New PR brings with it new influencers in addition to the voices who have helped guide consumers and decision makers over the years. Things aren’t necessarily getting easier for you in the wake of this evolution. If anything, these new influencers are challenging the very foundation of PR, forcing you to revisit—and often repair—the process of how you share news and information.

Believe it or not, we still arm-wrestle with influencers and feel the need to defend PR. In many cases, however, they’re right. It’s not just the process of sharing information in the hope of earning coverage to reach others. It’s the very infrastructure of how we carry the information forward. This might have a lot to do with relying on important outreach through people who are either too junior to engage with industry veterans or who are not concerned with educating themselves on why they’re reaching out in the first place. Because this is a long-time complaint, we realize the perception exists. It’s time to rely on passionate and skilled professionals who know how to communicate, engage, and create dialogue for all the right reasons.

The difference between bloggers and journalists is only the medium they use to reach people. Hold on for one moment. That statement is loaded, and it’s definitely worth thinking about it. We know we should say that the difference is a formal education in journalism, experience in the print (or online) business, and circulation through traditional channels. This is why blogging is one of the great disruptors in media. Blogging, at its very foundation, gives a voice to anyone who has an opinion and the capability to access the Web. Generally, the blogosphere is simply powered by regular people, like you, who might be journalists, enthusiasts, pundits, or purely writers looking to share their views.

Blogging is an important evolution not only in citizen journalism, but in publishing in general. It is so much more than the composition of self-important “ranters” or those merely publishing an online diary. The blogosphere extends far beyond those individuals who simply keep an online presence to satisfy their own egos. Similar to anything that has the capability to connect with and build an audience, blogging is just an online printing press with the inherent capability for others to discover and stay connected to relevant content and the communities that help them thrive. If you overlook the opportunity to build relationships with these people and those who follow them, you’re intentionally withdrawing yourself from a vibrant and expanding channel that your customers rely upon for information and guidance.

As one of the main drivers in the new world of Social Media, blogging has done nothing less than change everything in the PR profession. However, we are still questioned by clients and executives of the companies we represent about why we place such great emphasis and resources on bloggers (in addition to top-tier press). We do so because we realize that blogging can move the needle for companies and brands, boost sales, and also enhance customer service.

Certain bloggers in every market segment have the sheer numbers of followers behind them to not only influence the people you want to reach, but also to drive reporters in traditional media to cover the same topics. BusinessWeek, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, Forbes, Fortune, and USA Today, among many well-respected publications, devote editorial resources to monitoring the blogosphere. Part of the reason is that these publications understand that blog readers are very loyal and enthusiastic. The loyalty shows in the Internet metrics and analysis each month. Although some might not have sizable volume, many smaller communities can pool together to make a big difference.

If you’re unfamiliar with the almost immeasurable level of clout that many blogs carry today, they have substantially grown from pockets of disparate musings, personal experiences, enthusiast rants, and editorial opinion pieces to full-blown reporting across every category that you can imagine. You can find influential pundits defining and stimulating activity in every demographic possible. The interconnectivity among bloggers has formed an incredibly powerful network of authority that changes how people find information and make decisions in every facet of life.

Many tools enable you to rank bloggers and determine their authority based on any given subject. You’re able to analyze the amount of online traffic using tools such as Compete.com or Alexa.com. You can use referring links via Technorati and find ensuing conversations (memes) by using BlogPulse. It’s also very easy to see the number of subscribers to a blogger’s feed through Google Reader or Feedburner. You can also get a feeling for how well certain bloggers grasp the industry they represent via tools such as Radian6 and BuzzLogic.

Remember, you don’t have to focus on just the top-ranked bloggers—they’re not the only game in town. In fact, they might not always be the most beneficial or necessary target in your overall communications strategy. Top-ranked bloggers usually represent the thought leaders who are held in high regard by their readers, with many creating a dedicated following that look forward to every post. When they cover a topic, it elicits a flurry of online traffic almost instantly, inciting a series of online discussions that usually extend across the blogosphere (sometimes lasting several days to several weeks).

As an example from Brian’s technology business area, one of the top targets is TechCrunch (www.techcrunch.com), which can send nearly 10,000 visitors to any given Web site within 24 to 48 hours. Of course, Brian would never say to overlook this group. Obviously, they lend credibility to your brand or the brand you represent—as long as the exposure is representative of the story you helped to cultivate. In our experience, however, this group typically jumps from topic to topic and product to product, with very little investment in dedication or loyalty, simply because its focus is driven by activity. For the right product, story, or service, a decent percentage of these bloggers, and their readers, will keep their partial attention with you (as long as they like what they see).

During a recent discussion at the TurnPRon conference in San Francisco, where Brian presented on a panel discussing the future of Public Relations, the moderator asked why he should “waste” his time chasing down every blogger who covers his markets when he could just focus on the top. He referred to this as “the cream of the crop, as they are the true influencers out there.” Although there is an A-list for every market, and the A-list helps with the credibility of a brand, it does very little for generating new customers or enhancing brand loyalty. The true influencers are the peers of your customers. The best communications strategies will envelop not only authorities in new and traditional media, but also those voices in the Long Tail. They help carry information and promote discussions among your customers directly in a true peer-to-peer approach.

This group is often referred to as the magic middle, a group of passionate people dedicated to writing about topics and issues relevant to them personally. The magic middle, as originally defined by David Sifry, the founder of Technorati, are those blogs with 20 to 1,000 active inbound links. These are the bloggers who tend to inspire real-world customers to explore and experiment with new products and services based on the word of their peers. For example, Deirdre admits on Twitter that she’s checked out numerous companies based on recommendations by her favorite bloggers. And in some cases, it has led to the sale of a product that wasn’t even on her radar. The same is true for blogs.

Blogger relations is a popular topic of discussion these days, not just on the blogosphere, but also within the HR departments of PR agencies and businesses that understand its importance. It’s something new and is perceived to require a different skill set than most PR and communications professionals are used to (but don’t necessarily lack). Therefore, new job positions are opening up in an attempt to hire people who understand the art of blogger relations. And if that doesn’t work, some companies are just hiring anyone who blogs, sometimes regardless of industry and communications experience. Many believe that if you blog, you must understand company value propositions, marketing, customer relations, and, ultimately, why all this matters to the people you’re trying to reach, right? Well, not exactly. Several companies that we work with, or simply know of, have hired bloggers to handle blogger relations even if they haven’t engaged in the process before. They immediately assume that bloggers know the game, so they must understand how to get posts written on their behalf.

From personal experience, we can tell you that anyone halfway decent in media or blogger relations will agree that the discipline has less to do with the mechanics of publishing media and more to do with storytelling, an understanding of what you represent, why it matters to certain people, and a genuine intent for cultivating relationships. We’d love to simply say that blogger relations is about common sense or PR 101, but somehow in the world of marketing communications, we forget to act like the very people we’re trying to reach and instead push messages at them to get their attention.

To genuinely approach blogger relations, or media relations, you must first deconstruct the process of the media ecosystem and reprogram yourself to tap into the basic building blocks of what makes good content and sparks conversations. This, in turn, helps define why people should take the time to speak with you.

Similar to the news release, the PR industry has been stuck in a rut for so long that the industry is content with the existing manufacturing line of building news, writing reports, “schmoozing,” and simply broadcasting messages to anyone with an inbox. As we’ve noted throughout this book, PR is experiencing some of the greatest innovations and advancements in quite some time. But instead of embracing a new-and-improved commitment for creating and sharing news with people, PR is taking it on the chin by using the same old marketing ethics and tactics to broadcast messages (spam) to recipients. Again, this is about people and personal relationships, and the realization that less is more.

First and foremost, successful blogger relations are built on respect. It all starts with understanding what you stand for. We’re not convinced that every PR person actually takes the time to fully “get” what he or she represents and why it matters to the rest of the world. And more important, how will it help others to make a decision and help them do something more effectively than they could before? For this simple reason alone, we challenge you to a quick test. And yes, the clock is ticking!

If you had to tell us in one sentence why we should write about you and why our followers or readers will care, what would you say?

It’s not as easy as you think. It’s amazing that many “PR pros” can’t pass this test. Brian, who is also an avid writer outside of PR, is pitched every day and has been for years. It still blows him away how few people take the time to read what he writes and match their products and services to the most important part of his writing—his loyal followers. This is the listening and reading part we emphasized previously.

The next step is to really think about why you should reach out. What is it about what you represent that will compel others to share it with their communities? Remember, bloggers have a responsibility to their readers to maintain credibility, along with the trust of the community. In today’s attention economy, bloggers must actively compete for readers’ precious time, so you can bet that good bloggers will be selective. We have a strong suspicion of what you might be thinking: “Who has time to do this? Dedicating one-on-one time with bloggers in addition to traditional media exceeds the number of hours in a day.” We’ll say this as clearly as possible: Make the time. Prioritize the people you want to reach (and, no, you won’t find them through a database).

As you move forward with your campaigns, you should never be limited to either blogs or media, nor should your campaign just focus on the top list determined by any single service. You need to be where your customers are discovering, sharing, and talking. Blogger relations is all about people and relationships, and sometimes the greatest influencers are those who are already among the customers you hope to reach.

Going back to the earlier J&J story and also our belief that bloggers will be instrumental in helping the evolution of Public Relations, we’re currently witnessing this play out online well before you even finish this book. As noted in a couple examples, many bloggers are going as far as blacklisting certain PR people or companies who they think spam them without taking their preferences into consideration. And it’s not just about blacklisting them in one place; they’re leveraging the reach of the blogosphere to share these lists with each other as a form of public humiliation and education. Therefore, we need to improve how we do things across the board.

However, bloggers can benefit from maintaining a strategic and advantageous relationship with the right PR professionals. Love them or hate them, good PR people can still be a helpful part of the news and information process. They can and will work for you. Our earlier example of Chris Anderson running the names of lazy PR flacks in a public forum is definitely one way to send a clear message. Social Media is fueled by people and their peers, so running things in the blogosphere definitely becomes very personal. However, there are also other ways to ensure that PR people “think” before approaching bloggers. One way is to send positive feedback to those who do it right. Another way is to send notes to management about those who do it wrong and remind them how to do things correctly. Or just block the individual from contacting you again (but in the process, let the person know why).

Yes, it takes time for bloggers to respond rather than ignore things. It also takes an extraordinary level of patience and understanding. However, it helps PR professionals adapt and learn. Using the Chris Anderson example, one blog post might have inspired hundreds of people to do things better. Bloggers can also work better with PR people by clearly stating somewhere—perhaps in their blog or a social network (remember the discussion between Robert Scoble and several of his followers)—how they want to be contacted, what they are looking for, and advice for cutting through the clutter. It’s not about submission forms—they are not helpful.

We are all in this to help each other and learn together. And those who aren’t ready to discover or embrace evolution will seal their own fate. From the large companies, such as J&J, to the individuals building their own personal brands, the blogosphere has so many influential people who can help you meet your PR objectives. Approaching them the right way and constantly offering insight and valuable information will make bloggers receptive to exploring a relationship with you over time.

In the rapidly shifting era of blogger and media relations, we can expect one thing to occur as we forge ahead: mistakes. It happens to the best and the worst of us. This is about relationships and creating a value cycle from PR to bloggers, journalists, and, ultimately, the people you want to reach with your news. Relationships are cultivated and should be mutually beneficial because of the extra time we take to personalize our contact. As stated earlier, there’s a difference between spam and prequalified blogger outreach, and it’s all rooted in genuine intent and execution. Nothing beats homework and real one-on-one conversations that show some important credentials:

If you can keep these four important points in mind, you will do well with the bloggers. They will be more receptive to your information, and they will want to share it with their faithful followers.