PR professionals conduct blogger outreach for various reasons, but a fundamental one of which surely is to cultivate brand awareness on behalf of their clients. However, bloggers may have other motivations for blogging. A survey by APCO Worldwide and the Council of Public Relations Firms found that PR pros and bloggers were at odds in terms of how well each party thought PR folks were reaching out and developing relationships with bloggers.
Whether/how companies should conduct blogger relations is a highly contentious issue. Some argue that “blogger relations” inevitably translate into “seeding” relevant bloggers with certain products or giving them privileged access, and “hoping” that these bloggers would then altruistically “share their experience” with their readers, arguing that this amounted to bribery. Others counter that this is no different from traditional media outreach.
The PRWeek article can be found here, but I would hesitate to comment until I see the full report. I’ve done a search to no avail. Can anyone help?
