I am often asked about the local blog scene and my answer has evolved since moving here four years ago. In that span, I personally believe it has grown and matured a great deal.
We have bloggers like Emily from A Denver Home Companion who have successfully combined personal lifestyle posts with content that celebrates the best of our city. We have gorgeous blogs like Happy Yolks, written by a local while enjoying notoriety on a national scale. Eater Denver breaks top dining news and Mile High Mamas content is syndicated on DenverPost.com. Even our very own Jon Woods has amassed a following of tens of thousands for his Ralphie Report sports blog on the SB Nation network. It is a good time to be blogging in Colorado.
I say all of this because I hope local brands take as much pride in the evolving Colorado blogger landscape as we do here at GFM. There are relationships to nurture and opportunity to help one another grow.
Many of our teams work with local bloggers on a regular basis. In the past week, we have been lucky enough to host two successful blogger and online influencer (e.g., Yelpers) events on behalf of our clients. We enjoy meeting these folks IRL (translation: In Real Life) and are grateful for the professionalism and genuine interest they have for supporting Colorado companies.
On the heels of these events I wanted to take a moment to share a six recommendations to keep in mind before rolling out your next experience for bloggers, wherever the event takes place.
- Determine your top objectives for the event and the outcomes you would like to see. Then research and build your target attendee list.
- Engage bloggers to help you determine influencers or up-and-coming bloggers who might want to attend but not be on your radar yet.
- Do more than just follow your targets on social media—authentically engage with them before, during and well after the event.
- Make it easy for attendees to share killer content as the event happens. Stage food or drinks for iPhone photography. Plaster the hashtag and company social platforms everywhere. You don’t want them having to search for how to tag the brand.
- Pull a pre-event baseline social media report so that you can truly measure impact in the days that follow.
- Follow up the next day, preferably with a way for each blogger to authentically engage their readers with something more than an event recap, such as a relevant contest or giveaway.
What tips would you add to this list?
Alexis Anderson is a Senior Communications Director with an admittedly inconsistent lifestyle blog ever since embracing the juggle of becoming a full-time working mom. However, when she does find a spare moment to read she can be found catching up on mom and foodie blogs. Her favorites include Cupcakes and Cashmere, Running to the Kitchen and A Denver Home Companion.
