Author Archives: Holly Glover

Start Your First Blogger Outreach Campaign

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ConAgra Foods and their PR agency, Ketchum, recently found themselves with a bit of bad press after a blogger outreach strategy for Marie Callender’s, their line of frozen food, went wrong. Here’s what happened:

ConAgra invited food bloggers to an exclusive “four course meal” prepared by celebrity chef George Duran. The bloggers were told the event was intended to discuss trends in the food industry and sample fine wines over a dinner prepared by Duran. What really happened? The “four course dinner” (unbeknownst to the bloggers) was Marie Callender’s frozen lasagna. Despite the bloggers clearly positioning themselves against artificial ingredients and processed foods beforehand, they were still served exactly that. Not to mention ConAgra secretly taped the whole thing to capture their reactions. Bloggers were less than happy with the “bait-and-switch” event and returned to their blogs to let their readers know about it.

Where did ConAgra go wrong? Why didn’t their ruse go as planned like Pizza Hut’s “surprise reveal” commercial? Successful blogger outreach can have significant ROI if implemented strategically. However, there are two important components of working with bloggers that ConAgra failed to do; target the appropriate bloggers and build a relationship with them.  

Before you start building relationships, you need to ensure you are building relationships with the right people. Research the niche you are targeting and find the industry leaders in that niche. Plug into their inner circle and identify who has the most influence. Each blogger has their own point-of-view on things, and you need to spend a little bit of time uncovering whether or not their personality and blog align with your efforts.

Using a tool such as Technorati is a good way to start your search of uncovering highly influential blogs in your niche. Technorati’s blog directory contains over 1,275,000 blogs all ranked with their authority and influence and are also grouped by industry. The authority of any given blog rises and falls as the bloggers’ following changes, allowing you to find current leaders in the blogosphere. You can also compare the bloggers’ authority by running their link profile through a tool URL such as Open Site Explorer.

After you tap into these bloggers, you can continue to identify more leaders by utilizing their blogrolls. A blogroll is a list of that blogger’s favorite blogs to read and follow. The list can be as short or long as the blogger chooses. While you are analyzing blogs, you will start to recognize which blogs you have seen repeatedly on blogrolls; helping guide your search. Track the blogs you want to pursue along with their metrics and a short description of the blog, which will help you compare your findings later.

How did ConAgra choose the bloggers they chose? While it may seem obvious to go after food bloggers for a food product, the company did not think about who actually purchases their product. They invited bloggers to the event who clearly (if they had done their research) were not their target consumer. Several of the food bloggers prided themselves on using fresh, organic food in dishes that they prepare on their own. Did ConAgra and Ketchum think that their “surprise reveal” would be so influential that the bloggers would convert their lifestyles and endorse Marie Callender’s to their readers?

One blogger made her stance clear after the event, “I’m NOT their target consumer and they were totally off by thinking I would buy or promote their highly processed frozen foods after tricking me to taste it.”

The other important key to a successful blogger outreach campaign is to be genuine and honest with the bloggers from the beginning and build a relationship with them. Read their blog. Uncover what it is that they are passionate about. Determine how and if you can leverage that with your marketing efforts. If it is a good match, there will be no need for deceit. Influential bloggers receive invitations to review products regularly. They know that marketers are looking to promote their products; if it is a good product that aligns with their interests and blog, they are generally excited to share it with their readers.

Be transparent and do your research. ConAgra and Ketchum did neither of these things when promoting Marie Callender’s. If you keep these components at the forefront of your blogger outreach strategy, you will be much more successful.

Have you seen the results of a successful blogger outreach campaign in the blogs you read? Were you more likely to try out the product or service because the blogger you follow and trust recommended it?

New Twitter Features Improve Usability

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Not to be left in the shadows of the attention that Facebook and Google+ have been getting recently; Twitter has been busy rolling out changes this week. New platform transition, new activity stream, new @username stream, new share an image feature… new, new, new is always the trend in the world of social media.

New Twitter Transition Complete

The first change has been an anticipated one. As of Monday, August 8, Twitter will no longer offer the option of using its old interface. Although the “new Twitter” first became available in September 2010, users still had the option of accessing the old platform up until now. Changes include a new design with @mentions, retweets, searches and lists immediately above your timeline on the left side of the screen. When you click on a profile or hashtag, rather than being directed away from your timeline to a new page, you see the information on the right side of the page. This was a much welcomed change as it allows you to seamlessly maneuver between your timeline and those that you’re following. With the transition officially complete, everyone’s Twitter experience is now on the same page.

New Activity Stream

When Twitter was created in 2006, the whole concept was based off answering the question “What’s happening?” with a to-the-point, 140 character update. Keep things clear, keep things concise, keep things easy. As social media’s popularity grew, users began utilizing platforms in more complex ways and in turn they continued (and still continue) to grow and develop. The newest Twitter development comes from users wanting an easier way to interact as well as monitor interactions, similar to how you are able to use Facebook.

With Twitter’s new activity tab, you can easily view recent retweets, follows and favorites from the people you follow in one streamlined place. This will more than likely make Twitter more intuitive to use, especially for new and “mild” users. You are also able to follow users directly from the activity stream, making the feature even more seamless.

New @username Stream

The new @username stream is similar to the new activity stream, except it highlights only interactions that your profile is involved with. This includes @mention tweets to you, your tweets that have been favorited, your tweets that have been retweeted, users that followed you, lists you have been added to, and more.

Rather than having information that is relevant to you spread thin in many different areas, you can now view it all aggregated in one real-time stream. This makes your time spent on Twitter much more efficient and integrated.

Share an Image Feature

Finally, Twitter added a small, subtle feature that will make a big impact to the ease of posting media rich tweets. Instead of having to use an application such as Twitpic, you can now add photos that are less than 3MB to your tweets with an “add an image” button found directly below your tweet.

Twitter Share An Image Feature

This feature seems long overdue as Twitter has always relied on (and received criticism for) third-party application services in order for users to post images. In any case, it is another much welcomed feature to Twitter’s ever-changing platform.

Changes Coming to a Profile Near You

Apart from the share an image feature which is currently available to everyone, Twitter is making these changes available to a small set of users starting today. They will continue to rollout the changes to everyone else over the next few weeks. It should be noted, however, that as of now these changes are only available on Twitter.com and not on mobile devices.

Have you tried it out yet? Let us know what you think!

Social Media & Online Advertising Help You Reach Your Audience

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Lately I’ve been hearing a lot of my friends complaining that they are “creeped out” when they see Facebook ads tailored to their demographics or interests, or when they see ads from websites they have recently visited on other websites. This is technology at work to benefit both the user and the marketer.

Facebook’s privacy policy has long been a controversial issue. In my opinion, if you put something on the internet (especially something about yourself) you need to have the mindset that it could be possible for anyone and everyone to read it. By entering your interests or personal information in your profile – even something as simple as your gender or marital status – you are making it possible for those advertising on Facebook to group you into a “category”, which is then used for marketing purposes.

Now, I don’t know what makes advertisements catered to my interests so creepy. Personally, I think it’s great. Do I want to see ads about fantasy football? Not really. Guys, do you want to know about a great deal on stilettos? Doubt it. The same principle applies to marketers. Why spend your advertising budget on an uninterested audience? Seeking out your target audience is certainly not revolutionary, but once it is applied to Facebook, it seems to make people unsettled. These strategies are done to help you get content you want and eliminate clutter.

How does Facebook target users?

The thing that I think people misconstrue about Facebook’s ad targeting is HOW they are actually getting targeted. It’s easy to think that “big brother” is scouring your every move trying to figure out what type of person you are, but in reality, the only information used is what you voluntarily supply. Let’s say I opened up a dog grooming salon in Detroit, Michigan. I would be able to specify that I want to serve ads to those who report they are living in Eastern Michigan and have dogs listed as one of their interests. Better yet, I could even be as specific as targeting dog owners with the breed of dogs that tend to give me the most business AND set a geographic distance from the zip code of my location(s). Talk about specific, relevant, and cost effective advertising!

Retargeting follows you around the web

Another effective way to advertise to a more appropriate audience is through retargeting. It’s not necessarily a coincidence to see an ad from a website that you might have visited a couple of days ago. Some websites set cookies through your browser when you visit a certain page(s) on their website and can then serve ads to you on other websites while you are surfing the internet after setting this cookie. This is also possible to do through Google Adwords via the Audiences functionality. After putting a tracking cookie on specific pages of a website, display ads will then be shown to individuals who have visited those pages as they browse websites on the Google Display Network.

This strategy goes back to the frequency principle of marketing; people will generally need to see your ad several times (typically 3-7 times based on your demographic and desired audience) before responding to it. By incorporating retargeting into your campaign, you are able to target people who have already established they are interested in your brand because they already visited your website. As a result you will be much more effective in your advertising strategy and budget.

Love it? Hate it?

As a professional marketer, I would rather get content that I can relate to and leave the “clutter” of things I am not interested in behind. As a consumer, would you rather have your interests ignored and have anonymity when it comes to being marketed to online? Or do you prefer to see ads that are tailored to your interests and profile you build by the sites you visit? We would love to hear what you think.