LiveBlogged: Power Monetization #typeacon

The speakers for this session are David Binkowski (@dbinkowski), Holly Hamann (@hollyhamann), Maria Bailey (@momtalkradio) and Tonja Deegan (@tvdeegan).  Kelby wants to make this an interactive session so that the panel and bloggers can brainstorm ideas for monetizing, eliminating complaints and frustration.

Kelby asks the first question – biggest success story working with bloggers for pay. Tonja says her firm is traditional PR, transitioning from earned media to paid media. They’re just launching paid campaigns now. Holly talks about the campaign with Kenmore, who wanted to work with women and mom bloggers specifically. They realize it’s more than just a review on a blog. They know people want heartfelt, real stories. They asked bloggers about their biggest household challenge. They got 15,000 Facebook likes out of the campaign and replies from 6000 women about household challenges.

Maria says bloggers wield power. Her most successful campaigns is when she’s worked with a brand like Wyndham and hire moms to be content providers on their sites. This gives the blogger a regular paycheck on a long term basis and exposure to different audience. Also, video reviews have been successful campaigns. David talks about the space overall in terms of choosing who to work with. He believes if you don’t have authentic people, there is no credibility behind it. With Intuition razor campaign, the client wanted to be on Facebook. David explained that there is more to the online world than Facebook. He advised them to look at the people who influence their target audience and launched Twitter campaign a month before BlogHer. Five bloggers were brought on as brand ambassadors. Bloggers with reach were chosen. They chose bloggers that worked for this particular client. They looked at it as a holistic marketing campaign. After launching the page and providing a coupon, they achieved a large number of followers. This campaign proved that it is worth investing in social media for a brand.

The next question is about the paying bloggers in a campaign. Maria says the biggest challenge is that moms are busy. It’s sometimes hard to get things back on a timely basis. Sometimes it’s a problem to have moms not meet the deadlines, and clients are looking over their shoulders. Kelby says that gives a bad reputation on our end and says that if we don’t deliver, the brands will say they tried to pay the bloggers, and they won’t even work for pay.

Holly says Blog Frog represents both sides of the table. They have account managers who work very hard for the bloggers. Sometimes bloggers will provide valid reasons as to why payment tier does not work, and the budget will have to be adjusted in order to meet the expectations. Kelby says not to be afraid to negotiate, but always post on time. Holly says to do what you say you’re going to do because people are tracking that.

Kelby addresses that sometimes people are afraid to admit to being too busy because they may not be chosen again. Maria says she prefers and respects when bloggers admit to being too busy. Holly talks about research report called “Brands and Mom Bloggers.” The top reason for an unhappy experience was disorganized campaigns, the second was not liking the product and the third was money. Tonja discusses never hearing from the person about product reviews and says that those people won’t be on her list for future campaigns. Tonja talks about traditional PR and says that the corporate world doesn’t move very fast. It’s always been about earned media, rather than paid media. It’s a “very slow moving beast.” PR has budgets a year or so in advance, without building in brand ambassador or paid programs. Now we’re beginning to see a shift in which these things can now be added into the budgets because companies are getting various departments to talk to each other and realize everything works together.

Kelby addresses difference between earned and paid media, as well as ethical concerns. Tonja says earned media has always been about PR, getting a story placed with press releases. Paid media is the advertising, advertorials and those types of things. Traditional PR agencies never touch that stuff. There’s a very decisive line. She says it’s all about education, education, education. The conversations about the way it needs to work and educating that it’s okay to represent people to represent versus paying for reviews.

Holly feels that things are evolving and brands are realizing that it’s not just about advertising – it’s about having a relationship. All bloggers sign contracts and must disclose that they are being compromised. Blogger don’t work with brands that they don’t want to. Hopefully. bloggers aren’t choosing to work with a brand they don’t have an affinity for. Professional bloggers disclose. Everyone now acknowledges that bloggers are now making money by working with brands. The stigma should be going away.

Maria agrees that brands want real relationships. Five or six brands a week say that they don’t want reviews anymore. They want something bigger, deeper and more relevant. In regard to ethics, the biggest challenge in the world of social media and PR is that bloggers want to be respected as journalists, but they don’t have to stand up to the same standards as journalists for the NY Times. The struggle for marketers is how do you pay for unbiased opinions. Maria advocates integrated marketing; you can’t just offer a blog review. Kelby says that’s so 2009!

David can’t believe we’re still having the discussion about disclosure. Kelby says companies are still asking people to not disclose. The FTC is looking at things from a different perspective now. They can’t monitor all the blog posts each day. It’s going to be about self reporting. Speaking up about companies who are not disclosing is not a bad thing. David discusses that he confronted a company and told them it’s not good enough to say you didn’t know. As platforms evolve, we now need to look at how to disclose. You can self report about companies. The Members Advisory Council of WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) does take complaints. Be aware and ask how you can do this in the most ethical way possible. Holly says it’s more work to be unethical than it is to be ethical.

Kelby says what can bloggers do to position themselves to get paid positions. David stresses that b loggers should use LinkedIn to reach out to companies. Kelby says you can search for specific people, like brand managers. David says if someone wants to get his attention, they go to LinkedIn. Go there first because it’s business related. Maria says she spent a decade trying to convince companies that moms are important. The reason they are interested in moms is because they yield a lot of influence, in other places besides just online. They’re interested in moms because of influence. The more places you are influential, the more valuable you are. Podcasts, etc. are useful to set yourself apart. She says if you want to better position yourself, start with your media kit and include all of the things that you do, even offline activities such as PTO or scouts. It’s very valuable to a brand.

Holly lists some tips. You don’t have to go to the brand direct. Brands are working with agencies looking for specific bloggers because they can’t do that on their own. Make sure you’re available to agencies like MomSelect, One2One Network, etc. Smaller bloggers count. Brands aren’t just going after one or two bloggers. They’re going after reach. There’s a window of opportunity opening for smaller bloggers. Don’t wait. Tag your blogs, be sure to use keywords in an industry you want to work for. Put it in your Twitter description. Agencies have databases of bloggers. Know that brands see what you’re writing about. Be reliable is her last piece of advice. Work hard to get a reputation established.

Tonja says that when brands get emails, they’re forwarded to the agencies. She recommends putting on your About page to give your geographical area so that brands know where you are. Maria says that companies are doing more and more local events because they want to know that moms are influencing offline. Finally, don’t make shiny business cards so they can be written on.David recommends getting on Four Square to establish yourself as a leader in your community. Local is so huge right now. If nothing else, do that.

David recommends going to smaller conferences and introduce yourself to brands, as a way of getting paid gigs. Maria wants to know from David why he would sign a brand to large conference like BlogHer. David says that most of the people who work the booths at those conferences are young PR pros just to give swag. A conference that’s small for marketers, etc is a better place to introduce yourself. BlogHer has its place as a way to make a presence. Tonja says David did it right at BlogHer because he didn’t just set up a booth.

Kelby advocates trying to work for the local companies to teach them about social media. Don’t limit yourself to Fortune 500 companies. Look local because you can get together and work with them at any time. Holly adds that small bloggers are in the path of brands looking for the big bloggers. There are agencies looking for smaller bloggers. She would take a blogger who knows about their niche over a large generalist.

The next question is about how to get brands to work with everyday people in geographic areas beyond LA or New York. The panel says that it’s good to present yourself as the everyday person who they’re looking for. David points out that companies look at the performance of their local markets. He advises approaching companies to discuss helping with your local market.

The next question is about using LinkedIn effectively. Tonja discloses that she works with LikedIn. She made her college class go to a LinkedIn seminar. There are various help forums on LinkedIn. David says that Yelp is a good service for local. Yelp, City Search and Four Square is a good way to get noticed.

The tables then are instructed to take a few minutes to brainstorm and come up with an epiphany idea or creative idea as to how to fix things or do a campaign. The first idea is to have bloggers give practical examples of how they’re using products. This can even be tailored to regional areas. The next idea is to target the mothers of older children because they are the ones who are the next generation of consumers. Don’t forget that demographic. They have their own jobs and their own social media presence. Maria says that brands will argue that moms have less control or influence of their purchasing power. David advocates going big and offering to be spokesperson or in newsletter. Think big about the channels.

Another idea is to show readers how to live fiscally responsible lives while still using products. Holly says research shows that fiscal bloggers make more money than any other niche, so brands like them. The following idea was coming up with a master list of which PR work with which products. They recommend that PR let bloggers know when they leave an agency.

More ideas were presented. We are hoping to put together a post of those that were discussed.

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