Natalie Bovis-Nelsen, the cocktail mixologist who blogs and vlogs as The Liquid Muse, wrote an article for mediabistro.com about PR techniques that’ll get you mentioned on blogs. You’ll want to get mentioned on blogs, she says, because they’ve got global audiences, and they’ve increasingly become the place where “big media” outlets get story ideas—in some cases because bloggers also have a second career in freelance (or staff) journalism. “The new generations of consumers… expect to know what’s new as it happens,” Bovis-Nelsen declares. “By pitching blogs, your client and products can be exactly where readers want them to be: right in front of them, from the point of release onward.” (As long as you don’t screw up the pitch; Harlequin would no sooner send Maud its latest, for example, than Viking would try to tout All the Sad Young Literary Men to The Elegant Variation.)
So what does Bovis-Nelsen recommend to get their attention? Among other tips those of you in the online marketing departments will instantly recognize: Look before you pitch, keep it simple, have images or videos (or product samples) ready to send, and don’t try asking them to revise away negative opinions after the post has gone live.
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