broad church and is going through rapid change as it modernises. Some practitioners are excellent at blogger relations, some are still learning
- There can be no better way of gaining experience of blogger relations than blogging yourself
- No one has an appetite for a code of practise for how bloggers and PRs should work together. Commonsense should prevail
Thanks to Andy Bargery for organising another great event.
Pleasure meeting you last night Stephen! It was certainly an interesting discussion, particularly given the ‘PR’ panel’s blogging tendencies!
I think your summary hits the nail on the head, in particular the point you make about the PR industry being a broad church.
I believe that comms professionals working in social media are particularly keen to share their expertise and experience with their colleagues and peers who may not be as well versed in the practical ways of the web and the benefits that a digital element can bring to an overall communications strategy.
I think that the greater emphasis there is on education, sharing and development, regardless of the experience of those learning about digital culture, the better PRs will be able to work with bloggers and communities alike.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Stephen Waddington, Laurence Borel and Uday Radia, Speed Communications. Speed Communications said: Commonsense prevails at PR vs bloggers meetup http://goo.gl/fb/mUh5L (@wadds) #media #pr #socialmedia #lbm [...]
[...] Cate Sevilla from Bitch Buzz, Chris Osburn aka Tiki Chris, and Pete Stean from The Londoneer, with Stephen Waddington (Wadds) from Speed Communications, Matt Churchill from Edelman and Laurence Borel (Lolly) from Mindshare on [...]
I hope I didn’t come across as too aggressive on Weds – I have worked (and am working) with some great public relations people I have to say, and enjoy every minute of it.
I do feel for the brands that employ people to promote them who clearly don’t have a clue – given the kind of sites where their products end up being promoted I don’t imagine they look very good – even ‘sploggers’ would turn their nose up at some of the rubbish I get in my email inbox :
[...] Churchill, Stephen Waddington , Gary Andrews and Pete Stean [...]
[...] Commonsense prevails at bloggers vs PRs meetup (speedcommunications.com) [...]