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For our 11:00 session, we’ll be hearing from Melanie Feehan, Ellen Gerstein of Save the Children, and Kristin Hylek of McDonald’s. This is a big deal for me, as I would prefer to form long term brand relationships than have only short term one-off sponsored posts or reviews. (I do have lengthy relationships with my regional McDonald’s folks and with Price Chopper, now re-branding as Market 32, but their campaigns are sporadic.)
Blogger-Brand Relations: Not a One-Night Stand
Kristin says that McDonald’s has been working with bloggers for 7 or 8 years, and they started by attending blogging conferences to build relationships. McDonald’s looks for different types of bloggers, not just one certain demographic, which is a common misconception. McDonald’s is an old school brand in many ways, and they’ve built their business on relationships with their customers.
Loved hearing “we aren’t looking for influencers to hock happy meals for us, we offer more” @khylek6 from McDonalds PR #typeanyc
— Jenn Greene (@traveljenn) August 1, 2015
Ellen has been with Save the Children for about six months. The organization looks after the whole child. When looking for influencers to connect with, it’s a pyramid. If you RT them, you’re at the bottom of the influence pyramid, and that’s fine. Some people will naturally want to become more involved, and causes need to be conscious of what is important to both influencers and their readers.
She hopes that #CecilTheLion will be like a gateway drug to get people more involved in causes they feel passionate about. If people are outraged about what happened to this poor lion, maybe they can be mobilized to support other causes like children or #BlackLivesMatter or income equality, etc. Melanie acknowledges how annoyed we get at pitches offering us only high-res images in exchange for coverage. She recommends not being snarky to the PR people trying to be cheap, but to respond respectfully in order to not burn a bridge that may eventually gain a budget for their influencer outreach work. If you go an extra mile on a campaign, too, you will be remembered for future campaigns. But since there is high turnover in the PR industry, it’s okay to reach back out to a brand you were working with 4-6 months later with ideas for another campaign with them.
Always be kind & respectful in your response. Even when being offered “high res images” (sigh) – great tip from @melaniemiddle1 #typeanyc — Monica Storch (@MacaroniKidNYC) August 1, 2015
How should you followup? Reach out and say that you really enjoyed working on the last campaign (link to your work on it!) and provide any data you can to let them know that you’re serious about working together with them. You can even do this years later if one of your “sleeper” posts suddenly explodes due to Pinterest shares or something.
From a brand, when u follow up after an sponsorship ask the tough question,”Were you happy with the results?” and go from there! #typeanyc
— Nancy Dussault Smith (@NancyDSmith) August 1, 2015
Adapting and evolving is necessary. Video has become really important. This is happening. If you think you can’t do video, there are people with dull personalities making millions of dollars on YouTube. You have a phone, you can do video. If you dabble in it now, you set yourself up for success down the road.
1 of these days I should listen to the MANY people saying I need to do video. It’s where #BrandBloggerRelations are headed. #typeanyc — Colleen Bohensky (@AMadisonMom) August 1, 2015
It’s a blogger’s responsibility to defend themselves. (This is in the context of the whole “corn syrup” debacle from a few years ago.) Research the brands who want to pay you, because some of them are targeting mom bloggers because their company has a PR nightmare they’re trying to handle. It’s one thing to know what Monsanto is about, and blogging about “corn sugar” would damage your credibility if you blog about not feeding your family HFCS, etc. It’s another thing when an organization like SGK came out against Planned Parenthood a few years ago, which gave a lot of people a bit of a shock and made some passionate people change their minds about who they supported. Take the stand you need to take to retain your personal integrity.
You need a mission statement so a brand knows what you are all about! what do you stand for? #typeanyc
— Jenn Greene (@traveljenn) August 1, 2015
It’s your responsibility as a blogger to know your worth. @melaniemiddle1 #typeanyc — Afropolitan Mom (@AfropolitanMom) August 1, 2015
Marketing and PR are two different departments. (My comment: maybe they need to change that and evolve with the world marketplace shaping up the way it is.)
Don’t give away everything when you pitch an idea to a brand. Say enough to be intriguing but not enough to let them run with your ideas and go with those ideas…without you.
Brands want your media kits. They want studies. They want stats.
Make your own case studies & research what you did for the campaign, good or bad. It will help you land more gigs @BarbaraJones #typeANYC
— Danyelle Little (@TheCubicleChick) August 1, 2015
Think outside of the box. You can reach out to a tech company with a crossover idea with yoga and fitness. You can do a crossover pitch with your fashion blog. (For me personally, I often pitch brands from the perspective of an autistic woman, or a chronically ill woman, and let them know how that brand’s products meet a need for my segment of the population, and they may not have considered that.)
Try not to be envious of the opportunities your peers are getting. Go out there and find your own opportunities. Seek out those contacts. If there’s a brand you want to work with, reach out to them and try to partner with them. Look for the brands who don’t already have a social media presence, and you can help them establish that.
That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.
