I moderated the Blogging and Podcasting roundtable at the CMA's Digital Marketing Conference this past week. We were a small but lively group discussing a number of topics from the rumoured death of blogging to how should you structure your commenting policy.
One of my favourite questions/discussion points came from a woman who works at a PR agency. She asked if it mattered to bloggers if you (as a PR or marketer) blog. Can you have a strong blogger outreach/relations program through your agency if you aren't blogging.
I thought this was an awesome question! My first instinct was "No - why should you have to blog to conduct a successful outreach program with bloggers." And that is still my ultimate answer.
But I mentioned at the roundtable that, as a blogger who reviews laptop bags, I am impressed by PR flacks from laptop bag manufacturers who also blog. My best example is Matthew from Mobile Edge who writes the Mobile Edge Blog. Matthew is a great PR guy to work with in general (lets me know about new lines, sends me friendly reminders about bags he's sent after an appropriate amount of time, and sends me ecards from Plaxo every holiday - a nice touch!)
But my favourite thing about Matthew is that he has a blog AND he recognizes on his blog the folks who are writing about Mobile Edge's products. Now I know this just makes good sense, but it is a great form of social currency since bloggers live and die by the link-love.
Now, Matthew is a client-side PR - and this makes answering the question a little easier. The woman who asked the question was from an agency. Again, as a blogger, I look at the relationships I have with agencies who work with me to have their clients' products reviewed - and most of them don't blog. In fact, none of them do (although someone else in their agency does). And this goes for the bigger agencies like H&K to the small 2-person regional shops. And I don't particularly think any less of them.
So, I don't think a PR flack HAS to blog in order to have a good relationship with bloggers. Is that just me? What do you think?
Photo Credit: Katie Tegtmeyer
Sidenote - I'm doing NaBloPoMo again this year. This is 1 of 30. Let's see if it helps me get back into a more regular blogging habit!