I was surprised to read blogger Mina Zaher’s piece for The Huffington Post in which she documents her bad experiences with PR’s. This is an example of the basics of PR clearly not being adhered to, and a lack of appreciation of how much this could ultimately destroy an influential relationship, not just for the individual but for the wider agency and brand it is representing. The reason I’m surprised is by now, blogger outreach should no longer be seen as a separate piece of activity that sits outside other media relations. It is all the same thing, with the collective goal to achieve written endorsement, be it on or offline.

Even influence tier-ing should be done collectively – for a restaurant looking for a great review (as per Zaher’s example), an online post by a high ranking blogger may be far more valuable from an SEO perspective than a piece in a national paper that never makes it online. I may be stating the patently obvious to some, but it is clear that this is not being cascaded down to those selling in.

With another core skill of a PR to manage risk, it’s time to avoid poor practice like this. Bloggers need to be seen as a priority with the appropriate time assigned to relationship building and avoiding the potential venting of frustrations.