(UPDATE) What type of blogger are you

Editor’s note: With the author’s permission, we’ve updated this entry to clarify some terms.

By Carlo S. Ople*

Over the past few weeks, there have been talks going around on what advertising agencies and marketers should expect from bloggers. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time now, and I think I have enough examples and put enough thought into this to publish it on this blog.

Companies who want to tap bloggers should be aware of the different kinds of bloggers. Not all bloggers can influence your target market, and not all of them can have the same level of interaction with their readers.

I’ve generally defined the types of bloggers into these 4 categories: Value, Hobby, Journal and Google. There’s a fifth type which I’ll share at the end of the post. Note that these categories can overlap, and in fact some of the best bloggers have stricken a balance on how to be all 4. However, these are rare bloggers. Most of the bloggers right now just fall to either 1 or 2 of these categories.

1. HOBBY BLOGGERS. They generate content from the things or activities that interest them the most. The best example here would be Food Blogs. There are so many already in the Philippines. What’s amazing is that only a few restaurants are tapping the potential of driving more traffic to their stores by partnering with the top food bloggers in the Philippines. Other topics that Hobby bloggers talk about can be: anime, movie reviews, fashion, general merchandise, photography, etc.

Hobby Bloggers have good potential to grow communities and with that comes authority and influence. This happens more if the blogger is actually good at what he’s doing. If a Hobby Blogger is also a Value Blogger, then you have one of the most influential types of online personalities (more on Value Bloggers below).

2. JOURNAL BLOGGERS. They usually post about life experiences. Their topics can be really random and can be anything under the sun. A lot of Journal Bloggers can be found on social networks especially on Multiply. Favorite topics include current events especially topics that are being discussed by media outfits and online communities. Journal Bloggers’ readership is usually confined to their circle of friends. This is so because people interested in following Juan Cruz for example, will be people who know and are close to him. The reach is not there. However, since Journal Bloggers are very credible (because they know each other personally) to their readers, you can expect that they can easily convince readers

3. GOOGLE BLOGGERS. They focus on Search Engine Optimization with no or little regard to relevant content, personal branding and influence. Bloggers like them are in it for advertising and money. They prioritize building keywords so that search engines like Google and Yahoo will point towards them, thus giving them substantial amount of traffic. The problem with Google Bloggers is that they may have really high readership, but you don’t know where it’s coming from and the level of influence and interaction is very low. Google Bloggers will have a hard time building communities and a loyal following.

4. VALUE BLOGGERS. They are writers who put content, personal branding, and service as top priorities. Value Bloggers focus on delivering posts that add value to their readers by giving them insights, tips, tactic and advice on how to improve one’s craft, hobby, or whatever. In other words, people go to Value Bloggers because what they write is relevant, sensible and useful or something that can actually learn from. Value Bloggers will rarely sell out content and advertising because they care about their personal brand and believe their audience deserve more than paid PR releases. Value Bloggers are the most influential types, because they have the strongest potential of building communities around their blog. They can easily get a following because what they offer is practical sound advice and insights on their particular niche. In fact, agencies and marketers may encounter problems closing deals with Value Bloggers because they will not compromise their integrity in exchange for a few thousand bucks.

OVERLAPPING TYPES
Personally, I find Value Bloggers crossed with anything (especially Google) will be the most effective Blogger in terms of reach, interaction and influence. What’s important here is that to build trust, they should focus on a niche and deliver quality content useful to readers. They shouldn’t settle for copy-paste methods or getting content from existing bloggers or online sources. Bloggers are not just grapevines for information–they can generate good content.

FOR MARKETERS: LET YOUR ONLINE MARKETING AGENCY DO THEIR JOB. If you hired a consultant or an agency to handle your blogger events, make sure they screen the invites well. The worst mistake you can do as a Product Manager is to just say “Get me as much bloggers as possible.” What if 90% of the bloggers that attended are not legit but posers? Then you’re just wasting your money, effort and time. Make sure that your consultant or agency does the following:

1. Don’t do open invites. Tell them to show you the list of bloggers they plan to invite.
2. List of bloggers should show URL, niche, blogger type
3. Ask for their stats as well- Unique Visitors is an indicator of traffic (reach), while Bounce Rate and a high ratio between Unique Visitors and Page Hits can be good tools to measure influence.

Don’t do blogger events just because it’s the “in” thing. Do it because you know that it is really a cost-effective way to get your communication across to your target market. However, make sure that what your offering is really good lest your PR event turns into a nightmare when your product disappoints the bloggers.

To Bloggers: What kind of blogger are you? Are you really giving value to your readers? Are you building an online community with your content? Are you blogging just for the heck of it or do you want it to become a tool for you to advance your career, profession and business?

Carlo Ople is the main author of New Media Philippines, a blog that aims to help Filipinos maximize and realize the potential of New Media. Apart from being a blogger, Carlo also serves as a Marketing Manager for one of the leading online gaming companies in the Philippines. He is also a freelance digital marketing consultant and has worked with various politicians and business owners expand their reach and influence through the use of social media.

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