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Before the
blog phenomenon became publicized and the word “weblog”
was applied, consumers and critics were hosting their
own Web sites and commenting on companies they liked or
disliked. At that time these pre-bloggers were
considered pests – now they are being courted and
treated like royalty.
The impact
of blogs can be felt in every area today, from politics
(bloggers covering the conventions were given huge media
exposure) to breaking news (the
CBS scandal referenced
in our “Blurring
the Line” article was promulgated by conservative
bloggers questioning the evidence in the news story) to
new products and technology.
In fact,
many blog authors are now becoming targets of PR
professionals and advertisers, with offers of
pre-production technology and equipment, early notices
of new technology, and beta test models of new products
arriving for their reviews.
New
technology such as BlogMine, BlogContext, and others are
offering contextual advertising on blogs – delivering
relevant advertising based upon keywords that appear in
the blog’s content.
While
bloggers have to wrestle with the debate between
accepting advertising and maintaining an independent
stance, companies who are looking for a grassroots
marketing channel view these influential authors as
opportunities for getting their message out.
The
opportunities for marketers and PR pros to have their
message carried by bloggers increases as blogs become
more mainstream and commercial, but the strategy one
should use to approach these authors remains the same as
it was two and a half years ago when we first wrote
about it. (See article:
Pitching Blogs)
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