Blog Relations - pitching bloggers
A majority of PRs - 56 percent - say that they have never pitched a blogger, with 28 per cent saying that they "occasionally do so," and only 14 per cent saying that they regularly pitch bloggers.
It is interesting that almost half those PR PROs who have never pitched a blog, nevertheless agree with the statement that "there are already a good number of influential blogs". This suggests that PRs believe that blogs are important, but are not following up the logic of the conclusion.
John Cass, director of Backbone media, describes some of the ‘influential’ bloggers: "Customers are using the Internet to connect with their fellow customers. They are literally publishing online, assessing their fellow customer opinions and making purchase decisions based those online interactions. If PR professionals want to influence the new influential customers directly, they will have to learn how to conduct blogger relations."
On a note of caution, the culture of bloggers may be resistant to traditional PR tractics: "People need to understand the nuances of using blogs effectively in corporate communications," says David Rossiter, principle consultant, Sunesis, UK, while Usher Lieberman, president of the Usher group in the USA says, "You don’t ‘pitch’ blogs per se. You engage them in the dialogue."
| Of the those respondents who have never pitched a blog, how many think that blogs have influence? | percent |
| Hardly any blogs have influence | 11.5 |
| There are a few influential blogs | 42.3 |
| There are already a good number of influential blogs | 46.5 |
| Of those who occasionally pitch blogs, how many think that blogs have influence? | percent |
| Hardly any blogs have any influence | 7.1 |
| There are a few influential blogs | 42.9 |
| There are already a good number of influential blogs | 50 |
| Of those respondents who regularly pitch blogs, how many think they have influence? | percent |
| Hardly any blogs have any influence | 0 |
| There are a few influential blogs | 57.1 |
| There are already a good number of influential blogs | 42.9 |
