How To: Talk to Bloggers was a phenomenal, lunch-hour seminar held on May 26 at the Washington DC Economic Partnership. The event attracted a diverse range of marketing communications professionals. Featured speaker, Jonathan Rick, Senior Strategist of Rock Creek Strategic Marketing, is a serious Blogger with a background in public affairs. His superb online communication skills have landed him numerous accolades from local politicians to the media. In his role, Jonathan uses his talents to help clients navigate the complex world of social media and the Blogosphere.

How To: Talk to Bloggers was a phenomenal, lunch-hour seminar held on May 26 at the Washington DC Economic Partnership. The event attracted a diverse range of marketing communications professionals. Featured speaker, Jonathan Rick, Senior Strategist of Rock Creek Strategic Marketing, is a serious Blogger with a background in public affairs. His superb online communication skills have landed him numerous accolades from local politicians to the media. In his role, Jonathan uses his talents to help clients navigate the complex world of social media and the Blogosphere. Jonathan is truly in a league of his own when it comes to knowing the ins and outs of the Web. His e-strategies have helped a variety of clients, including the federal government, nonprofits, and the general public. His articles have been published in What We Think: Young Voters Speak Out (2004), on social media blogs, TechPresident, K Street Café, GovFresh, PRWeek and Politico.

Blogging is a term widely used today. People blog about their aspirations, interests, hobbies – really anything and everything under the sun. The invention of the World Wide Web, has transformed the way people communicate and share information. Individuals from all sectors of the world blog to be heard! The passion that rests at the hands of the blogger shows the inner urge of our popular media culture to be heard. A voice of anger, passion, love, or hate awaiting its digital signature and approval from the public with a simple click of a mouse. Blogging is a form of self-expression in its rawest form of human emotion and intellect.

According to Jonathan Rick, there are three tiers of blogging. Most bloggers either fall into Tier I, Tier II, or Tier III. Tier I bloggers blog from an expert professional perspective – similar to a major league baseball player. They write not simply for content but write with a depth of thinking and expert knowledge; blogging to critique and to debate. The social media presence of a Tier I blogger is highly sought after by political and media personalities. Professional businesses and government sectors seek out those with expert knowledge in their field. Tier I bloggers are professionals who often blog for a living.

Tier II bloggers blog in the role of a hobbyist and are interested in unstructured writing through group blogs; allowing them to express their inner voice to the world. Then there are the Tier III bloggers that represent majority of the public. This could be your daughter, parent or even your elderly neighbor. Anyone who falls into the Tier III category blogs because there they have something interesting to talk about and they want to share it with the world at large. These bloggers use the Web as a tool of immense self-expression, almost as if writing in a personal media journal. There is no editorial oversight, nor the intense media scrutiny associated with Tier I and Tier II bloggers. Tier III bloggers can blog about a range of interests, from what they had at the local McDonald’s to their pet’s health to the environment. The key is to increase personal exposure and visibility in the online media environment. These casual bloggers do not blog professionally and are more than willing to blog for any organization or cause. The interesting thing about bloggers is that they are not trapped into blogging at any one particular tier or level. Depending on the context, many bloggers can switch roles from a casual Tier III blogger to a professional Tier I blogger. Cision, Vocus, Technorati and Google make up a few of the more popular blogs that come at little to no cost. By far, Technorati is one blog site that is not only superior in its traffic tracking service but also in its content. Google, the traditional favorite, is often the preferred route for blogging.

The most important part of online blogging is content. In order to be a successful blogger, attract a following and be heard, the blogger needs to research their demographic audience and the topic of interest. For example, a blogger interested in pets should blog on sites such as The Humane Society of the United States to increase awareness among the public. Establishing a “following” is a key part of laying the foundation. Using a key search engine such a Google News and MSN Bling can substantially increase the number of topic relevant search terms used by bloggers. Some bloggers utilize Tag Clouds as a way to keep track of commonly used BLOGS through the automatic generation of web links (No Straw Men, as part of the Content Management System). Google Alert and RSS can be a useful tool in blogging, along with other Tag Cloud platforms like WordPress. Businesses will often use social graphs in the form of a pictorial map to show the people that are actively blogging. Popular social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter all use social graphs to track their audience. Most blogs are either quantitative or qualitative in content. The key is to know the difference between the two. Qualitative data consists of content based on the quality of writing, blogger reputation, and SEO ranking. Qualitative data provides the audience with content that is targeted, focused and peaks interest. A blogger should always keep the audience in mind when writing a blog. The blogger should write as though the content will be read and published. It is also important to include the right pitch to the target audience.

When blogging, command audience interest but do not lose the discussion objective. To connect with your audience, you first need to learn how to genuinely flatter your audience. Try to avoid sending out mass e-mail blasts that can appear impersonal and formal. Enthusiasm is the key to attracting a large following and securing audience feedback.

Talk to each audience from a first person view versus a third person view. This way the audience will feel a personal connection. To become a successful blogger, the most important points to remember are to collaborate, to remain open and to be transparent in all online communication exchanges with the audience. Remember, your audience feeds your blog, without an engaged audience, you will lose your online presence and following. An small engaged crowd is always better than a large passive crowd.