OFFICIAL LIVEBLOG - Brands & Bloggers

Session Description:  BlogHer co-founder Jory Des Jardins will moderate this discussion with Liz Gumbinner, co-founder and blogger at Cool Mom Picks, Sarah Pasquinucci, a brand advocate and public relations manager for Procter & Gamble Fabric Care, Jaden from Steamy Kitchen, a food blogger who has worked successfully (and extensively) with various companies, and Wheatley Marshall, an expert on strategic brand planning and social media outreach. These women represent both sides of the Brand/Blogger Border, and we’ll get you talking about:

How to market in the blogosphere without being dismissed as a shill

How to work with brands without being reviled as a BlogWhore

How both sides of this commercial relationship have equal responsibility to set their policies, be transparent and remain ethical in the eyes of their customers, readers, etc. 

Jory Des Jardins introduces herself as moderator, assures audience that this is an open forum.  They will be taking questions throughout.

Jory introduces Wheatley Marshall

Introduces Liz Gumbinner is from Cool Mom Pics, is a marketer by trade. She's been on both sides of marketing.

Introduces Sarah Pasquinucci came to marketing through journalism, foodforthought.wordpress.com

Introduces Jaden is a food blogger, has worked with traditional media.   She is from steamykitchen.com, and is columnist for Tampa Tribune.

Jory plans on talking about attitudes towards PR blackout, blogger burnout. FTC pressure will be addressed more completely with LIsa Stone's panel tomorrow.

What do we want to talk about?

-negativity
-paid content vs. earned content
-how do we set ourselves up as professionals for branding
-how to brand yourself and your blog, self branding
-how to maintain integrity and not sell-out
-art of forming a relationship with the blogging community, how to pitch.
-how much does disclosure absolve you of bias, journalistic integrity
-how not to have the brand own posts and writing

Jory to Liz - there are fine lines around how to do this right.  Liz blogged It DOES matter what other people are doing on their blogs, what is that?
Liz - We're all in this together. We don't blog in a vacuum. What you do impacts all of us.  How can we all work better, and blog with integrity together?
J- Is there something going wrong?
Liz -There's a loss of focus on why people have started their blogs.  Blogs have turned into an opportunity to get shit.  There's nothing wrong with being compensated for your writing.  Know your brand/passions.  Write about that.  Be specific when you're branding yourself.  Be as specific in your passions as you can.    Put out a message for your readers that is consistent and on par with your brand.  Turn shit down.  It's the only way for your readers to believe in you.  Only write about what you care about.  That way you won't let down your readers.  All you have is your integrity and trust with your readers. Everything else will follow.

Jory to audience - Who feels you have blogger burnout.
Audience member - She has blogger burnout.  She's a review blogger.  In last 6 months or so has gotten overwhelmed with reviewing too much stuff.  She had to reclaim her blog, and decide to blog less. 

Liz - Niche is important.  You need to self-brand beyond I want to share my opinion.
Jaden - What do you want to be known for?  Build your brand.
Jory to Jaden - You feel a responsibility towards brands you work with?
Jaden - I view my brands as clients.  What kind of experience can I create that will add value to every single person involved, self, readers, brand?
Jory - Will you write the negative review? (to the audience)
Audience - It really depends, just don't review product I don't like.

Liz - The most important thing is to develop relationships.  Don't just send products without a relationship.

J to Sarah - What do you look for as a marketer?  It's not about reach, it's about reaching the right people through the right influencer.  It depends on what you're pitching and who you're trying  to go after. 

Jaden - Forget traffic numbers, it's your passion and integrity.  It's not about numbers.

Jory - What about engagement?

Sarah - It's all about relationship you have with your readers.  It's about what you're trying to do for your readers. 

Audience - Making plea in this context for brands to do diverse outreach. 

Audience - Interested in question of genre. Are bloggers journalists? Or are they marketers?  What is your implicit contract as a blogger.
Liz- Part of the challenge is that some bloggers are passionate consumers, some are citizen journalists.  There are challenges and different ways to do this right.  Has recently launched blogwithintegrity.com.  How can we behave appropriately in this space.  Reframe the narrative and give bloggers something positive to aspire towards.
Jaden-Journalists can be bloggers, but not all bloggers are journalists.  She considers her blog her soap box.  Do you want the gov't telling you what you can blog about? Does not want the gov't to dictate how she can blog.  Blog with integrity. 

Jory - How do you work with bloggers?
Wheatley - We use the same outreach that we do with traditional media.  Way that we outreach w/bloggers is on same respect level.  Giveaways, contesting, exclusive relevant content, exclusive previews to what new is coming out.  Brands should continue to do this.

Jory - Are there other ways that bloggers want to work with brands?
Audience - Best brand relationship has been doing other things not reviews, like parties, etc, Oscar Meyer example.
Wheatley - It's all about providing a relevant experience.

In larger brands is there more sensitivity towards negative reviews.
Audience - From a big company, cannot compensate for reviews, and gets backlash from bloggers themselves.  They're not able to pay reviewers, but want to be seen as respectable. 
Audience - Niche specific, never accepts product from any company that contacts them.  Doesn't do reviews.  Will give things away.  Her job is to educate readers on what is out there. 

Liz - Bloggers are feeling very entitled, demanding giveaways.

Audience - Difference between advertising and PR dollars.  For blogs with advertising, you can reach out to advertising companies.
PR people want to reach you, your readers, and really get you opinion and honest perspective.  It's unethical for PR to compensate bloggers for that in any way.

Audience - From a PR point of view, you need to research who you're pitching to.  Research the blogger. There are agencies that make sure you're on the same page, giving out the same message.  Want a fair review, with pros and cons. 
Jory - What do you recommend when a blogger gets it wrong?
Liz - You have to own your work.  If you say something factually incorrect, you need to go back to fix it and make it right. 
Sarah - It's the same thing as journalism.  You need accuracy, negative or positive.

Audience (Cheaty) - She has to accept a product.  She needs to test it.  She won't write about it if she hasn't tested it.  Only accepts products she believes in.  Turns down a lot of stuff.  But needs product so she can truly give opinion.
Sarah - If it's a review, the writer needs to review it. 
Liz - Difference between using a product as a tool, or viewing it as compensation for writing.  It's a tool for review.
Jaden - Bigger picture, if you want to do this as a business, consider them a client. What is it that I can provide and add value to their brand and my pocket book.  Create an experience.  Gather other bloggers.  

Jory - Reviews must be accurate.  You don't have to like it, but you have to be accurate.  How do people get on your radar? How do you find me?
Wheatley - From PR perspective, it's important that you start organically and do your homework.  How does their relevance fit with your brand.  To reach out to brands, twitter is good, lots of communications channels.
Sarah - It's easy to fall into trap of going after same bloggers.  But it's important as brand you're picking the right bloggers.  Your community helps you.

Audience - A lot of us have main blog and review blog.  What do PR people think of that set up? Better or worse?
Sarah - Personally does not have issue with that.  You own both blogs, throw your traffic back and forth.
Liz - If you want to continue to work with marketers, you need to put just as much effort into your review blog as you do your personal blog?

Mentions bloggerblackbook.com/survey - if you want to be included in database.  It's free.

Audience - If you are frustrated and feel like you're being taken advantage of, you need to do more than say no, you need to say why you are saying no.  For the PR company, there has to be respect for the bloggers.  There has to be reciprocal respect.
Audience - Would like to recommend that we cut down on waste.  For brands, that means focused outreach.  For bloggers, that means you don't want to waste the company's time.  Screen pitches online, focus, cut on waste.

Jory - This session is sponsored by HP. 

Audience - The best blogger relations are about focused outreach.  Blasting a list is not the way to do it. That's not away to get results.
Audience - If you look at this room, this happened because BlogHer understood how to go to a brand and asked.  It should be more of a two-way street.  How can the blogger pitch you?  Take your passion and use it.  Go to the corporate sponsor. 

Jory - How do PR people feel about getting contacted from bloggers?
Wheatley - It's a great thing, it's a two-way street, and it should be.  How can we work better together?  How can we do this?

Audience - It's great to talk about brands and bloggers, but we need to have advertising people here.  Products are not compensation.  Brands need to spend money on advertising.  Spend money on blog advertising.

Audience - If I was a newspaper, I would go ask for advertising.  To me that seems logical as a blogger.