Marketing and all things related

More and more companies are learning the value of social networking and viral marketing as an essential component in their overall marketing strategies.  Reaching out to bloggers as online influencers can have a significant impact on creating awareness and recognition for your brand and/or products.  However, the way you reach out to bloggers can have a positive or negative effect. 

One of the quickest ways to relegate yourself to a blogger's blacklist is by sending a mass email to bloggers notifying them of your new product or other advertising message.  This is called blog blasting, and I can say from direct experience that these types of emails are deleted quickly and simply annoy the recipient whose email inbox is typically very full. 

Blog blasts are viewed by the recipient as spam, so before you hook up with a PR company or purchase software that will help you "connect with thousands or millions of targeted bloggers," ask yourself if you want your product or brand associated with spam.

A more effective, albeit more time consuming, way to connect with targeted bloggers is by searching the blogosphere for blogs that would be a good match for your product and brand based on that blog's audience.  Read the posts and comments and start commenting yourself.  By adding to the conversation on the blog and building a relationship with the blog's author, you'll have a better chance of success when you send a query email to the blogger asking him or her to publish a post about your product, website, brand or other message. 

Check back tomorrow for more information about connecting with bloggers to help advertise through blog posts.  Tomorrow's post on MarketingBlurb will be called Top 5 Tips for Connecting with Bloggers to Create an Online Buzz.  Why not subscribe to the MarketingBlurb feed, so you won't miss it?  Click here to subscribe.