After two days of travelling, with visits to Switzerland and Scotland speaking about social media, one area has made me think more than most.  It is an area that causes great consternation to those who have yet to embrace it and is celebrated by those that do.   What I talking about is Blogger (Influencer) Outreach.

Arsenal have been highlighted in this last week as a club that is prepared to embrace bloggers though it couldn’t be described as a major programme to bring these super fans closer to the club.  What they did was, after criticism of the clubs medical/training practices due to regular player injuries.  They invited a group of fans, some of whom are bloggers into meet the Head Physio and Club Doctor whilst touring the latest facilities the club has to offer.

Arsenal is probably the most open and transparent club in the country.  Their annual meeting with board members and the manager is something to be admired.  They don’t shirk issues and Arsene Wenger has always done his best to answer even the trickiest question.

Did the approach they took work?  Well in terms of numbers it did ok with 957 social mentions, five dedicated fan blog articles, 7,600 glowing words written on the subject, 300+ Facebook Likes, 496 tweets, and an estimated 120,000 reads and almost 100% positive fan sentiment around the globe.

Though not a huge response it did the job intended in gaining positive PR from fans blogs, and then by other digital blogs like this one.  But it is a one-off PR exercise rather than an ongoing blogger outreach programme.  I sense that the fear would still be there in terms of ongoing engagement.

For many companies the issue with letting go of some control and working with people that may not write good things about you is a scary one especially in sport.  But is that not the case with mainstream media who they have to deal with daily?

One thing that everyone needs to be aware of now is the IAB rules on blogger outreach and the paying for posts to be added to a page.  This is seen as advertising and has to be fully disclosed.  For more info, there is a quick video below with Robin Grant who helped put the guidelines together (and yes, he is also my boss!).

To help those who are thinking about setting up their own outreach programme, here is a quick guide which I hope will help you get the basics and begin to get the most vocal and passionate fans involved.

1.  Set out what you want to gain from the programme

Before undergoing any PR or marketing campaign or ongoing programme you have a clear idea of what it is you want to get out of it.  Ask yourself the question “What does success look like to you?”.  This will help shape who you approach, what you do with them and how you measure its effectiveness.

2.  What’s in it for the blogger?

This is an important question you have to ask yourself.  Put yourself in their shoes and ask what you would want if a club/brand approached you and wanted to invite you to an event or asked you to post an article onto your site.  If you struggle to answer this then they will be having the same problems.  If there is no obvious benefit then chances are you wont get what you want out of it, as they wont be interested.

You want to be creating a mutually beneficial ongoing relationship at the end of the day.  Reaching out once and then going back to them again, the proverbial picking someone up and dropping them back down again, is not the best approach.  It can cause resentment and make bloggers feel they are being used only when it’s of benefit to the club. Thus there is no mutually beneficial relationship.

A first step on this may be to acknowledge that the fans blog is there.  Manchester City have taken the lead on this by linking out to all club blogs on their website.  Its a great touch that doesn’t immediately benefit the club but provides a lot of good feeling towards them from the writers of those blogs.

3.  Research the blogs

It is important to do your research.  Take a look and find the top blogs that cover either your club or your subject.  For a club you will have a fair idea of who writes about the club and how big they are.  There are tools out there to help with this search, we have our own bespoke one at We Are Social that saves lots of time, but having a look using Google Search, Alexa, Technorati, Twitter, Social Mention is a start.  Find out who is writing about you and where.

Actually have a look at the blogs and see what they write about, the style the use, the type of content they cover (is it breaking news, is it opinion, is it about equipment or concentrated on players), who is their main audience.  This will help you understand what will work for them and why.

4.  Personalise your approach

This is probably the most important area when it comes to gaining favour with influencers.  As a blogger there is nothing worse than getting a bog standard press release from a PR/Marketing Exec saying that you should be adding this to your site. They may get your name right but that is about as personalised as it gets.  To top it off 95% of the time the content is totally inappropriate for my audience and shows they have even looked at what I write about.

If you can show that you have taken some time to read their articles, have some knowledge about their audience and are offering something that is relevant/useful then you have increased your chances of starting a relationship with them by a huge amount.

5.  Be honest….always!

People will find out and see through your efforts to pull the wool over their eyes.  Be honest in your approach and dealings with them, it is very much about developing a relationship – as you would with mainstream media – to bring about a situation where they write favourable things about you and you provide them with access/content.  If you are dishonest and found out then they already have a sizeable audience to tell and they will do very quickly.  Then you have an all new PR issue to deal with.

6.  Consider bloggers time

If you are going to invite them to events on a regular basis or send them lots of content then do consider that many bloggers have full-time jobs and sometimes families to look after too.  Blogging is a way of showing their passion for a subject and is done out of love usually and not profit.  If you can take this into account when planning, understand the issues they face and take to them about them and even pay expenses for them to come to events if they have to travel far.  This will carry great favour and go a long way in creating a lasting relationship.

7.  Give great content and experiences

In sport we are lucky in that there is so much passion around the topics and plenty of content that can be used.  Every sport and club in the country will have someone who is so passionate about it that they will write and are readily known as an influencer/expert in that field.  If you can help them to continue grow through access to content that is really interesting then you will gain regular coverage.

As well as sending videos and content, having a great experience with a club/brand is still the best thing.  We speak regularly to our bloggers and know who the best football writers are.  Part of this is keeping in touch and inviting them to events when appropriate so we can meet them – you cant beat face to face time to really cement a relationship – and find out more about them.  This could be at a boot launch, visit to the headquarters, opportunities to interview employees, taken to the corporate box for a match, meeting players.  There is so much that you can do.

We invited a few club bloggers to join the big football bloggers for a Champions League match the other month.  This was the first time they had been engaged in such a way and they absolutely loved it.  This showed in their tweets during the night and their blog posts over the following days.  If a brand can do this then why not a club?

8.  Say thank you

This may sound quite an obvious one but just being nice and saying thank you for putting an article up or for coming to an event is a nice touch.  One word I keep mentioning throughout this piece is ‘relationship’.  It is about bringing them closer to you, having on-going chats with them, answering their questions and dealing with them in a really good account management way.

9.  Listen and learn

Once you have done an event or been speaking to bloggers for a little while it is always useful to put together a quick report to find out how successful it has been.  As we saw earlier with the stats from the Arsenal outreach they have the numbers to go back to those above with and show them what effect it can have.  It is good for PR and good for internal buy-in to keep records.  It is also great to speak to the bloggers; find out what they liked about the event, what you could be doing better, what kind of content they would find interesting.  If they are writing about your club, sport or brand then they are already showing they are passionate about it.  They want to write good things and be proud of those they follow.

Many are scared that all this can backfire, isn’t worth the time/effort and that it doesn’t work.  Having spoken to clubs and governing bodies recently on this subject it is one that is going to take some time, effort and persuading to become the norm.  The fear is that you open yourself up and are asked questions or written about on subjects you don’t want to talk about or have control over the message.

What having these relationships in place and having goodwill from the influencers is that they are going to be on your side.  If something breaks they may come to you first to find out if it is true or what the response is from the club.  They want to protect, not attack but if they are just fed information from rumours, other fans and media speculation plus if they are feeling distant from the club (a regular source of frustration from fans) then chances are they will be negative.

If something happens then give some exclusive access to the biggest/best influencer(s) to help get the message of what is actually going on.  These relationships can help calm the fire before it ever gets too big.  If there is no relationship they will only help fan the flames.

Remember, when it comes to influencers we are not just talking bloggers (though I have concentrated on them on here) but those who are important on Twitter, YouTube and even your Facebook Page.  You can use the same approach with them when it comes to events.  Having a ‘Tweet-Up’ or Facebook Super Fan Day can be great ways in which to engage fans.  You may even have some celebrity fans who are on Twitter or Facebook, find out who they are and engage with them.

There are so many opportunities but it is baby steps that are needed to start.  Arsenal have made that start through the open fan/blogger event at the training ground, hopefully more will follow.

I hope you have found this useful.  Fire any questions at me and I’ll do my best to answer them.