Last Thursday I sat in on an audio conference hosted by Bulldog Reporter in which an esteemed panel of bloggers discussed: “Blogger PR: The New Rules for Pitching, Tracking & Leveraging Your Relationships with Nontraditional Online Journalists.” Amongst the panel attendees were the following: Shel Israel, Alice Marie Marshall, Tom Foremski, and Jeremy Pepper.

One of the biggest takeaways from the audio conference that all of the panelists seemed to agree on was the fact that you’ve got to read and understand the blog you’re interested in before you pitch it. When you do send a pitch – keep it short, sweet, and to-the-point. Amongst an additional variety of tips discussed were, don’t include a blogger in an email blast, don’t email them over and over, and by all means necessary – don’t call them to make sure they received your email. With that said, be sure to check out this resource from Jeremy Pepper discussing how PR people can better work with bloggers, titled; Blogging Relations Case Study: Nokia Gets It Right.

Before I jumped on the Bulldog conference call I was brainstorming a number of different ways to help PR people with tips on how to approach a blogger, as opposed to a traditional online journalist. At first I couldn’t find too many differences between the two - approaching them both is very similar in strategy. Whether you’re dealing with a blogger or a journalist you still need to consistently read their articles, you still need to keep your pitches on topic, and you still need to act as an informational resource. Then it simply occurred to me, one of the biggest differences I see between a blogger and a journalist is the fact that bloggers open up their personality much more in their content. For example, Tom has blogged about taking some time off and relaxing with his kids, Jeremy has talked about his favorite movies and food, and Shel has discussed the excitement he has in releasing his new book. When I come across an article from a traditional online journalist, I see much less of the personality side of the person and more so the facts and story at hand.

Point is, with bloggers sharing so much personal information on their blog (I do it too) – the window for relating to them on a more personal level is much bigger than that of an online traditional journalist. Whether you want to use this personal information to break the ice and leverage a relationship with the blogger is up to you, but the fact is that it’s there. If you’re looking to build a relationship with a blogger for the long haul than this information may be useful to you to help break the ice with them, but if you’re looking for a quick blog hit for a client – forgetaboutit. All I ask is that if you are going to use a bloggers personal information to reach out to them – do so because you sincerely want to build a relationship with this person, not because you have an upcoming launch you want them to cover (for example). While blogger engagement is a tough one to figure out, a few things I have come to realize is that you need to be honest and genuine, or better yet – just be you.

Blake Barbera is an Assistant Account Executive with the Horn Group, Inc. in San Francisco, California, and is the author of Wet Feet PR – a blog discussing public relations from an entry level standpoint.

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Former head of FEMA Michael Brown just finished up his interview with Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report. The question is, did he gain any ground in rebuilding his reputation by going on the show? The answer is probably not.

At the beginning of the interview, Colbert asked Brown, if he wasn’t to blame, who was? Brown responded by basically throwing his hands in the air as if to say, “anybody but me!” Brown also said he decided to stop taking the blame for FEMA’s criticized response because he wanted to “tell the truth”, and subsequently said he had been complaining for two years about things that needed to be changed, and nobody did anything. Brown did not take any responsibility tonight, which is crucial to rebuilding trust.

In addition, I believe he failed at getting across some key messages when asked about his qualifications for the top job at FEMA. In a roundabout way, he discussed his previous emergency management experience, but it should have been a major crutch of his answer as soon as Colbert brought it up. Brown also went right along with Colbert when asked about his questionable e-mails, describing what kind of martini he wanted when he said he’d rather be golfing and drinking a martini than handling the recovery efforts. Brown spent way too much time describing the drink, giving the savvy Colbert more than enough ammunition to keep the punches coming.

Brown seemed unprepared for Colbert’s questions, and seemed to stumble a few times with his answers. I am not attempting to take this show too seriously, but when you’re in the position that Michael Brown is in, and you’re trying to repair a damaged reputation, this is not the way to do it. I personally found him less likeable after the interview than I did earlier. There is a way to play along with the humor of the Colbert Report and still get your message across. Brown did not do either of those two things very well tonight.

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