Blogger Social 2008 and the Art of Personalized Outreach

The first thing I should say is that I was planning to write about Blogger Social 2008 anyway.  You'll see why I started with that disclaimer in a moment ...

Just about everyone in any kind of communications role has probably reach out to at least one blogger at some point to share something of value and ask for a link.  For most bloggers, the greatest value they can offer to someone is to choose to post about something they are doing.  One lesson I have been reminded of time and time again, though, is that sometimes having great and relevant content is not enough.  I was reminded of this fact on two distinct occasions over the past few days.

The first was Steve's recent post on Adrants about how Amber Lee (Obama Girl) created a personalized video for him talking about how much she loves Adrants.  It's a brilliant move by BarelyPolitical.com to create something specifically targeted at Steve and Adrants, as well as a strong relationship builder.  There's a lesson in this for any marketer hoping to build a connection with a highly influential blogger in any industry.

The second was when I started to see lots of anticipation posts from fellow marketing bloggers sharing that there are just 90 days left until Blogger Social 08.  This is going to be a great informal gathering of marketing bloggers and something long overdue.  Organized primarily by marketing bloggers CK and Drew McLellan, the event now has a trailer of sorts, thanks to Mark Goren.  The video features images of all the bloggers attending the event, including me.  Which brings me back to my disclaimer from earlier.  I was planning to write about this event.  The video made it personal again for me and helped propel me to do it sooner rather than later.  It just goes to show, sometimes a bit of personalization (along with a play to blog ego - which we all have) makes the difference between just having great content and getting it talked about:

PS - If you are a marketing blogger, you should definitely consider registering yourself for Blogger Social 08 - it will be in NY on the weekend of April 4th.  Below is the list of just a few marketing bloggers already registered:

Susan Bird Tim Brunelle Katie Chatfield Terry Dagrosa Matt Dickman Luc Debaisieux Gianandrea Facchini Mark Goren Gavin Heaton Sean Howard CK Valeria Maltoni Drew McLellan Doug Meacham Marilyn Pratt Steve Roesler Greg Verdino CB Whittemore Steve Woodruff Paul McEnany Ann Handley David Reich Tangerine Toad Kristin Gorski Mack Collier David Armano Ryan Barrett Lori Magno Tim McHale Gene DeWitt Mario Vellandi Arun Rajagopal Darryl Ohrt Joseph Jaffe Rohit Bhargava Anna Farmery Marianne Richmond Thomas Clifford Lewis Green Geoff Livingston Kris Hoet Connie Reece CeCe Lee Jonathan Trenn Toby Bloomberg Seni Thomas