Forrester’s 2009 report about sponsored conversations defended pay-per-posts as a valid approach to drive buzz for companies. The analysts define sponsored conversations as:
A marketing technique in which marketers provide financial or material compensation to bloggers in exchange for their posting blog content about a brand.
Each blogger has an audience, the members of which implicitly trust the opinions of said blogger. Put simply, if the blogger endorses a product or company, their audience will be more inclined to buy it.
Sponsored conversations accomplish a couple of things for your company:
- They get to show the hands-on experience of using your product, which can’t be otherwise seen through advertising or in-store sales.
- They widen your exposure for a relatively low investment.
The key to making the arrangement work for all parties is disclosure and authenticity on the part of the blogger and sponsoring company. Bloggers should be allowed express their honest opinion, so there are some obvious risks. For one, your whole plan could backfire if you get a negative review. To be honest though, bloggers, by nature, tend to be genuine types of people, so they probably wouldn’t accept the assignment if they didn’t already have at least a neutral opinion about your brand or product. The risk is there and it’s real so it’s good to plan ahead in the event such a scenario actually plays out.
I personally have reviewed everything from my delectable (no, really) Epson Workforce 600 to books. I find it’s a great way to engage with a brand and understand how it can help my audience.
So what do you think? Is your company embracing this new form of promotion? Will you start? Let me know in the comments.
I’m amazed by how many people don’t know what PR is. Sure, I do it for a living, but I’ve always just assumed that most have a general understanding of the concept – boy have I been wrong.
So let’s kick things off with a mini PR course that covers the basics. If you’re reading this post and wondering what exactly the P and the R stand for — then you’re in the right place.
What is PR?
PR is the acronym for public relations. Now I’m no Webster, but I define “public relations” as the combination of activities that go into getting information and/or news about a company and its products to the general public.
PR can include:
* Press Releases
* Product Reviews (on blogs, in magazines)
* Social Media
A lot of times PR overlaps with marketing and social media, so don’t be afraid to blur the lines. They can all work together quite happily.
What does PR try to accomplish?
The goal of public relations is to tap into a wider audience so that they can be introduced to your product. You accomplish this task through any number of media channels. From taking an interview with a reporter writing an article for an industry magazine, to addressing the questions of a blogger posting a product review on his site. Public relations even includes people on Twitter sharing a link to your website because they love it.
PR relies heavily on what some call brand evangelists. These are people who believe in your brand enough to tell others about it. We all have those brands we adore. That we use regularly and tell our friends to use. We’re brand evangelists for those products. You want to create those for your brand, and PR is a great way to kick start the evangelism.
Why you need it
PR is essentially free publicity. Consumers tend to listen more to newspaper articles, blogs, and reviews than banner ads, print ads or Yellow Page ads. They’re looking for more meat, more understanding of what your brand is all about, and PR can provide that (at little to no cost to you! We love inexpensive promotion tactics!)
You want to build relationships with journalists and bloggers and help them become brand evangelists, as well as let them help you spread the word. You can’t buy the value of a well-placed article!
What it can do for you
My clients who get placements in publications and/or blogs see an increase in web traffic almost immediately. They also see a rise in sales. More inquiries, more interview opportunities, you name it. That’s when you know PR has done its job.
The Caveat
All that being said, understand that it’s pretty hard to get into mainstream media. You, your sister, your neighbor and Paula Deen are trying to get on Oprah, so that might not be your best option in terms of effort spent. Go for the smaller publications, industry websites and blogs to get better bang for your buck.
My Promise to you
On this blog I’ll be discussing various aspects of public relations. I talk a lot about press releases, and will do my best to help you navigate doing them on your own should you choose to. I also will cover ways bloggers are emerging as PR’s best kept secret (but not for long), as well as social media’s role in PR and marketing.
Since public relations is changing nearly daily, I’ll cover what’s going on in the world, give you good and bad examples and give my commentary (always more than two cents!) on the PR world.
But the biggest part will be your active participation! I want to know what you want to hear about! What burning questions do you have about public relations? Are you stumped on what to do for your company? Throw them all my way! I’d love to use your questions as fodder for my next blog post. And if you’re on Twitter, you can always tweet me a good topic: @eggmarketing.
I hope you enjoy my posts!