How To Treat Your Bloggers

Dear PR and company/business owners, this post is intended for you. I have been in the blogging community for 4 years and have experienced the BEST and WORST in attending events. My first major blogging event was attending a 2-day beach/music festival in Batangas. It was advertised all over the social media 4 years ago that hundreds of Filipino local DJ and international DJ such as DARUDE will attend the Sandstorm Music Festival. To make the long story short, it was a disaster for us Bloggers from the Bus Station until the following day of the festival. 

– In real life, your business partner will make or break your company. Just like us Bloggers, the marketing/advertisement of your company/brand/product will depend on our HONEST blog.

– Whether we like it or not, there is a hierarchy in all community. Even in our blogging community, there is a hierarchy. We have the Newbie, the Veterans, the A-list and the Celebrity. But whoever they are TREAT THEM FAIR AND PROFESSIONALLY. 

– If you are the company president and/or owner, leave the freakin job to your subordinates. The reason why you had a different company department is to delegate the proper task. So let them do their job and just because you are not satisfied with the Bloggers they’ve invited you will be a BITCH to us.

– Some of you think that because you give us FREE food, FREE hotel room, FREE products to use and review it is considered FREE. NO! We will be reviewing your brand and blog it on our website which is a SERVICE that BLOGGERS do. We do the Marketing for you. So, technically it is NOT FREE. It’s an exchange of service so both parties will benefit. Brands will be seen more online and bloggers get to experience first hand of the product etc.

– A few years back there was an issue in one of our Facebook group that a blogger is selling a mobile phone to a fellow blogger. The said phone is a token given to the blogger for attending and blogging the event and the product. Technically, she can do whatever she wants on that cell phone.

What if the blogger has 3 cellphones at the moment, what she’ll do on her 4th phone? Turn it into money so she can feed herself, her family and sustain her blog/domain/hosting.

– Not all events we attend are giving money as a token. Most of the time, brands are giving us products that we can try or use which we did and after that, we can sell it if we want to, given that you have done blogging the event/product. Let me ask you, can a 1 year supply of make-up feed a family? Sure, for makeup artist but for some it will not so better yet sell it and turn it into money.

– Attending events means shelling out of money. Paying GRAB, Taxi fares is usually 200-600, so if you do not pay us where will get that money from? Of course, it will be from our savings, previous paid blog posts etc.

I really appreciate PR and Event Organizer reimbursing our GRAB/GAS whenever we attend their events. Not all of them does this, but only a few. Unless after attending an event we will get monetary payment then that will be MUCH MUCH MUCH BETTER. 

– If the event invitation is a cocktail night, obviously attendees should wear proper dress. If the event is a casual/sit down meeting, bloggers can wear casual and comfortable decent clothes and so on. 

– Always be prepared that some bloggers do not have complete make-up etc so the event organizer, the brand should prepare for a makeup artist, creative director etc. (For beauty event)

7. Sending Press Release

– Please, never send  us emails without mentioning our name on it. Bulk emails will be automatically sent to SPAM folders.
– Too many PR emails but never invited that Blogger to their company/brand launch. That is RUDE!

Thank you Macy of https://lavishlyparsimonious.blogspot.com for adding this info.

– If you want your invited bloggers to be those A-list and Celebrity type, make sure to have a BUDGET and not just rely on EX-DEALS. 

– Veterans and A-list Bloggers have rate card. Bloggers have a different rate card. I, myself have my own rate for every blog post, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube I post. 

– Most blogger rate is $ even for us Filipinos. Yes, I personally charge my client in dollars. 

And the list continues but these are few of the most important things to remember in dealing with Bloggers. And just an FYI, Bloggers are not FREELOADERS. Read #4 again. Regardless if a Blogger is a newbie or a celebrity, treat them all fairly. Many achievers and celebrity come from a nobody and from the bottom of the human food chain.