PR Chat: New Media Strategies

It’s my public shame and embarrassment that a few months back, I missed a red-eye flight to Cozumel. I’d been invited on a press trip with a handful of other bloggers. I was packed and ready to go, I just had the date wrong in my head. I’m still taking heat for this — seasoned traveler blows flight! — but the one guy who’s never given me a hard time about it? The guy who invited me, Sean Carroll from New Media Strategies. For that, I’m really thankful, it was, after all, a mistake.

Not only did Sean not give me a hard time, but he helped connect the dots to set us — three bloggers on a road trip to Chicago for TBEX — up with a Routan minivan for our adventure. Talk about a good sport. Sean took time to answer a bunch of questions about PR and bloggers and how that relationship works. I did a series of these as part of our road trip, you’ll find the rest here. If you’re a blogger struggling with the hows and whys of PR relationships, they are an interesting read.

Below the jump — Sean’s answers to my questions.

What does a “good” blogger looks like to you? Are there any consistent characteristics in the bloggers you choose to work with?
When I (or any Promotions Associates at New Media Strategies) seek-out bloggers to work with on any campaign, regardless of the scope of work, I look for the most accurate blog to fit that clients’ needs, while ensuring that the content benefits the blogger as much as possible. NMS always makes sure we’re about quality relationships…so while high-reaching blog metrics are great to see, I would happily work with a smaller blog if it made sense to our campaign and genuinely helped the blogger out.

What makes you decide to give resources to a blogger?
Back to relationships – you have to know the blogger and know their style and, of course, having the right resources makes all the difference. Offering assets and premiums to partner blogs not only helps increase the quality of the post on their site, but also ups my client’s ability to get the word out. Not to mention, NMS encourages active participation within the blogosphere (almost everyone here blogs in some way or another) and in social networking space (I think we may all be on Twitter now). When we get the right resources to the right blogger, that helps everyone involved, including that blog’s readers.

How do you vet a blogger? Do you look at their traffic, their Technorati ranking, or other statistics?
As mentioned before, my work at New Media Strategies has taught me that it is more important to find relevant and credible blogs than to simply go hunting for the biggest numbers. If I find a set of 50 blogs that all perfectly fit my clients’ needs, I will obviously look to the metrics (which includes Compete, Technorati and other online traffic measurements), but will also look at the quality of the content on those 50 blogs and how well it appears that blogger has worked with partners in the past.

How should a new blogger approach you?
If a blogger is ever interested in working with me, they need only shoot me an email relaying their interest on a subject I work on. At New Media Strategies, we feel pretty strongly that quality relationships with our blog partners are important, and that’s a real two-way street. And since nearly everyone at NMS has experience in blogging, we understand the needs and etiquette of the blogosphere… so any blogger interested in working with me and my clients is encouraged to send me an email and let me know: scarroll(at)newmediastrategies(dot)net!

Note: I checked with Sean, he means it. Drop him a line.

What do you want to know from someone who’s starting out and would like to build a relationship with you?
Off the bat, I would want to know the person’s name, their site’s name, URL and then their interests. I have yet to encounter a blog/blogger that just won’t work. So once I have that basic information, we can go from there. If the blogger wants to get an idea of the type of clients we work with, he or she can visit the New Media Strategies website, here: http://newmediastrategies.net/about/timeline/. We have a very diverse set of clients so we really can accommodate nearly any bloggers’ personal preference.

What should bloggers ask you for? What should they NOT ask you for?
Bloggers can honestly feel free to ask me for anything and I’ll always do my best to accommodate their wishes. As such, asking me for information on current promotions is probably the best way to start. Once we’re working on something, asking me about assets and premiums, as well as client background and information…all of that is relevant and expected.

What’s the best way for a blogger to catch your interest when they’re contacting you directly?
Honestly, I live for developing these types of relationships. From the get-go, when I started at NMS in 2003, it has ALWAYS been about getting to know people online and finding ways to work together. So bloggers don’t have to do anything special to catch my interest. As long as they are interested in creating a mutually beneficial relationship, that’s all that matters to me.

Do you receive a lot of sponsorship requests and what percentage of those do you say yes to?
The sponsorship requests have definitely increased as of late with the increased participation in blogger conferences and events. I’m happy to help in any way that I can with sponsorships, but it often comes down to what is available and what can be done. If I’m approached about sponsorship, I’ll do anything I can to help.

What do you expect from a blogger in exchange for your product or service?
When I set up a relationship with a blogger, all I expect is respect and understanding. Any time I approach a blogger on a new promotion, I make sure they’re going to benefit from the partnership…be it content, prizing, reviews, events…you name it. If a blogger is interested and agrees, having previously discussed the parameters of the promotion, all I expect is that they stay true to our original agreement. I think the only “bad” thing that has ever happened was when a blogger backed out of a commitment they had made. That makes it extremely difficult for me to do my job…but again…this comes back to respect and understanding.

What do you do if a blogger negatively reviews the product or service you represent?
Actually, I have yet to find myself in that position. I think the reason for that is because New Media Strategies makes every effort possible to ensure that our blogging partners are benefiting from our relationships. If we are coming to a blogger with something that we think will be received negatively, then we aren’t doing our jobs very well.

What do you have to show your boss as results for supporting a blogger?
Boss, client, CEO…all they want to see is that all parties involved benefited from the partnership and that the time and resources of our client were well utilized. Again, New Media Strategies believes that all blogs, big or small, regardless of theme, should be involved in these partnerships and promotions.

Briefly, give us the elevator pitch for you and your company.
New Media Strategies is the industry pioneer in online brand promotion, protection and intelligence. We work with all kinds of clients through a number of verticals and make it our goal to treat every blog, blogger, community and online consumer with the utmost respect. New Media Strategies is all about genuine relationship-building and walking the walking, not just talking the talk…which is why we are the successful industry pioneer that we are.

A big thanks to Sean. And really, you should read the rest of these, again, they’re here. They’re great insight in to why PR wants to work with YOU, travel blogger.