Klick PR: Travel Bloggers Meet Up
12 August 2009: We Blog The World, hosted by Klick Communications at the Sir Stamford at Circular Quay on Wednesday August 5th, attracted over 100 travel writers, PRs and travel industry representatives for a night of spirited panel discussion.
Ben Groundwater (aka SMH The Backpacker), joined Lorraine Elliott (aka Not Quite Nigella) and Tim Burrowes, Editor of Thumbrella, in explaining the how, why and what of travel blogging.
The consensus of the evening was that blogging should be experience-based and that audience share is gained through sincerity, honesty and humour. Negativity and controversial comments are deemed to be a good thing as they highlight the positive commentary, and audience interaction is not only welcomed but crucial to the success of a travel blog. Finally, a thick skin is a pre-requisite of being a blogger as the feedback is thick and fast due to the immediacy of the online world.
Top tips for PR practitioners:
1. Get to know the blog’s feel before engaging the blogger
2. The panel preferred Wordpress as the blogging platform
3. Controversy can be a great way to attract more readers and posts
4. Treat your readers like friends, value the relationship and offer feedback when others post comments; and link to other blogs/website as often as possible
5. Use other social media to promote your blog; for example, Tim described how he posts short messages on Twitter, Facebook etc to get his dedicated followers to comment on the mUmBRELLA blog early in the day, that way making the blog look busy and exciting for the peak traffic periods
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