On June 3, 2008, Allison Blass from the MWW Group, was kind enough to speak in our Advanced Public Relations Writing class. Our class was particularly interested in her immense knowledge of social media. Blass had started exploring the world of social media early in her career by starting a blog. She then became an expert in all forms of social media by landing a job with MWW Group as a new media coordinator in New Jersey. She works on health and lifestyle accounts, such as Vitals.com, FreshDirect and 1-800-Flowers.
Our class was interested in pitching to bloggers and spent the entire hour discussing the topic. Blass first explained the importance of blog research and how to “blog hop.” Blog hopping is when a person goes from one blog to another by way of one’s blogroll. Noticing that many people have linked to or featured the same blogs reveals which ones are popular and relevant.
Blass also recommended that we tally our blog research with an Excel spreadsheet. This enables us to compare blog authority according to a set of criteria. She stressed that the ranking on Technorati is a poor indicator of popularity.
Blass gave us a few tips to remember when pitching to a blogger:
1) Find the correct contact information. Do not rely on database records for e-mail addresses; they can often be incorrect.
2) Check out the “About” section on his or her blog and relate back to it in your pitch.
3) Include an interview opportunity, link to the press release, or link to multimedia in the e-mail pitch. It is important to give the blogger as much as possible for them to get hooked on your story.
4) Monitor Technorati and Google Blog Search after you send the pitch.
Consuming PR 