Companies are spending thousands of dollars to get bloggers to review their products and services on their websites. The idea of blogger outreach has become a heavily discussed tactic in digital and social media marketing. Some companies have based their entire business model around this concept and in turn have found great success. And while some of these bloggers would have you believe its worth the brands money, the truth is that the money could be better spent.
Sure, one blogger could get your brand noticed by their 120 thousand subscribers.
That’s great!
Unless 100 thousand of those subscribers never come to town. Or if those same 100 thousand subscribers immediately see that its a sponsored post and exit the blog. Of course, if you do the research and your product or service is closely aligned with the bloggers audience you can find great success. But not everyone is trying to sell an iPad or Canon Rebel on TechCrunch. Due to this fact, companies should put their cash into an area that will gaurantee results…
But where?
Most recently Guy Kawasaki visited a Sushi shop in Norway called Alex Sushi. If you don’t know who Guy Kawasaki is he’s a venture capitalist, author, blogger and a whole bunch of other cool things. Anyways, this happened after one of his followers sent him a tweet stating that this place was one of the best in town. Guy ended up dining at this place with the follower and here is what Guy had to say about the experience,
So tonight I ate at Alex Sushi… It was probably the best sushi I’ve had in my life, and I’ve eaten many a raw fish in my time. In particular, the salmon and king crab were out of this world.
Catch that?! (Read it again)
Guy didn’t write about Alex Sushi because one of his followers tweeted the recommendation; he wrote about Alex Sushi because it was the best sushi he had in his entire life.
While blogger influence is an important element of social media marketing; great products and services are still king. If a company spends the money they planned on paying a blogger to review their mediocre product into making that mediocre product better; the returns will be substantial and have greater longevity.
Alex Sushi is far from an active business on twitter. But because their product is so remarkable they have developed brand evangelists who will recommend their restaurant on social media for free. While there are many opportunities for Alex Sushi on social media they’ve established an online presence in a more traditional manner.
Using business 101 tactics, great product, great service and great experience – They’ve developed brand evangelists. Social media has amplified the consumers voice and what we see happening here is the direct result of a happy consumer using social media.
Those companies who don’t focus on their core business objectives and are simply using social media because its the hottest thing since the new kids on the block – will have to risk dealing with customers who are using social media to let the world know how mediocre their service was or the horrible after taste left from the raw fish and sea weed.
So whats the easiest way to get bloggers to write about your business?
Give them and every customer the best brand experience they’ve ever had.
And if worst comes to worst…give them a peanut butter burger.
photo credit: VeryBadLady