LG Blogger Relations Programme

Neville Hobson recently described LG’s blogger relations programme as “the best case study I’ve yet seen.” Praise indeed from someone widely considered as one of the most influential bloggers in his field. Needless to say, I wanted to find out more, so I got in touch with Ronnie Brown from Digital Communications agency, Outside Line – the agency behind the programme – who kindly offered to meet up with me.

Overview of Programme Activity

1. Creating a blog – design, style, technology and innovation with 1 in 3 to 4 posts being directly about LG products
2. Dealing with comments and enquiries to the blog, acting as LG
3. Active participation – commenting on target list of blogs
4. Utilise other relevant media – YouTube, Flickr, Twitter etc.
5. Create and attend events – direct interaction of bloggers and LG staff
6. Management of blogger relationships
7. Seeding phones for reviews

One of the reasons why I think the programme has been such as success to date is because LG understand that blogger relations cannot be treated as a campaign but as a long-term, ongoing commitment to the blogger community. In my experience, too many clients try and dip in and out of the blogosphere without realising that trust, credibility and ultimately influence can only be built up over time. As communications professionals, this ethos is something we need to get better at instilling into our clients – something which Outside Line has clearly achieved with LG.

The other thing this programme demonstrates well is that there can be no short cuts – blogger relations is a labour intensive programme and the Outside Line team employs dedicated bloggers who work in tandem with LG on a daily basis. As a result, LG has been able to demonstrate its authenticity to the community over a sustained period.

I think the thing which impressed me most, however, was the mix of online and offline activity. As I mention in my earlier post (To Blog or not to Blog? That is the question), bloggers cannot be treated in the same way as journalists but blogger outreach is still built on relationships. By hosting offline events where bloggers can interact with LG staff (and each other), it makes it far easier to build genuine, credible relationships.

When I asked Ronnie if the Outside Line team had learnt a lot since they started the programme back in August 2007, he admitted that they had which is hardly surprising. Blogger relations is still a relatively new practise, so there is still a steep learning curve for those involved. However this is an extremely good example of what can be achieved through a blogger relations programme.

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