Nancy Bocskor, who is putting together a conservative candidates and operatives training manual, asked me to help her conjure up some ideas regarding how candidates and operatives should reach out to bloggers.This struck me as a worthy pursuit that would be useful not only for national politicians -- but also for local conservative candidates and activists.
While a lot of folks think only of national blogs, the truth is that local bloggers are gaining influence. The reason? Radio stations and newspapers that used to cover local politics now find themselves running only nationally-syndicated stories. As a result, there is a built-in audience who are looking for local political coverage.
If you are looking to break-into blogging, there is a tremendous opportunity to fill this niche. And if you are a local candidate, there's a good chance you need to start building bridges with local bloggers. Recently a candidate for Congress in Virginia actually
cited a blogger on a voter mail piece. This is the sort of treatment that was once reserved for newspaper columnists like George Will.
What follows are my thoughts on how candidates can build better relationships with bloggers -- as well as thoughts on how to "pitch" ideas to them:
1.
Research friendly/unfriendly blogs. There are thousands of blogs covering every possible subject matter available on the internet today. Do your research and find which ones tend to agree with your positions and which ones might be opposed. In addition to political philosophy, also pay special attention to which bloggers have a reputation to uphold. A blogger who has been around a long time and has a good reputation -- has a stake in being perceived as credible, and in getting the story correct. On the other hand, an anonymous blogger or someone who recently began their blog has less to lose. As such, they may have less incentive to get your story correct.
2.
Once you research them, classify them. In addition to noting their political ideology -- note the "type" of blogger they are. Some bloggers think of themselves more as activists. In this case, you can expect conservative bloggers to proactively go out of their way to help you, and liberal bloggers to go out of their way to attack you. Other bloggers think of themselves as "journalists." In this case, even a liberal-leaning blogger can be of use to your campaign. And likewise, a conservative-leaning blogger can hurt your campaign because they are merely looking for a good story to tell. Target your efforts accordingly.
3.
Build a Relationship With Bloggers. Some campaigns mistakenly think they can email out a press release to bloggers and have them write about it. This demonstrates a lack of understanding of the new media. While some bloggers are activists who are solely dedicated to your campaign, the vast majority of bloggers you will encounter are blogging in order to gain attention for themselves, or merely to provide interesting content for their readers. Helping your campaign is, therefore icing on the cake -- but not their goal in life. Understanding this point is vital if you are going to effectively reach out to bloggers. It should also affect the way you choose to contact them. For example, blast emails are fine for distributing background information, but they are also unlikely to result in blog posts. The reason? Bloggers like to have exclusive information. And if you send out a blast email, "Blogger A" will assume that "Blogger B" is already writing about it. As a result, nobody will write about it. If you want to make sure your story is covered by a prominent blog (local or national), pick one blogger to give the story to. If it is truly "newsworthy," other bloggers will link to it. Having bloggers write about the story first is also a good way to push a story into the mainstream media.
4.
Make Sure It's Really Newsworthy: A good rule of thumb is to avoid sending out emails or press releases that aren't newsworthy. If you send out junk, eventually, people start deleting your emails without opening them.
5.
Treat Them With Respect: Make sure to treat bloggers with the same level of respect you would give a mainstream reporter.
6.
When Possible, Provide Audio & Video: When possible, the emails that you send to reporters and bloggers should provide links to buttress your arguments. In addition, providing video and audio always helps. Today, there is no reason that every candidate can't invest in a reasonably inexpensive Flip camera (TheFlip.com), and post videos to YouTube. A story that is questionably interesting often becomes highly interesting when you add video. Don't treat the internet like it's merely a newspaper. Take advantage of the ability to utilize audio and video to buttress your points.
7.
Promote Them: Sign up for Google Alerts. If a blogger writes something good about you, make sure to send out a blast email, promoting it. During the 2008 GOP Primary debates, campaigns like John McCain and Rudy Giuliani would monitor what bloggers were saying about their debate performances. At the end of the night, they would blast out a press release with positive quotes from bloggers about their candidate. This benefited the campaigns because it showed that bloggers were saying positive things about them. But it also served to reward the bloggers, by helping get their name out there. Sometimes mainstream publications would pick up on the quotes. A side benefit was that the campaigns were essentially telling bloggers that, if you say something good about us, we will reward you by blasting it out.
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