Bloggers are feeling a lot more important these days, with just about everyone keen on engaging them. First it was the Government and now corporations and public relations agencies have joined the line.

TO SAY that there’s been a lot of attention paid to bloggers since the March 8 general election is an understatement. Not only is the Government keen on engaging bloggers, corporations and public relations agencies are very keen to do so as well.

Blogs have been around for a few years now, and although they are a hit with the digital natives – the people who grew up using the Internet – it’s only relatively recently that the digital immigrants are treating them as a serious element of the broader media scene.

As such, there is not much knowledge about how to deal with bloggers.

They certainly don’t teach you how to do so in mass communication courses at colleges and universities. So, it’s pretty much trial and error for many corporate communication and PR practitioners.

Over the years, I have been approached by PR people hoping that I would write about their client’s products. Some of the experiences have been good and some have been bad.

Let me share with you real life examples of the right way to approach a blogger and how not to do so.

Sometime last year, I received an e-mail from a PR practitioner named Leonora Stevens of LaunchSquad, a San Francisco-based agency specialising in high-growth tech companies.

Her client is EverNote, a note-taking and web-clipping software which I’ve written about in the past and which I still use on a regular basis.

“Hi, Oon ? I see you’ve written about EverNote in the past and I think you’d be interested in learning about our new product offering,” Leonora wrote, and proceeded to inform me of the latest update and the “bevy of product enhancements” that the new version contains. She also offered to put me in touch with the CEO of the company for a phone interview.

Her introductory e-mail was just nice. She displayed a familiarity with my writings and was informative without being pushy.

Her offer to put me directly in touch with the CEO also shows that she considered my postings to be important (it always helps to stroke a blogger’s ego).

I was very busy at the time so I told her that it would be helpful if she could send me a brief rundown of the new features (I didn’t have time to go through all the media releases) and also links to other reviews already done on the product.

She obliged and reverted very quickly with a shortlist of product enhancements and links to write-ups about the new version.

I then told her that I was undecided whether to do a review of the new version or an analysis of the company’s business model – which was to give away the basic product for free but to offer a premium version for a fee.

Leonora seemed inclined towards a review but was fully ready and willing to facilitate any questions I may have about their business model. Again, this is was a right move on her part – she didn’t try to dictate what or how I should write.

I was preoccupied with other matters and did not revert to her for some time. “Hi, Oon ? Just writing to reconnect and see if you have any questions in regard to EverNote 2.2,” she wrote.

“Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you out.” It was a gentle reminder that was not pushy at all.

In the end, I wrote a review that Leonora was thrilled with. She made all the right moves – she was friendly, helpful, patient and informative without being imposing or demanding – and in the end she got what she wanted, which was a write-up about her client’s product.

Now, let me share with you the wrong way to approach a blogger. A local PR practitioner, whose name I shall withhold to save her some embarrassment, sent me this message:

“I’m from a PR agency – one of my clients is interested in having a product review and is keen on tapping into the blogging arena. You will be given the product (electronic product) to sample and keep. However, we would need you to post the article/review up on your site. Also, am wondering how many hits do you have on your blogsite?”

Can you tell how many faux pas there are in that one e-mail alone? The answer is six.

Firstly, the e-mail was totally impersonal and didn’t even address me by name. Secondly, she doesn’t identify the PR agency she’s from. Thirdly, she doesn’t mention the name of her client. Fourthly she doesn’t even tell me what the product actually is. Fifthly, she is setting conditions, saying I can only have the product if I agree to do an article or a review.

Last but not least, she’s asking me to reveal/justify the traffic to my website.

Now, some of these things might seem reasonable if it were I who was approaching them. But who is asking whom for a favour here? It’s not like I’m asking her client to sponsor me their product or to advertise on my website. They are the ones asking me to do something for them – a nameless PR company representing a nameless client that makes a mysterious “electronic product”.

Instead of junking the e-mail, I gave her the courtesy of a reply and asked for more information about her client and their product. This was her reply:

“Unfortunately, we’re not at the liberty to give out more information on this product. I hope you can understand. If you agree to do this review, we will of course furnish you will all the information needed.”

This was too much for me and I replied, rather diplomatically: “Hi, I’m sorry but I’ll give this one a miss.”

> Oon Yeoh feels PR companies can learn a lot from Leonora. You can practise your PR skills on him at www.oonyeoh.com.