Professional bloggers are busy people. Most professional bloggers pump out anywhere from 1-20 blog posts a day! Like reporters, bloggers are mostly word-smiths with photography and video production being a secondary (or non-exisistant) skill set. Unlike reporters, bloggers aren’t typically working in a newsroom with access to staff photographers and video equipment. The lack of multimedia resources and the pure volume of blog stories creates a vacuum that a smart web marketer can fill up with eye-catching photography and video showing-off their product or organization.

Now, the only guaranteed way to get covered by a professional blogger is to have a news-worthy story appropriate for their readership. However, providing high-quality photos and video can make a huge impact on the probability of getting covered on blogs (much more than in traditional print media) and will especially impact the length, depth and quality of the posts that they write about you. Though this is true as well for traditional press, it’s a much bigger deal in the blogosphere.

Tips on Photos for Blogs:

• Full color, professional photos are best.
• If you can’t afford professional photos do a little reading about product photos before you try taking them yourself. A couple easy tips: Outside shots taken on a sunny day are your best bet if you don’t have access to professional lighting. Be mindful of your backgrounds and the composition of the shot.

Tips on Videos for Blogs

• Drive traffic to your website by putting a slide with your website address at the end of the video with a call to action (e.g. Get free tickets to the show at MyEventWebsite.com!).
• It’s not a bad idea to include your logo and/or web address in a corner of the screen throughout the video.
• Post your video on a site like YouTube or Vimeo that makes it easy for you to share with the bloggers and makes it easy for them to embed the video on their blog.
• Keep it short.

Tips on Providing Media to Press

• Do not attach large photo or video files to your pitch email unless specifically asked to do so. The email will either get swallowed by spam filters or you’ll clog the blogger’s inbox and make them mad.
• Recommended media formates:
  • Press Releases: PDFs
  • Photos: JPGs, less than 1MB
  • Video: Upload to YouTube or Vimeo for easy embeds
• Set up a press page on your website and provide bloggers a link at the end of your pitch email (E.g. “To download press releases, photos and video visit our online press room.”)
• Another method for distributing the rich media is to post the story on your own blog and direct the professional blogger to that article.

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Katie Hawkey Categories: ePiphany Featured Story, How To, Social Media, Web