Here’s an idea courtesy of Joan Stewart, who writes the Publicity Hound, a great email newsletter about generating PR for your business.
She is writing about how to get the attention of journalists, but this is also a great way to get to know anyone who blogs – including influential people in your industry whom it would be hard to meet otherwise.
I disagree on one point though… You don’t have to necessarily send them an email to let people know you blogged about them – in fact, I probably wouldn’t.
Many bloggers have Google Alerts set up on their own names. So if you blog about them, they will get an alert and most likely check out your blog to see what you said. That can be more subtle, in fact.
Blog about them a couple times, and then add a comment on their blog when they have a post you feel strongly about. They will start to remember who you are and you’ll be on your way to building a relationship.
If you don’t blog, you can get much the same results just by commenting on their blog.
The trick is to provide insightful comments – not just “I couldn’t agree more!” or “Great post!”
For example:
– “I agree with what you said. In my experience…”
– “Generally I couldn’t agree with you more, but in this case I have had a different experience…”
– “One thing you forgot to mention is…”
– “Taking what you said one step further…”
– “Given what you have said, I wonder if you would agree that…”
That said, here is Joan’s advice, excerpted from her newsletter:
If you’re following journalists or bloggers who are in an ideal
position to give you publicity, here’s a great way to get their
attention.
Set up a Google alert at http://www.Google.com/alerts for their
names. Every time you see that they’ve written a blog post or an
article that fits in with the content at your blog, comment on it
at your own blog and link to it.
Then send an email with the subject line “I blogged about you”
and provide the link. Every time I see subject lines like that
one, I open the email immediately, then I jump to the blog to see
what somebody said about me. I can almost guarantee they’ll open
your email. And they might even reply.
You can keep the conversation going by:
–Inviting the blogger to write a guest post at your blog. don’t
bother asking journalists who are too busy. You can, however, ask
permission to reprint a post from their blog on your own blog.
–Posting comments on the blogger’s or journalist’s blog. This is
a powerful way to get onto their radar screens BEFORE you pitch
them. In fact, comment several times over a few weeks and chances
are good they’ll remember you when they see your pitch.
–Search for them on Twitter, follow them, and reply to their
tweets. Check out the Journalists Who Twitter wiki at
http://tinyurl.com/3erv9s
–Friend them on Facebook.
–Connect with them on LinkedIn. When extending an invitation, be
sure to mention you read their blog regularly. Some people, me
included, won’t accept invitations from strangers who are
trolling for connections.
Reprinted from “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week,” an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet “89 Reasons to Send a News Release.”