Some of the work Shiny Red does with clients is educating them about bloggers; how they differ from journalists, what they’re motivated by, how to engage with them etc. In the words of our very own Chris Price in PR Week’s “Blog Myths Exposed“¿ feature in January:
“˜Bloggers’ reputation for being un-controllable exists because no one is trying to build relationships with them. PROs will be surprised how bloggers can be engaged.’
Our links with Shiny Media, through the Shiny Red founders, allows us unique insight into how some companies still aren’t getting it right when approaching bloggers (and we’re talking about the UK’s largest blog network not a private rant read by only a couple of people) and that [surprise, surprise] bloggers are human too and would like to be treated nicely by PROs ““ just like the traditional media.
This last week saw two major retailers contacting the Shiny Media editorial team with axes to grind.
The first was from a retailer’s rep writing to complain about a “bitchy comment on the blog.’ The Ed. likes this company and wants to build a relationship with them so replies asking; Where was the comment? Was it from a staff writer or a reader? And, explained they don’t moderate readers’ opinions.
By their own estimate, around 90% of what they write about this brand is positive, so they wanted to find out what could’ve upset them. But Ed. did delicately also mention that they were pleased retailer was reading the blog as they never managed to get any replies to emails and phone calls from their press office when they wanted info. Hmmm…
Retailer’s response was to write back citing more examples of what they perceived as negative comments, showed a lack of understanding on how to read a blog and establish whether it was reader or writer opinion, and brushed off the fact their Press Office hadn’t been in touch before.
Ed. had responded on the same day, explained the process, said they’d check out the problem, and offered a bit of education on how beneficial it was to be featured on their blogs where they have a huge fan base. Heck, Ed. even apologised (how many journos do that?) In short, they were willing to engage, they wanted to build a relationship, and they wanted to open up a communications channel.
Ultimately it’s good this retailer got in touch, but the writers involved were a little disappointed how their writing style wasn’t understood, they weren’t treated like professionals in their own right, and maybe retailer was treating them just a bit like “the country cousin”¿ in this case?
The second incident explored the flipside of every PROs worst nightmare ““ product images were leaked on the internet by a blog and spread across the web in a few hours.
Just to clarify here, Shiny Media didn’t actually leak the pictures, but after they appeared online they linked to the original blog and featured the pics themselves.
The company responded very quickly by sending out letters from some legal type to all blogs featuring the pics requesting their removal and mentioning terms like “litigation”¿.
What happened to the first step where the PR gets in touch with the “softly softly”¿ approach and says “˜can you help me out here?’ and then offers something nice for them to write about when the product officially launches?
Companies’ fears that bloggers can’t be engaged with can sometimes make them come down a little heavy in the outset and actually jeopardize building the relationships they think are so difficult to achieve.
One of the writers commented “We understood it was a difficult situation for them but if they took an informal, light-hearted approach and just emailed the writers in question asking nicely if they’d take the pictures down as a favour, many bloggers would probably respect that and take them down and leave a funny note explaining why. Using words like ‘litigation’ and ‘legal action’ in the introductory email is like holding a red rag to a bull. Bloggers have an anarchic streak…they love a bit of drama!”
The situation didn’t get anywhere near as out of hand as the Kotaku spat, but coming from a perspective that bloggers can’t be engaged with reasonbly can bring about the negative publicity a company wanted to avoid in the first place.
So, in the spirit of David Cameron’s “hug a hoodie”¿ philosophy ““ have you hugged a blogger today? And if you’re talking to a Shiny Media writer soon, why don’t you take them out for a coffee?
