Get Them to Blog about You

When you want to spread the word about an urgent cause or news item, blogs can be a great way to reach a wide audience of potential supporters quickly. But ... how do you get people to blog about your cause in the first place?

10 Tips for Asking Bloggers to Write about Your Cause by Britt Bravo offers tips for finding likely candidates online, creating a pitch via email, and following up.

One good tip I thought was especially valuable was #8: Make it easy for them to post about your story. When a blogger doesn't have to spend extra time researching or understanding a topic, he or she will be more likely not only to blog about it, but also to get the details right:

Send them all of the information they would need to write a post without ever having to contact you again, but not in a press release form. Remember, you are one person asking another person to spread the word about something you presumably both care about. Be sure to include:

• The who, what, where, when, why, and how of the issue, campaign, event or product.
• The date, if any, that it should be posted by.
• The action you want their readers to take, if any.
• An image they can illustrate the post with.
• Your Web site's URL.
• A short "about" paragraph for the lead organization, person or business.
• Where they can find more in-depth background information, if they have time.

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Discuss This in Our Forums

How have you gotten people to blog about your cause? Share your tips in this Emerging Technologies forum discussion.