Blogging has grown to become a great “disruptor” for PR. For those who are unfamiliar with the clout many blogs carry today, it has substantially grown from random musings, personal experiences, and op eds to full blown reporting across every category you could imagine. Some have even become rock stars in their own right, with PR associates tripping over themselves trying to get their attention.

In my field, which is rooted in tech, we have engadget, Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch, Stowe Boyd’s Message, Tom Foremski’s SiliconValleyWatcher, Om Malik’s GigaOM, among many, many, many others. For example, we had a client’s product (a very expensive gadget) featured on an important blog a few days ago, and by the end of the day, the company had already tracked two sales that stemmed from that post.

The elite bloggers exist in every industry, not just tech. In addition to the day-to-day outreach for print and online journalists, today’s PR programs also need to factor in blogger relations. Outbound communication was already a big task, but now it has exploded into borderline chaos.

Let me answer a question for you, even if it didn’t pop up in your mind yet. I’m constantly asked, why bloggers? How are they even capable of moving the needle for companies? There are those who simply have the sheer numbers behind them and those whose influence incites other reporters to cover the same products. Their readers are very loyal and it shows in the internet metrics analysis each month. For example, TechCrunch is capable of sending 10,000 visitors to a site within 24 hours. While others may not have volume, many smaller communities can pool together to make a big difference.

But how do we identify the right targets? Media tracking databases aren’t really getting on the bandwagon as quickly as we’d hope, forcing us to develop our own databases manually. And to throw another wrench in the game, many bloggers require contact directly through their blog, to spare them from typical shotgun PR blasts. What that means, is having to implement one-on-one communication practices in order to have a shot at reaching a particular blogger.

As a matter of recourse, junior people at agencies and inside corporate are being tasked with researching bloggers that cover their target markets and building databases, one contact at a time. Using tools such as Alexa’s Web ranking and other online popularity metrics tools, PR teams are painstakingly evaluating each target in order for them to make the cut. When one does the initial research, it can be overwhelming with pulling together mammoth lists and then ranking them based on internet metrics.

For some industries, there are helpful tools. For example, I work with a couple of wineries in my free time (what’s left of it) and popular blogs are constantly ranked through wineblogwatch. This helps me determine the top targets for the month, quickly! Then we manually dig them up.

We’ve all used traditional wire services in one way or another. While the main players such as PRNewswire and BusinessWire are reinventing their services, they have yet to find a way to connect “news” from companies directly to bloggers. In PR, some of us are implementing SEO (search engine optimization) tactics by adding key words and tags into releases before they cross the wire. This helps increase the visibility of the release should bloggers (including customers and journalists) search for common words.

Paid and free services such as PRLeap, PRWeb, PRhub, PR.com, PRnuke, etc. all offer a variety of free/pay-for-play services, which actually gets the word out in an entirely new way. Instead of traditional subscription services which source news for journalists, many of these online companies are fusing key word searches and the power of the web for SEO as well. As to their exact efficiency and an associated metric system, stay tuned. I’m actually working on that over the next couple of weeks. But in the meantime, make sure your client or company web site is analyzing traffic from referring domains.

It’s no longer about just reaching reporters and using the wire as a form of SEO. As the blogosphere explodes to new heights (and it’s not stopping anytime soon), PR pros are scratching their heads in confusion trying to uncover more effective methods to reach important bloggers. There are simply too many valid targets to hit 1:1.

Since traditional wire services overshoot bloggers, and SEO-driven press releases only get the job partially done, everyone asks if there’s a better way? If you’re in tech, there might be one solution. And if it works, expect it to grow into other arenas – and definitely expect competition. I recently found a service, Weblogwire which claims to connect PR to bloggers. It also offers what could be a promising way of alleviating the grunt work of manually identifying and building databases around these targets.

Jason Baptiste, co-founder of Weblogwire, joined me for an interview to help Forward readers better understand how this new service helps press releases reach target bloggers. Whether this service delivers as promised, it’s honestly too early to tell. However, Weblogwire will be part of my analysis of wire, online and mailing list services that I plan to document for Forward and PR2.0 readers.

Brian: What is the premise behind WeblogWire?

Jason: The premise behind the theWeblogWire is to connect companies and their press efforts with bloggers in a new multimedia format.

Brian: What was the inspiration to launch this service?

Jason: The idea of the weblogwire was conceived approximately 10 months ago, when I was preparing the press plan for the startup I was with at the time. I said, wow, wouldn’t it be easier if I had a newswire to connect with all these bloggers instead of achieving the same effect manually via email,etc. It was something I wanted to do, and saw the need for, but had to wait for the right timing. That time was about a month ago.

Brian: How is this different than standard wire services and low cost/free web wires?

Jason: We see this as a different service than your traditional PR Newswire,etc., i.e.- more niche. PR Newswire focuses more on your traditional outlets like a New York Times, Wired Magazine, Associated Press, small town papers,etc. We’re focused solely on the blogosphere, and making sure companies can connect their press efforts with bloggers.

Brian: Do you see PR pros/companies using this service as an alternative to traditional wires?

Jason: We see this as a service that can co-exist and work with traditional newswires. Use your traditional newswire to reach normal print publications, but to reach the blogosphere in a more targeted fashion submit your release with us as well.

Brian: What are you hearing from bloggers?

Jason: a) Bloggers in terms of reviewing the service are positive, and agree this service is needed. We’ve seen a lot of different opinions as to execution though. We’re taking into account everyone’s suggestions, to create the best possible service for our users at the end of the day
b) Bloggers who are using the service, are enjoying the simplicity. Grab the feed from the homepage, or sign up to receive email notices/ more specific feeds is what they want.

Brian: What are bloggers looking for? Are they looking for traditional, new media or specialized press releases?

Jason: Bloggers are looking for more than the normal press release We’re allowing
companies to enrich their service with new media such as audio, video, and more. We’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves in the upcoming weeks, to show the world how this is going to be a completely new ballgame when it comes to a newswire.

Brian: How should up-and-coming PR professionals use a service like this?

Jason: PR Professionals with small or large clients can use the service. A base press release is free. Adding media/ upgrading the release costs a little bit more, but is well worth the impact it will have.

Brian: What type of bloggers does this service attract?

Jason: Right now, we’re open to the Technology industry. With this being a newswire solely for bloggers, it was the logical starting point. We’ll be opening to other industries in the very near future.

Brian: Are there any success stories from customers who have used this service?

Jason: We’ve seen companies who have used our service already, receive interest from bloggers/ better recognition of their product. We’re working hard on finding a way to increase the ways companies can see the value of our service. Any suggestions are more than welcome.

Brian: Any tips for our PR/marketing readers?

Jason: Blogging is huge, and has changed the marketing and PR landscape. PR Firms that we’re talking with are saying the amount of clients that have asked in the past 6 months “How are you going after bloggers?” is phenomenal. It’s exciting, and I’m glad to be part of the effort that connects companies/PR Firms with the blogosphere. If you haven’t started taking serious notice to the blogging community, it’s time to start.

Tags: PRNewswire, Business Wire, PRWeb, PR.com, PRhub, PRLeap, theweblogwire, Jason Baptiste, pr2.0, techcrunch, stowe boyd, gigaom, public relations

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