The PR Adviser: Are Bloggers Here to Stay?

but, unfortunately, we’d just delivered the last of our available elves to Anderson Cooper’s now-defunct talk show, “Anderson Live;” I had none left to give. I offered some elf accessories instead as an alternative.

Anyone want to venture a guess at her response? No, no, it was nothing like you’re thinking.  

It was far worse.

She spent the next 10 minutes berating me, telling me how ungrateful I was, how her network was so huge that it would help an already-sold-out product sell more. I’d never had a conversation like this before, but I learned that should I ever enter a conversation like this again, I should simply hang up the phone.

Does this illustrate how I feel about bad bloggers?

Now, on to your next question: Are bloggers here to stay?

Well, yes, but it will be impossible for bad bloggers to continue their schadenfreude.

First, because I’m going to teach you how not to fall prey to their nonsense.  And second, because the Federal Trade Commission has significantly upped their surveillance of blogger activity.

The FTC is a much longer discussion, so I’ll save that for a future column. Let’s talk now about how to approach blogger requests.

When a blogger contacts you with whatever fantasy they have, use Twitter Audit to audit their Twitter account. If the results yield more than 30 percent fake, pass.  

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to have 0 percent fake followers as everyone with a Twitter account eventually gets followed by fake accounts. I have fake followers, even though Twitter has long abandoned updating my account and the number of followers I actually have has not increased since 2014. But that’s another story, and one of the many reasons I dislike Twitter.

If their Twitter audit numbers look good, go next to their YouTube, Facebook and Instagram pages.

You’re looking for engagement. This is the single most important thing that gives a blogger value--not the number of followers they have.

Engagement means people are responding to their posts. Are there conversations being had on their social profiles? If you see an Instagram account with 1.2 million followers, hundreds of likes, but no comments, you’re likely dealing with a faker. Save yourself time and move on.

Which brings us to another point--don’t dismiss the blogger with only 1,000 social media followers, and a 30 percent or less Twitter audit. This is a blogger most likely following the tried-and-true path of her successful predecessors. Check out her engagement levels, see if you like what she has to say and, if you do, find ways to work with her now before she becomes a star. She’ll be less expensive.

We’ve come to another end, my dear readers. Let me know what you think of bloggers. Do you think they’re here to stay? Do you have favorites that should be on everyone’s radar? Comment below!

Until next time, lovelies!

Lilian Raji is a strategic marketing and public relations adviser who helps luxury lifestyle brands sell more products to luxury buyers. Send questions for The PR Adviser to nationaljeweler@lmrpr.com or contact her at lilian@lmrpr.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.