How Not to Create a Relationship with Bloggers

This weekend has been one of interaction from Pet Brands that really needs to be evaluated. As Bloggers we need to think about and decide if we want to continue to promote products when the companies do not value our time and only want us to reach out to our networks telling our readers and friends how great their product is and that they should go out to buy it with little to no compensation to us for doing so. Compensation comes in many forms and each Blogger is free to decide what that means to them and where and how they receive it but by promoting any product you are dong the brand or company work for free and you need to decide if that is something you want to do or not.

About a year ago a Blogger asked the question that we all need to keep in mind. Would these companies go to a Magazine or Newspaper and tell them to promote their product or event via a full write up to the publications readership for free? Companies know that they need to pay these publications to advertise for them. Samples of their products are sent to Magazines for free in hopes of the publication possibly featuring it. The publications aren’t hounded and asked when they will be featuring the product or demand that because the product was sent that the publication needs to feature them. Not every product you receive is one that should be featured on your Blog if you want your readers to trust your opinion and certainly not every product you talk about should receive a glowing review a blogger needs to be honest if they want their readers to stay loyal and look at the products as something they might want to consider purchasing.

The first incident that needs to be addressed involves a brand representative telling a room full of Bloggers that the brand basically does not value Bloggers time and feels they should promote their product for free. The representative said not only will they not pay Pet Bloggers or any other Blogger to work with them they have no intention of doing so. They also said that they do not send PR emails to Bloggers to promote their events. That is just not true because I currently have 30 emails sitting in my email box that have not been deleted yet asking me to promote their product, event, or award including ones from the particular speaker. Most Pet Bloggers you received these emails as well and that everyone who was sitting in on the session had received the emails too. It is understandable that some companies just don’t have a budget to pay Bloggers to promote different events or launches and instead will compensate them with Free food for a month or treats or something else that they produce and others that have such a great reputation that they can be very choosy on what Blog they might want to have a special relationship with. This company on the other hand does not have a fantastic reputation and they probably spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on advertisement. Instead of creating relationships with Bloggers who might get to know the brand learn about their practices and be able to honestly tell their readers why they might want to give them another try they have quite vocally during a Monetization Session which they asked to speak at told attendees they will not pay for a Bloggers time. Something is just not right here because they specifically asked to be on the panel of speakers at this Social Media Conference and during the session said they have no intention of paying Bloggers for their work or their time.

The second incident was something received via email telling Bloggers that a company just sent out 100 toys to testers that they chose from their list. I don’t have a problem or care when I see a specific product promoted on one blog over another maybe the blog was a better fit because of the pet they have or the size of their pet. The problem is that the company themselves has sent Bloggers an email telling them they did not make the cut when they didn’t even know the company was sending out products to testers in the first place. This isn’t the first email their Blogger list has received from them telling me they are sorry they didn’t make the cut. Why would a company would think Bloggers want to know that they didn’t measure up for them. They clearly don’t think the blogs that didn’t make it are what they are looking for time and time again and have told them along their their entire testers list of several thousand that they are not worthy. It’s understandable that the company wants to keep in touch with Bloggers to remind them about their brand but this is not the way to do it. Tell us about a new product launching soon or how their product is great for dogs who get bored or like to chew on tables or for the cat who is catnip obsessed. But instead of that they tell Bloggers they sent their product to someone else to test and that if Bloggers are interested in testing their product that they now need to interact with their brand more so they know they are loyal to their products and already promoting them to their readers. Most Bloggers are very busy and don’t have time to take polls or answer surveys and they certainly are not going to post pictures of their pets playing with a product that they have bought on their own to promote a company that doesn’t think they are a good enough fit for them. From time to time companies have had their product appear in Wordless Wednesday photos and other random photos on Blogs because the Blogger thought it was a good picture of their family or it fit a theme they were looking for but not because the brand told them they had to in order to show their loyalty to them.

There is a big disconnect in some brands that think they are doing Bloggers a favor by giving them a $5 sample of a product to promote for an already profitable company. The company is basically telling the blogger that for however much time it takes them to write the post about their product that it was worth $5 to them. Yes there might be a product a blogger prefers to receive a small sample of so that they can see it and try it before hosting a full multiple piece giveaway for the company because the blogger knows that more of the product will just go to waste in their home. There should be a relationship being built so that both parties feel they benefited and not just the already profitable company.