{"id":112198,"date":"2018-02-05T10:39:56","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T10:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=112198"},"modified":"2018-02-05T10:39:56","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T10:39:56","slug":"5-top-tips-from-the-influencers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/5-top-tips-from-the-influencers\/","title":{"rendered":"5 top tips from the Influencers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vuelio recently hosted a Meet the Influencers<\/a> session at the CIPR\u2019s Influence Live event. Jo Middleton, Slummy Single Mummy, and Jane Cunningham, British Beauty Blogger, sat with PR and comms experts to discuss building relationships and outreach best practice.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At Vuelio, we spend a lot of time talking to bloggers, vloggers and Instagram stars, and we hear the same suggestions, grievances and tips over and over. Jo and Jane also covered these points, so we thought it was high time for a refresher.<\/p>\n

The top five tips from influencers:<\/p>\n

1. Professional bloggers are running a business<\/strong>
\n<\/span>Jane, a journalist by trade, pointed out that journalists and bloggers are not the same. Journalists are generally salaried, being paid by an outlet or publisher no matter how much time they spend writing about any given topic. As such, PRs have rarely, if ever, had to pay journalists directly for coverage \u2013 and often a free trip can seem like their \u2018treat\u2019 (even though it\u2019s their job to cover such things).<\/p>\n

For professional bloggers, if they don\u2019t get paid, they don\u2019t pay bills. Some bloggers still accept freebies in return for coverage, but they\u2019re often hobbyists who don\u2019t depend on their blogging income to live. It may feel like a culture shift, but the outcomes can be different too \u2013 which leads nicely on to\u2026<\/p>\n

2. You can expect to get more from bloggers
\n<\/span><\/strong>If you don\u2019t pay journalists, you generally can\u2019t demand too much of their time for reports or metrics on the success of your content. Bloggers, on the other hand, should be seen as collaborators \u2013 they\u2019re working with you<\/strong> on your project or campaign and you can agree metrics and results up front. Jo loves being part of the campaign, and advocated Iceland\u2019s style of requesting analytics and making her work hard, as she prefers knowing how her part in the campaign is contributing and being used by the brand, rather than being just one post in a huge machine. Which is point three:<\/p>\n

3. Collaborations should be more than one post
\n<\/strong><\/span>Again, this isn\u2019t traditional media outreach. While journalists could be called \u2018influencers\u2019, their role is fundamentally different and the word \u2018influencer\u2019 (though disliked by many bloggers) has only risen to prominence with the digital age. So, if you\u2019re looking for publication of a press release, go traditional, but if you\u2019re looking to positively influence an audience (niche or otherwise) and want to see positive results over a sustained period of time \u2013 use influencers.<\/p>\n

4. Build relationships
\n<\/strong><\/span>This IS the same across traditional and new media outreach. And for some reason, it comes up again<\/a> and again<\/a> and again<\/a>. Don\u2019t start emails \u2018Hi dear\u2019, or \u2018Hi NAME OF BLOG\u2019 \u2013 Jo isn\u2019t called Slummy Single Mummy and Jane isn\u2019t British Beauty Blogger. If you\u2019re struggling to find the right names and merge your emails professionally, you\u2019re obviously not using Vuelio<\/a>. We list detailed profiles, with names, PR preferences and bios so you can get to know the influencers before you send that first email. And when you\u2019re ready to contact influencers, spend time building relationships \u2013 as with traditional outreach, good relationships lead to better results all round.<\/p>\n

5. It\u2019s not all about social
\n<\/strong><\/span>This varies brand to brand, company to company, but social isn\u2019t the be all and end all. You may be working on behalf of a client who wants to be \u2018big\u2019 on Instagram. That\u2019s fine. You may be working in-house and think a few well-placed tweets are where it\u2019s at \u2013 also fine. Only you know what works for you, but remember that social posts are fleeting, audiences are fickle and \u2018longevity\u2019 is a word that no one uses in a hashtag.<\/p>\n

Yes, you may want social-only collaborations with influencers (and Jo described a dramatic increase in brands who just want Instagram posts), but if you want true influence, and you want your product\/service\/brand\/concept to reach a loyal audience of engaged readers, then remember the blog. Bloggers spend a long time cultivating their blogs, which are their publications, and it would be foolish to overlook them.<\/p>\n

Struggling with Influencer Outreach? Don’t know where to begin with bloggers? Check out the Vuelio Influencer Database<\/a> – it’s been built for you.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vuelio recently hosted a Meet the Influencers session at the CIPR\u2019s Influence Live event. Jo Middleton, Slummy Single Mummy, and Jane Cunningham, British Beauty Blogger, sat with PR and comms experts to discuss building relationships and outreach best practice. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":112199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,7272,4038,7238],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112198"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112198"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112327,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112198\/revisions\/112327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}