Top 5 tips for engaging with bloggers

Here are my top 5 tips for marketing professionals to productively engaging with bloggers in their industry:

1) Talk to them directly. It's easy... even hobbyist bloggers like to be treated like real media professionals, which they often are, in fact. Forge an earnest relationship based on real interest and relevance. Stay engaged with the dialog; drive-by one-time glad-handers are often treated roughly later on.

2) Be honest. Sometime reporters get lazy and won't dig enough to reveal a mistruth. Bloggers thrive on that. If you conceal something or tell anything less than the truth, they will find out. If you prove to be consistently honest, you're credible. If not, you're a target.

3) Do the homework for them. Whether it's market research, margin calculations, or supply-chain/channel dynamics, don't expect the blogger to do even basic background research, unless they are looking to disprove your claims or smack you down. Blogging is appealing in part because it's fast. If writing about your company or topic requires even a few minutes of homework, it might not happen at all.

4) Know the neighborhood. It helps if you're familiar with the blogger's work and the work of peers in the same blog community. And who knows, you might learn something relevant to your business.

5) Nothing is off the record. Embargoes don't exist. Deal with it.

6) Seed the discussion, don't advocate. If you want to see posts that cover a certain topic or address a particular issue, initiate the conversation with a thought-provoking observation or two, and solicit comment. Don't ramrod a new discussion with a dissertation, or cleverly worded questions cloaked in naivety. Act like a credible professional and you'll likely be treated like one. Act like a pitchman, expect to get ignored and disliked.