The Business of Blogging Building Relationships with Brands #FLBlogCon13

Yadira Ambert

Clubdelasdiosas.com

@Clubdelasdiosas

Joscelyn Campbell

MamiofMultiples.com

Mami Innovative Media

@JoscelynRC

@InnovativeTalk

Karina Fernandez

ConSaboraKafe.com

@ConsaboraKaFe

Sili Recio

MyMamihood.com

Mami Ink Media

@MyMamihood

@MamihoodMedia

AGENDA

What happens AFTER you get the pitch or begin the relationship. The business side of

working with the brand.

• Questions that will be answered:

• Your pitch was approved! Now what?

• I’ve blogged about the product, what should I do now?

• Reporting on your success: how to do it and what information to include.

# S O C I A L I N F L U E N Z

2

WHAT YOU DID TO GET HERE

• Joined Bloggers Groups to learn about opportunities for sponsorships.

• Participated in Networks which are a great resource to find opportunities

and sponsorships.

• Follow other blogs and collaborate

• Set a strategy in your Blog to attract brands and followers by:

Identifying if your blog is for business or personal

Knowing your own “brand” – what is the focus or themes of your blog?

Reaching out to brands and companies that would complement and enhance your

blog.

Blogs are often considered ‘media’. Signing up for brand and company press

releases. Connecting with public relations or media team and send an introductory

email and background information about your blog.

Thinking “outside of the box” – How can you enhance or provide a service to a brand

or company and make it mutually beneficial for your blog and their business?


3

Identify if your blog is for business or personal #SocialInfluenz

Know your own brand. What’s the focus of your blog? #SocialInfluenz

Reach out to companies that would complement YOUR brand #SocialInfluenz

THE PITCH

Y O U R P R O P O S A L

What’s in it for the brand

or company?

Be creative, need to stand

out as brands receive

daily pitches

Professional look

Brief and to the point

All in one sheet

W H A T ’ S I N A P I T C H ?

Introduction – A description of you,

your blog, and social media influence

Fees – A brief synopsis of the

conference or event and the fees

associated with attending

Invoice

Services – What are you and your

blog willing to provide?

Announcement of sponsorship and

recap post, social media amplification

Banner ad space

Wearing company apparel or handing

out product information or giveaway


4

What’s in it for the brand? #SocialInfluenz

Make sure your pitch looks professional & is concise #SocialInfluenz

Be creative! You need to stand out from all the other pitches received #SocialInfluenz

YOUR PITCH WAS APPROVED? NOW WHAT?

Follow up with the brand and reiterate expectations

Begin planning

Create a to-do list for yourself and a schedule

Try to create a “clean” hashtag for your campaign in order to have better metrics

Tell your tribe! Let them know about your campaign and ask them to be on the

lookout for that hashtag & support you


5

Date Task Notes

08/13/13 Send invoice Per brand, net 30 policy on payment

8/31/13 Post Blog

9/21/13 Pull report for metrics on contest

10/01/13 Create campaign recap

After pitch is approved, reiterate deliverables #SocialInfluenz

Create a campaign calendar/list to keep you on track #SocialInfluenz

When your pitch is approved, tell your tribe! They’ll support you #SocialInfluenz

Know Your Stuff…

# S O C I A L I N F L U E N Z 6

CASE STUDY

#CFLMEENCANTA CASE STUDY


7

A group of influential Central Florida bloggers (Social Influenz)

were looking to create opportunities for general market and

multicultural bloggers in the Central FL area

Had been a conference speaker and advisory board member

at Hispanicize which provided the opportunity to converse with

the Director of Outreach and Brand Management for

McDonald’s & McDonald’s Multicultural PR Agency

Learned that McDonald’s was trying to promote their new

healthy 300 calorie menu and the new blueberry banana nut

oatmeal

At that point, McDonald’s had not considered a blogger or

digital outreach in the CFL area (especially for the multicultral

market) Know your stuff before your pitch! #SocialInfluenz

Don’t be scared…think outside the box. #SocialInfluenz

“No” doesn’t mean never! #SocialInfluenz

#CFLMEENCANTA CASE STUDY


8

After the conference, SI submitted a proposal to bring

awareness to the importance of breakfast, healthy breakfast

and menu choices at McDonald’s

Would incorporate McDonald’s bilingual Handle @MeEncanta

(The Spanish version of McDonald’s I’m Lovin’ It tagline)

The proposal included a 2-hour family-friendly event at a CFL

McDonald’s location on a weekend with invited key community

leaders, social media influencers and guests

Live Twitter party during event, Facebook, various social media

postings and use of customized hashtag #CFLMeEncanta

Tracking social media impressions and postings in a post-

report to the brand

Understand the brand and market #SocialInfluenz

What is a brand trying to accomplish? #SocialInfluenz

Joining with other bloggers can lead to a bigger impact #SocialInfluenz

#CFLMEENCANTA RESULTS


9

With creating a weekend family-friendly event, the RSVP list was

full because invitees could attend without interfering with their

personal schedules and bring their children

Attendees sampled all of the healthy options and families

(including children) received healthy products and ‘swag’ gifts

Live Twitter party and social media postings using the hashtag

exposed McDonald’s healthy messaging to a greater audience

beyond CFL – nationwide and globally

Invited social media influencers and bloggers positively posted

about the healthy menu before, during and after the event

Tracking report showed that the event created 1,000,000

impressions for McDonald’s and its healthy messaging=SUCCESS

Create customized hashtags for tracking #SocialInfluenz

Products or ‘swag’ can be helpful tools for promotions #SocialInfluenz

Be professional and accurate in your post reporting to the brand! #SocialInfluenz

NO doesn’t mean never…


CASE STUDY

DELIGHTFUL CASE STUDY


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In the beginning there was Tap Influence…

Met PR rep at BlissDom on the last night of the conference

Connected when I returned from the conference and shared

my sponsorship packet with rep for Hispanicize

Due to the quick turnaround time, we were not able to make it

work for that particular conference

When Niche conference speakers were selected, I went back to

ID with another sponsorship packet

Got on the phone with reps and gave them my vision for how I

wanted to execute the sponsorship

Care, connect & keep it up! #SocialInfluenz

Make it personal but don’t take it personal #SocialInfluenz

“No” doesn’t mean never! #SocialInfluenz


NO doesn’t mean NEVER!

Be patient. Start this process early. Companies have processes and

procedures to follow and at times, it takes a while to go through that system

YOU are the SME (Subject Matter Expert). Come to the table prepared with

ideas, back up ideas and backups for your backups

There will be more than one conversation during the planning process

Be open to changes

Once the deal is made, you are a team. This means you work together with

the brand to make not just the event/conference successful but the

planning as well

Make it easy for the brand to work with you

Provide them with an invoice well in advance of the conference as the brand

might have a payment policy that requires a net timeframe before payment

Be patient when you pitch. Yeses take time too! #SocialInfluenz

Come to the table prepared. YOU are the expert. #SocialInfluenz

Email is great but sometimes, phone is better. #SocialInfluenz

When working w a brand, you’re a team! #SocialInfluenz

Make it easy for the brand to work with you. #SocialInfluenz

Email is great but sometimes, phone is better. #SocialInfluenz

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DELIGHTFUL LESSONS

DURING THE CAMPAIGN

Send follow up emails to the brand and let them know how things

are going

If the campaign has a giveaway, be sure to include the brand’s

handle in the “tweet about this giveaway” option so that they

can see the volume of chatter prior to your wrap up

Tell your tribe and ask them to support you

Ensure you’re meeting your deliverables. If anything changes and

you can’t do something when you were scheduled to, let the

brand know


13 Ask your tribe for support but remember to return the favor #SocialInfluenz

Follow up with the brand during the campaign #SocialInfluenz

REPORTING YOUR SUCCESS

Provide your sponsor with full recap in the form of a PowerPoint (because they can add

it to their own presentation later)

Reports – TweetReach, Facebook Impressions, Pinterest pageviews, Instagram

(statigr.am)

Include key metrics like Twitter hashtag impressions

Number of samples given out

Readership stats for blog posts about the conference

Links to the post

Amount of comments

Page Views/Impressions

Visits


14 Provide your sponsor with full recap in the form of a PowerPoint. They can add

to their own presentations later #SocialInfluenz

Be sure to include metrics like Twitter hashtags in your report #SocialInfluenz

FACEBOOK INSIGHTS


15 FB insights can give you a wealth of info, don’t be afraid to dive in #SocialInfluenz

Post impressions are easily found at the bottom of posts #SocialInfluenz

Type

Lifetime

Post

Total

Reach

Lifetime

Post

organic

reach

Lifetime

Post viral

reach

Lifetime

Talking

About This

(Post)

Lifetime Post

reach by

people who

like Page

Lifetime

Engaged

Users

Link 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

Photo 5 422 417 5 6 201 45

Status

Update 15 1,678 1,581 98 12 825 24

Grand Total 21 2,100 1,998 103 18 1,026 69

Avg Per Post 100 95 5 1 49 3


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TWEETREACH

You can get a free report on @TweetReach up to 50 posts #SocialInfluenz

PINTEREST


17 Pinterest is not just for pretty pics, dig into the numbers! #SocialInfluenz


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STATIGR.AM

Search by username

Search by hashtag

Gives you # of likes and comments on images

Provide a link to the Statigr.am page so the brand can get real time data

#SocialInfluenz

TAGBOARD


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Allows you to search for one hashtag across all social media platforms

Search for hashtags across all platforms! #SocialInfluenz

YOUR SUMMARY

Your presentation to the brand should include the following slides:

Overview

What did you do?

What was the purpose of the campaign?

Was there a winner?


20

Overview • Created 5 distinct blog posts in order to highlight the

benefits of MS Office for Students as the school year

begins

• Rafflecopter giveaway of a copy of MS Office Home and

Student 2010

• Yielded a total of 25,950 entries

• Total of 1 winner (prize to be shipped by brand)

Lucky Winner

1234 Winner’s Circle

Las Vegas, NV 89121

702-555-1212

• Cross-promoted via Facebook, Twitter and Network

groups

• Used hashtag #OfficeParaMi in order to increase

visibility among Latinos

• Two of the 5 blogs were in Spanish

YOUR SUMMARY

Metrics

Twitter

Facebook

Blog posts

Instagram

Google+

Pinterest


21

Reach 132,840

Impressions 198,053

Tweets 120

Contributors 86

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

Twitter

Metrics

Reach

Impressions

Tweets

Contributors

Results - Twitter

YOUR SUMMARY

Summary and Next Steps (if any)

What were the wins?


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Summary

• Hashtag proved to be successful and engaging

• The group angle was an innovative and different way to reach

consumers by giving 5 different perspectives on one product

• Created a lot of buzz in a short period of time

• Increased engagement and followers

Next Steps

• Prepare for Twitter party

• Promote on social media platforms

• Provide invoice for payment

OUR SUMMARY


NO doesn’t mean NEVER!

Understand the brand and its mission

Create a pitch or proposal that stands out by thinking OUTSIDE the box!

Be enthusiastic about the product you’re representing

Be patient with the process

YOU are the Subject Matter Expert

Be open to changes and new ideas

Make it easy for the brand to work with you

Provide a recap after your event/conference/ambassadorship

Create summary in PowerPoint

Provide metrics for your work

Follow up with a thank you note

Keep the conversation going even afterwards

Remember, it is all about the relationship!

http://SocialInfluenz.com

@SocialInfluenz

@Clubdelasdiosas

@JoscelynRC

@ConsaboraKaFe

@MyMamihood

http://socialinfluenz.com/

Technology

The Business of Blogging Building Relationships with Brands #FLBlogCon13