PR Chat: Angela Berardino

July 18th, 2009 | by pam | Filed under: Uncategorized |

Angela Berardino works for Turner PR; she’s the rep who helped us get our REI loaner gear lined up. She’s also on the “Bloggers and PR” panel at TBEX — our destination in Chicago. Angela tackled the same questions Lisa answered in the last PR Chat post. The road trip crew is really grateful for the insight these PR people are giving us in to the process of working with bloggers. We hope you’ll leave your questions in the comments. Now, introducing Angela.

I am one of those people who loves to travel pretty much anywhere, anytime, all the time, which is how I ended up in the industry – it gives me the chance to be around people who share that passion. After a start in PR at hotel companies & CVBs, am now an agency gal focused on new media for a variety of travel & fashion clients (everything from blogger relations to creating ning groups & Facebook pages). For example, we’re in the middle of a user-generated photo contest (www.denverphotocontest.com) for Four Seasons Denver, a way to generate buzz pre-opening in a blog format with online “celeb” judges. You can connect with me on twitter @CoTravelGirl, or find me on LinkedIn.

What does a “good” blogger look like to you?

Are there any consistent characteristics in the bloggers you choose to work with?

I’ve noticed the most successful online media have three trademark habits: they consistently update their site (even when the site isn’t their full-time job or they are running multiple blogs, there are no multi-week gaps in content); they actively self-promote through both traditional and social media channels (twitter is great, but being cited as an expert in traditional outlets is also powerful); and they are completely transparent about any business relationships they may have with companies that are being reviewed.

What makes you decide to give resources to a blogger?

I look for influencers within key audience groups for each brand I work with. An influencer doesn’t necessarily need to have huge traffic on their blog; they can be someone who owns a niche, speaks with authority on a particular subject, has an original voice, and is well-connected to other bloggers and a core, passionate audience. Family bloggers, for example, may not have a huge amount of page views, but what they say and think has a very direct sales impact on the products they review.

How do you vet a blogger? Do you look at their traffic, their Technorati ranking, or other statistics?

Like almost all PR people, I still have to fill out reports that address the number of impressions we’ve secured for a brand. I know that’s not a fair metric, but there’s no way to get around it in the near future. So as a first step, I’ll look at traffic to a get a rough idea of the scope of audience (generally through compete.com, but if there is a big-ticket item involved – for example, a major FAM trip with airfare – I may also ask for a current screenshot of analytics). However, simple site metrics are increasingly becoming a small part of the evaluation with bloggers; as Seth Godin says “I would much rather be in front of ten people who are the right people than ten thousand people who aren’t.” I’m concerned with velocity (the trend of traffic to a blog over the last six months), the blogrolls a particular blog is linked to, the number of times the author is re-tweeted and quoted, how active the comment sections are, etc. Essentially, how influential is a particular blogger, and what audience are they influencing?

What about communication?
How should a new blogger approach you?

Email, twitter, and LinkedIn are all great for initial connections. Including specific URLs and referencing the brand(s) you want to talk about is also helpful (simple, but I often spend time tracking down that info and always appreciate when people send it along initially).

Also, if I’m pitching you, I will read your blog to make sure I’m on point for what you cover. This works both ways; if you only blog about budget travel but contact me wanting to FAM at a six-star resort, I’m going to be confused. Just a basic keyword search before contacting me is always impressive.

What’s do you want to know from someone who’s starting out and would like to build a relationship with you?

I’ve noticed a great trend among expert bloggers lately of spelling out their professional guidelines on the ‘about’ section of their blog. TravelingMamas even went to far as to put together a media kit – it’s intended for those looking at purchasing ads, but PR people live for the info in those kits (you can check out tons of examples through the websites of travel magazines; they often give audience demographics, traffic, etc). I love this new trend of disclosing specific work practices; having someone clearly define if they can or cannot accept items/trips, how they disclose business relationships on the content they create, if they are open to being pitched story ideas or prefer not to be pitched, if the pitches need to be exclusive, etc. Good stuff, and a great way to manage expectations.

What should bloggers ask you for? What should they NOT ask you for?

The most confusing part of blogger/PR relations (for me) is that frequently I’m approached by bloggers who don’t initially disclose that they are looking for payment. My role is not to purchase content and if I’m informed of a pay-to-play model up front I can re-direct the blogger to the marketing department, saving us both time (although most of the brands I work with choose not to engage in this form of coverage; too many challenges with authenticity).

The simplest approach is to ask for exactly what you need to write the review. Resist the temptation to tack on a lot of extras (if you’re writing a review of the spa, do you really need to also have a helicopter tour and private fly fishing lesson? If you’re reviewing shoes, do you really need them in four colors?). There is always a little bit of negotiation in PR, and my biggest ongoing budget challenge is airfare. I can’t afford to pay for a guest or spouse (although I will occasionally pay for a child if it’s a family travel review). Last minute itinerary changes or cancellations mean we absorb the costs, which is tough. Generally two nights of accommodations and some level of meals/activities hosting is reasonable to get a sense of place for a review; if someone asks for a week-long stay, it’s a red flag that they are more interested in a free vacation than anything else.

What’s the best way for a blogger to catch your interest when they’re contacting you directly?

Anyone who is upfront about their traffic and audience demographics gets my attention immediately; it saves me the time of doing more research. Citing a mutual friend also helps (hence my love of LinkedIn).

Do you receive a lot of sponsorship requests and what percentage of those do you say yes to?

I don’t receive a ton of sponsorship requests, actually. More often I get simple pay-to-play review requests, which aren’t very interesting to me. In general, we have no budget for cash sponsorships, so opportunities have to be in-kind (product or room nights, etc). Also, my direct competitors can’t also be sponsoring – we need some level of exclusivity. A short bulleted list of sponsorship benefits goes a long way (detailing linkage, promotion, logo placement, etc).

And what about end results?

What do you expect from a blogger in exchange for your product or service?

Generally speaking, the post needs to be timely (the short lead time for posting is a key component of online media relations); I greatly appreciate a quick fact-check before posting, since addressing factual errors once they’ve been published can be awkward for both of us. And a link, of course. In return I’ll be sure to tweet, digg, backlink, and anything else I can think of.

What do you do if a blogger negatively reviews the product or service you represent?

I read blogs because I appreciate the opinion of the blogger; usually, they are someone who knows more about a particular subject that I do, and I like hearing their take on a product or destination. And I respect that no one is going to like everything they review. It’s part of the authenticity of the process.

From a professional standpoint, if a blogger has a problem or negative experience I appreciate the opportunity to respond privately to specific issues in advance of publication, knowing that any part of that response may be included in the post. I’m not suggesting editing, but I’ve had instances where a blogger had misinformation, or was given the wrong product to review, etc. A negative experience boils down to two simple roads: either the brand screwed up, in which case they should clearly explain how they are going to fix/address the issue, or the brand didn’t screw up but something else made the trip go awry. I’ve been in the middle of both of those, and even a negative review can ultimately be more powerful when a brand steps up and owns the problem.

The one caveat to negative reviews: snark is easy. I’m guilty of it myself occasionally. But snark is basically meant to appeal to the lowest common denominator, and it’s generally meant to insult or hurt someone…which I don’t agree with.

What do you have to show your boss as results for supporting a blogger?

I still have to pull audience stats along with the clip, unfortunately. But I will also track the amount of times the post is tweeted, commented on, linked to, etc.

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