Ten ways to find and keep local bloggers
Super-blog manager Deb Markham makes finding and keeping a stable of free bloggers look easy. The online community producer or HamptonRoads.com at the Virginian-Pilot newspaper, Markham developed 35 to 40 community bloggers posting about a dozen items a day on the site. Topics range from religious to political to bar stories and the bloggers are equally diverse. Here are her top ten tips:
1. Current bloggers are not always the best choice; they tend to cross-post or promote their original blog. The first 10 bloggers on her were new to blogging. So look for for people with passion, even if they have never blogged.
2. Scout your community, starting with visits and calls to civic, community and arts organizations. Recruit at local coffee houses or any place that offers free Wi-Fi. Gathering spots can including churches and even bars.
3. Capture and collect people who write online story comments and participate in online forums, especially on your own site. Your employee's social networks and your media company's Facebook pages and Twitter followings are other areas to find people who connect with your company.
4. The profile of a new blogger: Someone who obviously likes to communicate, is passionate about a subject or who is interesting or about to do something interesting that will provide material for the blog.
5. Aim for a large group; if some writers disappear from time to time, it won't hurt the overall project.
6. Don't be a control freak. The bloggers in Markham’s community have a log-in and password; they post unedited and unpaid.
7. Respond personally to any content that is flagged as offensive and any bloggers who push products without disclosure are simply knocked off the site.
8. When bloggers break the rules, simply turn off their blog, then call or send a note, listen and compromise. If the blogger stops blogging, just turn off the blog but ask for an entry by email so they get another chance.
9. Pay attention to care and feeding of bloggers by communicating. This includes regular emails, posting links and sending monthly statistics to them.
10. Most important: Treat them with respect. Give them assistance. Reassure them.
The formula seems to be working; the Virginian-Pilot’s community bloggers bring in 150,000 page views a month.
The author, Alisa Cromer is publisher of a variety of online media, including LocalMediaInsider and MediaExecsTech, developed while on a fellowship with the Reynolds Journalism Institute and which has evolved into a leading marketing company for media technology start-ups. In 2017 she founded Worldstir.com, an online magazine, to showcases perspectives from around the world on new topic each month, translated from and to the top five languages in the world.
