This morning I was at Social Media Breakfast 4. It was my first time to SMB and I have to congratulate the organisers on getting a great crowd. I loved the fact that there were so many people from PR agencies and corporations there trying to pickup on new ideas and network with bloggers.
Today’s session focused heavily on blogger relations, for some strange reason because the topic was “Corporate Adoption of Social Media”, and while listening to the discussions something was bugging me about what was being said.
Everyone wanted to find out which were the best bloggers, what bloggers wanted, how to treat them, what to expect from them, and what they wanted to do at events/engagements. It them occurred to me that the reason all that sounded strange was because the fundamentals were missing.
No one said: “I engaged a blogger because he/she bought my product, loved it, and blogged about it”.
This I found quite funny because anyone who’s been doing social media marketing knows that to start you need to listen. And if you’ve listened right, you’d know who your fans are and who you need to impress a second round.
I have also noticed that at most corporate blogger events in Singapore, it is almost always the same bunch of bloggers. It can’t possibly be true that all these same folk bought and loved Samsung, Sony, Intel, Lenovo, HP, and Dell.
To me the biggest mistake a corporation or PR agency can make is to aim for the highest profile bloggers and neglect those not-so-famous fans who have already blogged about them. Not that engaging the popular bloggers aren’t a good idea, but seriously, we have to start where it matters and greater impact is felt when one of these fans tells his buddy: “Hey, after buying this product, they invited me to check out a sneak peak of the new model and it’s damn hot!”
Well, at least that’s what I’d go after when trying out blogger relations.
Filed under: Marketing, Social Media
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I was surprised that no one said, “We can’t make crappy products because bloggers will expose us.”
It seriously bothers me that more than one of the panelist noted the SOS (shiny object syndrome) and the desire for bloggers to go out and drink alcohol.
In an environment like Singapore where all media except blogs are censored, it would be better for bloggers to understand their position in society as a low key check against the occasional arrogance and laziness of professional journalists and advertisers.
If the swarm of bloggers can point out that the Brand X campaign is bunk or the hyped-up social event wasn’t that great, then they are wielding tremendous social power. Bloggers can also bring up issues and happenings that are excluded (intentionally or unintentionally) from traditional media.
Instead, there’s an extremely popular group of bloggers that ignore their social responsibility, exalt their own personalities, and get lost in a sea of alcohol and flashy things.
@cneil: You are right that most bloggers here that respond to PR don’t see themselves as the 5th Estate. This social power and responsibility is felt more among political bloggers than technology/lifestyle bloggers.
In Singapore, the social media scene isn’t as mature as the we’d like it to be. Even the mainstream media here doesn’t come close to the objectivity and knowledge we see in the US. There’s a lot more growth to come and we can be part of the change. =)
Totally agree with you Ben. And yes, it’s tiring to see the same bunch of bloggers.
@cneil: when I asked the question on whether every company should adopt social media, I was having something similar in mind – if the company is making crappy products and has no intention of improving, then maybe it’s not a good idea for them to go into social media.
Hey Benjamin,
It was great putting a face to a famous name, and I’m glad I’ve met you at both Samsung’s and SMB’s events.
I agree that the social media scene locally isn’t as mature or sophisticated as we’d like it to be. That said, I do think it is only fair we give ourselves a bit more time to grow.
It’s like our arts scene. Suddenly, culture matters to our merit-driven country and we find ourselves flooded with nonstop art exhibitions, festivals and whatnot. Do we get quality as much as we do with quantity? I don’t think so. I find our local artists more capable of writing their creative rationale (promotion) as opposed to producing their art pieces (product).
And if you think about it, the same could happen to our social media environment. If we don’t allow ourselves time to grow, we’d end up focusing on promoting ourselves and neglecting what really matters most – the product. Our god damn blog.
Pat
Excellent points you have raised.
It also bemuses me as to why it’s always the same people at all the events. Is it because it is that hard to engage new bloggers or is it a complacency?
@Rachel. Thanks for comment. I think there’s a mix of fear, complacency, and habit. But I think there’s a place for bloggers to make friends with marketing too if they are genuinely interested in a brand/product.
I think it really takes two hands to clap, because this phenomena stems not only from the bloggers’ immatured attitude towards social outreach programmes, but also the PR people managing them, as well as the brands whom they are ‘advocating’ for.
Alot of my clients value quantitative measurements like pageviews and popularity over virtues like content credibility, which is the whole point of having blogger outreach in the first place.
Instead of managing their expectations, many top digital PR practitioners in Singapore (I’m not sure about overseas) seek out safe blogger options, hence you see the same faces everywhere. They also use bribe mechanics to “control” bloggers, which I think is a shame.