Text 100 surveyed more than 400 bloggers globally to examine their communications/PR preferences, and the results indicate that blogging is becoming more mainstream as PR pros increasingly reach out to these online influencers. In terms of contact with PR people, the findings are as follows:
• More than 90% of respondents welcome contact from PR people;
• Most reported a high level of regular contact from PR people, with more than 96% of bloggers in the U.S. being contacted at least once a week;
• E-mail is the preferred form of contact, no matter where bloggers reside. SMS and IM, universally, are the least preferred forms; and,
• Bloggers are united in their desire for distinctive content, particularly about new product developments and reviews, feedback on content posted on their blog and interviews with key people.
As for PR people’s bad habits, cited by bloggers, the study’s respondents identified the following:
• PR people continue to blindly send corporate press releases to bloggers.
• PR professionals are failing to read the blogs and truly understand their target bloggers’ communities.
• They seem to expect bloggers to post corporate material, demonstrating a lack of understanding of the medium and the very reason why bloggers blog.
• They treat bloggers as they would journalists—not as influencers, which is more appropriate.