As a follow up to my post ‘10 tips for good blogger relations’, I have found a campaign which I feel is a shining example of how best to conduct good blogger relations.

Molson is Canada’s oldest and most successful beer company. In 2008 they decided to launch a blogger relations campaign after recognising that the majority of their customers were online. The aim of the campaign was to connect with social media aficionados and influential bloggers throughout Canada in order to reach a broader customer base and to create more awareness of Molson products.

Their main objective was to build strong personal relationships with key bloggers in the Greater Toronto Area. They identified different groups of bloggers to target including consumer bloggers, lifestyle bloggers, marketing bloggers, food and drink bloggers and bloggers in the ‘magic middle’ that link to the more influential bloggers.

The tactics were to invite a select number of bloggers to an event at the Molson brewery: Brew 2.0. The event would consist of a full tour of the brewery, a food and drink tasting session, a sneak preview of new Molson beers and just a general shindig.

The targeted bloggers were sent e-vites by Molsen’s PR agency who had already built initial relationships with them. They were written in a conversational and personal way in order to make sure the bloggers didn’t think they were being ‘pitched’ anything. Twitter was then used as a follow up to the e-vites as a means to connect and introduce the attendees to each other and to the Molson team.

The event was a great success with all bloggers that attended being sent a complimentary crate of Molson beer the following day. Twitter was again used alongside follow-up emails to thank all of the attendees for coming. Links were placed in Tweets to direct bloggers to pictures and videos of the event which they could use if they wished to write about it.

As a result of the Brew 2.0, Molson was widely written about by bloggers in Canada, the USA and in the UK. It also created a lot of discussion on social network sites such as Twitter. A lot of the coverage was a celebration of Molson beer or a portrayal of Molson as a forward thinking, dynamic company.

What I really liked about this campaign was that there was no ‘pitch’ by Molson. The bloggers were left to write about the company if they wanted to and at no point did Molson apply any pressure to do so.

The campaign was completely built upon the idea of building relationships and that is why it worked. As a result, personal relationships with influential bloggers have been built and perceptions of the company within the blogosphere are favourable.

A campaign like this is beneficial in the long term and is a good example of how to practice blogger relations most effectively.

Additional Information:

Case Study

Blogger Relations – Brian Solis

For a presentation next week i’ve been researching the best ways to conduct blogger relations. I have compiled these points from a range of different blogs and articles, some written by professional bloggers and some written by PRs. Here are 10 tips for good blogger relations:

• RESEARCH:
• Find out which bloggers are writing about the field you’re interested in.
• Keep track of what they’re saying through RSS feeds.
• Use services such as Technorati or Techmeme to identify the key bloggers and others that it would be beneficial to get in touch with.
• Don’t just focus on the top 100 blogs. Also take into account the ‘magic middle’ – the blogs with between 20 – 1000 people linking to them.

• READ BLOG: It sounds obvious but it’s essential to read the blog that you will potentially be engaging.
• Don’t just read the latest post but read a load of their previous posts to gain an understanding of the blogger’s views and interests.
• Read comments that have been posted by other people.
• Check out the ‘about page’ to learn more about the blogger.
• Look at the blogroll to see which blogs they have linked to.

• JOIN THE CONVERSATION:
• Leave comments.
• Use links and trackbacks
•  Engage with bloggers on social network sites such as Twitter and Facebook etc.
   
• Find out what the blogger’s preffered method of contact is and try and enter into a dialogue.

• SEND FREE STUFF: There is no harm in sending some schwag to a blogger to get reviewed or just as a token of appreciation.

• SOCIAL NETWORKS: There are other ways to engage with bloggers than just on their blog: Follow and speak to bloggers on social network sites such as Twitter or Facebook etc. Use social bookmarking tools such as Del.icio.us or Digg to collect links that might be of interest to the blogger.

• BE Personal: Never send impersonal group emails to the bloggers you are targeting. Also, never write two sentences about their blog and then just attach a press release. It is all about building relationships and engaging bloggers on a personal level.

• BE Honest: Be transparent about who you are and who you work for.

• BE Relevant: Make sure that what you have to say is relevant and will interest the blogger that you are saying it to.

• DON’T ‘Pitch’: Bloggers are not journalists. People don’t like to think they are being sold a product or being pressurized to do something. As Brian Solis says: ‘The pitch is dead’. Use the relationship that you have built up with the blogger to find out how you can help each other out.

• Add Value: When you leave a comment, make sure what you write adds value to the content. Engage in the conversation which means not leaving a meaningless comment on a post just for the sake of it.

Related Posts:

Brian Solis

Online Marketing Blog

Intuative Systems

Web Pro News

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Blogger Relations Survey