Dancing at My Desk

Blissdom 2010: Evolving into a Professional Blogger — Paths to Success

The presenters for this panel include Barbara Jones (@barbarajones), Audrey McClelland (@AudreyMcClellan), Kim Modolfsky (@kimmodolfsky), Stephanie Smirnov (@ssmirnov), Nancy Smith (@nancydsmith), and Alli Worthington (@AlliWorthington).

Description: Travel the path to becoming a top-notch professional step-by-step by learning how to promote yourself, how to develop your brand and how to demonstrate what you can do for companies. Learn how new blogs can start offering earned media in order to eventually gain paid opportunities, how to professionalize your interactions, and insider tips on how to rise to the top by making strategic promotional choices. Our panel includes thought leaders and powerful pros working in blogging, consulting, public relations and marketing.

There is a difference between paid advertising and earned media.

Paid advertising: you’re given the direction and tone of what you need to write about. If you stray from that, companies will not work for you.

Earned Media: You are free to give your own opinion on a product or service that a company provides for you. It’s a great way to develop relationships with companies.

Barbara: Be professional and keep your own voice. You’re more likely to get repeat business this way. A good attitude is also important to have. For paid media, you are giving up some things in exchange for payment. It’s advertorial.

Question: On the paid media topic, what are the different revenue areas that can come from paid media?

Alli: Ad networks can limit you in terms of conflicting ads running on your site. It doesn’t make you a “real writer” to have it.

Kim: Affiliate links (which need to be disclosed) are one way. Bloggers are getting opportunity to be spokespeople for brands and products. Real life networking is going to also happen more frequently (and these types of meet ups that are focused on a brand will be sponsored). There will be more connections offered between companies and brands where they will ask for feedback on campaigns and products. Look for opportunities in your community to teach social media classes at Chambers of Commerce and local colleges and it may open up consulting opportunities.

Question: How do you determine your value/worth and when is the right time to ask for a paid opportunity.

Alli: The wrong time is when you get an email to take part in an earned campaign and you reply to ask for compensation. Budgets have been established for a while so it’s not going to happen.

Nancy: Be prepared. Companies are going to want to know the ROI and what they’re getting from working with you. There are also other valuable ROI metrics like influence, reach and conversations that happen around your work. These are all very important things to show companies when looking for paid media opportunities. Companies will ask you to help them help you. If you have a great idea, companies don’t know until you tell them about it.

Barbara: Create case studies around your work. What was the problem? What was the solution? What was the result? In everything you do, attach trackable metrics to it. The beauty of social media is that so many elements are trackable.

Kim: Show how big your footprint is in the space overall. You do more than write, show people what else you do. When you are reaching out to companies, make your pitch specific. It’s a turn off when you show an example blog post and it doesn’t mention the brand and it’s all over the place.

Nancy: Word of mouth referrals are very effective. When great bloggers work with companies, those companies’ employees network with others and can pass on a referral to others.

Audrey: Display your Social Media footprint like a blogging resume. We forget how important all these items are when trying to show companies how we can add value to a social media campaign.

Kim: Don’t forget your real-life connections as well. Those are also important.

Barbara: When you see a campaign starting and it’s relevant to you. If you bring a good idea, there’s always money for good ideas. But it needs to be integrated. How will the whole campaign play out? Make it easier for everyone to get on board.

Alli: Don’t get hung up on traffic. Where does your talent lie? Are you better on camera? Do you have amazing networking skills?

Nancy: From the corporate side, two things are looked for: Celebrity and Passion. What you lack in traffic you can make up for passion and excitement about a topic, brand or product.