I’ll never forget the time that I managed to convince one of my best clients – a massive luxury shopping complex in Southern California – that we had to pay attention to the blogging community. Until that moment, the mindset had been to roll out the red carpet for all traditional media outlets, and pretty much ignore the burgeoning lifestyle blogger. My argument was then, and is still now, that bloggers tend to be more brand-friendly, easier to place content with, and when all is said and done, are more active and savvier in social media and SEO than most newspaper and print magazines.
Our first blogger event was a massive success. After a lot of planning and several small bribes, a couple dozen great bloggers showed up, and nearly 100% of them wrote at least one post about a featured brand or product. Lots of them posted more than once. Needless to say, it was the first of several such events, which are still ongoing.
The fact is that blogger events, if they are well-planned, are only getting more lucrative for brands. Here’s why:
#1 – Hidden SEO Value of Brand Association Without Links
It was once true that putting out a press release – even on a poor quality free site – was a great SEO tactic, due to the links back to your website. These days, press releases are thought to have little value in and of themselves unless they are reprinted on major sites with high page rank.
But thanks to recent developments in the Google algorithm that values context, not links, getting independent sources to write about you can be extremely valuable. And the real kicker? There doesn’t even have to be a link back to your page!
Blab Founder Michelle Tyree with Janie Bryant at the Lucky FABB Conference
Don’t take our word for it. Check out the research by the good folks at SEO Moz. This means that if done right, a single blogger event potentially can do more for your brand awareness and even your SEO than a single article in a big media publication.
#2 – Bloggers Can Offer More ROI Than Traditional Media
Sad, but true – sometimes, the effect of traditional media on ROI is non-existent. Once upon a time, I co-founded a travel startup. In our first six months, were had lots of people write about us. One was Vogue magazine. You can imagine how excited I was. Vogue? Are you serious? I bragged about it, and lots of people were impressed.
Now, can you guess how much traffic came to our site from Vogue.com?
If you guessed 100 visits, you’d be way too high.
In the same six month period, we received thousands of visits from a blogger that listed us as one of the top 10 cultural travel destinations online. The fact is that a lot of traditional media now lives behind a pay wall such as an iPad app or some other lockbox that they don’t want people getting to for free. Another fact is that bloggers will simply invest the time to ensure their content gets shared in social media. Many journalists simply don’t have the luxury or the skills to do so.
#3 – It’s Like Having Your Own Press Conference
Blogger events provide a unique opportunity to get a lot of people to write about you all at once. You dont’ have to be the President of the United States or LeBron James to have one. Blogger events are sort of like having your own press briefing, only the attendees will have way more fun, and the people in attendance are more than just journalists – they’re writers/publishers that are increasingly savvy about getting their work found online.
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