I’ve been invited to speak at a social media lunch and it’s only the second time I’m publicly sharing about social media (and blogging in particular). I don’t want to cover popular topics that everyone else has covered before. So I thought it’d be appropriate to share about the mistakes some companies have been making when they hire or engage bloggers for their campaigns, and hopefully other companies which chance upon this blogpost will find it useful for them too.
My Sharing Session Content – In Brief
#1) Always define WIIFM – Bloggers won’t attend your event or write about you until you clearly define WHY they should do it.
#2) Hire Bloggers, not treat them as beggars – if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys, doesn’t matter which industry.
#3) Don’t make them jump through hoops to get the deal – most of the time, they CAN do without what you are offering. They can likely afford better too.
#4) Don’t spam them – ‘no reply’ is a reply.
#5) Without attendance, press releases are spam! I don’t want to know about your event AFTER the event.
#6) Don’t bug them after the event for the blogpost – if it’s cool, we’d already be raving about it. If it’s not, it can wait.
#7) If your event is uninteresting, don’t expect a review (unless you don’t mind a really HONEST opinion).
#8) Treat them well. Allow a plus one when possible.
#9) Bloggers do expect “good” freebies – no leftover goodies from last year, please.
#10) Always remember #1
There are some companies whose executives act as if they are doing us bloggers a favor by giving us something to blog about. They can’t be more wrong, and I do hope they wise up or get fired.
Of course, having said all that, there are so many PR agencies I love as they have been absolute darlings and are super sweet to bloggers. 
*Will update this blogpost after the sharing session*
