Working With Bloggers: The Tip of the Iceberg [en]

[fr] La gestion de crise, c'est la partie immergée de l'iceberg -- la véritable raison pour laquelle les médias sociaux (et les relations blogueurs en particulier) ont leur place dans les activités de l'entreprise.

Over the last year, amongst the various things I do, blogger relations have represented a significant part of my paid work. Again and again comes the question of justifying what we do: is the effort invested worth the results?

What we see of our results is the tip of the iceberg: the tweets, the facebook updates, the blogposts. The fact that bloggers who have been given a VIP ticket to an event open only to a select few end up having a more positive image of the brand. The fact that we’re communicating on this or that topic.

I understood really clearly what the rest of the iceberg is thanks to Yan Luong, who was lecturing on Saturday for the SAWI course I co-direct. Amongst many other interesting things, he told us that crisis management was the killer argument to get top management to buy in to social media.

In 2013, a crisis will not just take place offline. People will use social media. You will also have to manage your crisis online. The best way to prepare for this is to be listening, so you can detect signs of an impending crisis online (if that’s where it first manifests), to know your online communities and audience, and have established relationships with key people and ambassadors. The online field will be known to you. It will be easier to navigate. You might even find you already have allies there.

When we work with bloggers and other key online people to establish positive, respectful, and long-lasting relationships, we are in fact doing very proactive crisis management.

That is the immersed part of the iceberg. Of course, people focus on the tip, and say “hey, only 5 bloggers came to your event” or “why are there only 8 blog posts about this?”

But when that crisis ship sails by, you’ll be glad your iceberg also reaches underwater.

2nd Back to Blogging Challenge, day 9. On the team: Nathalie Hamidi (@nathaliehamidi), Evren Kiefer (@evrenk), Claude Vedovini (@cvedovini), Luca Palli (@lpalli), Fleur Marty (@flaoua), Xavier Borderie (@xibe), Rémy Bigot (@remybigot), Jean-François Genoud (@jfgpro), Sally O’Brien (@swissingaround), Marie-Aude Koiransky (@mezgarne), Anne Pastori Zumbach (@anna_zap), Martin Röll (@martinroell), Gabriela Avram (@gabig58), Manuel Schmalstieg (@16kbit), Jan Van Mol (@janvanmol), Gaëtan Fragnière (@gaetanfragniere), Jean-François Jobin (@gieff), Yann Graf (@yanngraf). Hashtag:#back2blog.

LeWeb'12 Official Blogger Coverage [en]

[fr] Les articles publiés par les blogueurs officiels à Paris, LeWeb'12.

I’m collecting photos, posts, videos and the like produced by the official bloggers during LeWeb’12 Paris. You can follow the conference live online if you’re not here in Paris with us.

The storify below is a work in progress. Check back regularly!

[View the story “LeWeb’12 Official Blogger coverage” on Storify]

LeWeb’12 Official Blogger coverage

This is not really a story because I’m dumping articles, videos, and photos in here as I manage to lay my hands on them. This should, however, be representative of the kind of long-lasting coverage Official Bloggers provide at the LeWeb’12 conference in Paris.

Storified by Stephanie Booth · Tue, Dec 04 2012 03:04:13

Benjamin Cichy (NASA): ‘Ontdekken zit in onze natuur’ [leweb] | Wilbert KramerWat heeft Mars te maken met de ‘Internet of Things’? We wisten vroeger niet zoveel over Mars. We dachten dat Mars net was als de aarde. Toen kwam de ‘space age’: de vraag ‘is er leven op Mars?’ kwam op. De eerste twaalf missies naar Mars zijn mislukt.
LeWeb 12, The Internet of Things, or life really | Arne HulsteinAs most of you will know by now, I am currently in Paris at LeWeb. Interestingly enough, I have been at main stage for about an hour and a half now, and I have just been listening breathlessly. There have been some great speakers and some great subjects.
LeWeb 12: NASA and Mars | Licence to RoamLIVEBLOGGED = there will be mistakes Benjamin Cichy, Chief Software Engineer, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Talking about Mars. For years we knew little. It could be like earth. It had seasons, polar ice caps, had winters and summers. It could have had a rainy season.
LeWeb 2012: Tony Fadell (Nest Labs) en Xavier Niel (Iliad Group)LeWeb 2012: Tony Fadell (Nest Labs) en Xavier Niel (Iliad Group) Geplaatst op 4 december 2012 door Jeroen in Internet, Internet of things Na de officiële opening door Geraldine en Loic Le Meur wordt LeWeb 2012 afgetrapt met een gesprek met Tony Fadell, CEO en co-founder van Nest: een slimme thermostaat.
LeWeb 2012: Apparaten aansturen met je hersenen – Ariel Garten (Interaxon)LeWeb 2012: Apparaten aansturen met je hersenen – Ariel Garten (Interaxon) Geplaatst op 4 december 2012 door Jeroen in Internet, Internet of things Arial Garten is CEO van Interaxon, een bedrijf gericht op "thought controle computing". Thought controle computing is het aansturen van apparaten door je gedachten aan uit te lezen.
La competencia de Startup de #LeWeb12 ya inició | Valeria LandivarLos invito a seguir en vivo la competencia de Startup que acaba de iniciar en el Salón PlenaryII en LeWeb.
Descubre las 16 semifinalistas de la competencia de Startup de #LeWeb12 | Valeria LandivarComo cada año LeWeb organiza la gran competencia de Startup, la participación es gratuita y los 16 finalistas reciben dos entradas para asistir al evento y la invitación a tener un espacio en uno de los salones de LeWeb y así poder presentar a los participantes una demostración de sus productos, lo que les da una gran visibilidad ya que no solo periodistas de todo el mundo participan en este evento sino también grandes inversionistas.
¿No pudiste ir a Paris? #Leweb12 será transmitido en vivo en Youtube | Valeria LandivarSi quieres disfrutar de este evento en vivo, es posible de seguirlo gracias al canal que los organizadores han creado en Youtube: youtube.com/user/leweb Si quieres participar a la conversación puedes hacerlo en Twitter con el Hashtag #LeWeb12 y visitando la pagina oficial en Facebook y Google+
Loic y Geraldine marcaron la apertura de #LeWeb12 | Valeria LandivarLoic y Geraldine son las dos personas que lideran el gran equipo que organiza LeWeb’12 Loic inicio dando la bienvenida a todos y explicando las maravillas que la gente ha creado para conectar nuestro mundo real con el mundo virtual. El hablo sobre los productos que estaremos viendo este año de la mano de empresas innovadoras que subirán al escenario.
Opening Le Web ’12: "Internet of Things gaat verder dan je smartphone" | Wilbert Kramer"De Internet of Things gaat verder dan jouw smartphone.", aldus Loïc. Drones, de FitBit (moderne stappenteller), Withings (een weegschaal met Wifi) en de headband van Interaxon (gedachten lezen), die vandaag geintroduceerd wordt. Dat belooft wat! This entry was posted in Le Web ’12 by Wilbert Kramer. Bookmark the permalink.
LeWeb 2012: Tony Fadell (Nest Labs) en Xavier Niel (Iliad Group)LeWeb 2012: Tony Fadell (Nest Labs) en Xavier Niel (Iliad Group) Geplaatst op 4 december 2012 door Jeroen in Internet, Internet of things Na de officiële opening door Geraldine en Loic Le Meur wordt LeWeb 2012 afgetrapt met een gesprek met Tony Fadell, CEO en co-founder van Nest: een slimme thermostaat.
LeWeb Paris 2012 Unofficial Official Blogger Partyjvthekke
LeWebLeWeb Paris 2012: behind the scenes tour en blogger party Geplaatst op 4 december 2012 door Jeroen in Internet Morgen is de eerste dag van LeWeb 2012 in Parijs. Na LeWeb London, ben ik dit jaar ook in Parijs geselecteerd als "Official Blogger".
Marie Pourreyron’s photos on Google+LeWeb (12 photos)
Here at #leweb with @loic kicking off talking about the "Internet of Things" #ob http://instagr.am/p/SzxJhiSrT9/ Chris Heuer
Чем заняться Лайфхакеру в ПарижеЧем заняться Лайфхакеру в Париже 4-го по 6-е декабря в Париже пройдёт крупнейшая европейская интернет-конференция LeWeb 2012, и Lifehacke…
LeWeb’12 Behind the Scenes for Official Bloggers | Climb to the StarsVisite derrière la scène pour les blogueurs officiels. [en] So, the spirit for me this year is "more posts, less blabla" – keep the long …
Content from LeWeb’12 Behind the ScenesSets let you organize your photos on Flickr. Explore the 25 photos in this set.
Follow the official bloggers on Twitter, and see who they are!
@anca_foster/LeWeb_Paris12 on TwitterInstantly connect to what’s most important to you. Follow your friends, experts, favorite celebrities, and breaking news.
@tixx/LeWeb12 Bloggers on TwitterInstantly connect to what’s most important to you. Follow your friends, experts, favorite celebrities, and breaking news.
@ramonsuarez/LeWeb12-bloggers on TwitterInstantly connect to what’s most important to you. Follow your friends, experts, favorite celebrities, and breaking news.
Official bloggers | LeWeb’12 Paris

LeWeb'12 Paris Official Bloggers: Selection Underway [en]

[fr] C'est le moment de vous porter candidat pour être blogueur officiel à la conférence LeWeb à Paris. Lisez l'annonce sur le blog de Frédéric.

LeWeb - Register Now!Here we go! Selection for official bloggerdom at LeWeb’12 in Paris (4-6 December 2012) is underway. Time to apply if you haven’t heard from us and think you would make a good addition to the team. Time, also, to pass this around to all the various international and “rising star” bloggers and podcasters around you!

Read the announcement on Arne’s blog.

Loading…

Here’s a link to the form if you can’t see it above. Please tweet/facebook it.

Here are some banners and badges for your blog.

See you in Paris in December!

Swiss Bloggers: Want To Go To OrangeCinema (ZH, BE, BS)? [en]

[fr] OrangeCinema! C'est dans les villes de Zurich, Berne, et Bâle -- et dans le cadre de mon mandat "blogueurs" avec Orange, on a monté une opération sympa pour blogueurs cinéphiles. Si vous connaissez des blogueurs dans ces villes qui pourraient être tentés par devenir "blogueur officiel" durant OrangeCinema ("all-access pass", billets gratuits, et plein d'autres trucs sympas) faites-leur passer ce billet!

As you may know, I’m currently working with Orange to assist and advise them in the field of blogger relations. This means that we work on cool offers/programmes for bloggers.

Our first pilot was around Caprices Festival — a music festival in Crans: we offered a press pass and other perks to a couple of bloggers so they could attend the whole festival for free. We’re really happy with the way it turned out, and we’re now focusing on OrangeCinema, which takes place over the summer in the Swiss German cities of Zürich, Bern, and Basel.

OrangeCinema

Clearly I should be writing this post in German, as this is an offer mainly for Swiss-German bloggers, but my German sucks terribly and I wouldn’t want to inflict it on my dear readers.

If you’re an established film-loving blogger or podcaster, and you’d jump at the chance to receive an all-access pass to OrangeCinema and blog about it like crazy, check out the form below and apply to be an Official OrangeCinema Blogger.

Loading…

Orange invite des blogueurs à Caprices, 11-14 avril 2012 [fr]

[en] Blogger/podcaster? Want to go to Caprices Festival and blog/podcast about it? Orange has a free pass for you, and a few other nice things. Details and form in French.

Cher ami lecteur! Aimes-tu les loisirs? te divertir? aller à des concerts, peut-être même à des festivals — comme Caprices, au hasard? Ou bien tu cherches simplement une excuse pour aller à Crans sans prendre ton équipement de ski?

Si tu es blogueur ou podcasteuse, lis bien ce qui suit (et lis bien si tu connais des blogueuses ou des podcasteurs). Orange offre à une poignée de blogueurs la possibilité d’aller gratuitement au Caprices festival entre le 11 et le 14 avril 2012, à Crans-Montana.

En plus:

  • accès aux conférences de presse (car c’est un pass presse qu’on vous fournit)
  • 2 entrées journalières gratuites en plus par personne (pour vos lecteurs ou vos amis, jour à fixer)
  • on vous avertit directement dès qu’on sait qu’il y a une possibilité de rencontre backstage avec un des artistes du festival
  • on vous offre aussi une rencontre exclusive avec les gagnants du New Talent Contest
  • le contenu multimédia de Caprices TV est à votre disposition pour illustrer vos publications, et celles-ci seront en lien depuis la page Facebook de Orange.

On demande aux blogueurs d’être présents au stand Orange mercredi 11 avril 2012 à 18h30 pour un accueil en bonne et due forme, avec une petite intro à la présence Orange à Caprices par Yann, responsable partenariats et événements.

Ce qu’on aimerait de vous: un bel article dans les règles de l’art autour de votre expédition à Caprices. Le contenu est bien entendu libre, signalez juste que vous prenez part à l’opération Blogueurs à Caprices de Orange.

Ça vous intéresse? Faites-le nous savoir rapidement en remplissant ce formulaire. On vous tient au courant pour vous dire si ça joue de notre côté!

Loading…

LeWeb'11: Open For Official Blogger Applications [en]

[fr] Comme chaque année à cette époque, vous pouvez demander une accréditation "blogueur officiel" pour LeWeb.

Thanks to your recommendations, we’ve started inviting bloggers and podcasters to LeWeb’11 as “Official Bloggers“.

From now on, you can of course also simply apply to be an Official Blogger. Arne and Fred will take care of reviewing applications.

Please read the introduction instructions (those given for recommendations are worth a read too) and fill in the form carefully, as it makes it easier for us to deal with the hundreds of applications we get each year in a timely manner. Thanks in advance!

Applications now closed.

Blogger Relations: What is it About? [en]

[fr] Les relations blogueurs: qu'est-ce que c'est, et en quoi est-ce différent des relations presse/publiques? (Je pense qu'il va falloir faire un article là-dessus en français à l'occasion.)

I thought I’d write a post to quickly explain what I view as a particular field in social media: blogger relations. I prefer to view blogger relations as a speciality of community management rather than a speciality in PR, because it has much more to do with human relationships and communities (sometimes very small) than with managing a public image.

Blogger relations is what I call the work I’ve been doing for Web 2.0 Expo Europe, Le Web in Paris, and now Solar Impulse.

Companies and organizations are starting (well, they have been “starting” for the last five years, so some of you might get the feeling this start is dragging along) to realize that there is a population out there in social media that produces content, is very connected, and sometimes pretty influential. I single out bloggers and podcasters because despite all the excitement around Twitter and Facebook, publications in those mediums are too transient. Three weeks later, the tweets and status updates are long gone (Storify might yet change that, so I’ll be keeping a close eye on that service).

Though some online publications are very close in organisation and tone to traditional media, most bloggers and podcasters out there are better not treated as “press”. And they have value to bring that justifies treating them slightly differently from the general public.

Bloggers and podcasters are similar to press in the sense that they produce content. But they are also similar to the general public in the sense that they show interest for something by passion and often in their free time, and not based on the agenda of their employer.

As I see it, blogger relations imply a more “balanced” and “open” relationship between the parties, where it’s possible to lay things clearly on the table. Offer and demand are in my opinion more present in defining the power balance than when dealing with the press. Are bloggers desperate to attend your event or follow your project? You can be selective, and put conditions. Are bloggers and podcasters not yet aware of what you’re doing? You might want to bring slightly more to the table to make it worth the investment for them.

All this, of course, requires one to know what is and is not acceptable in the blogger world. Ask for a blog post, or to display a badge on one’s blog? Should be pretty much OK. Try to exercise editorial control? Not so good.

Maybe some of the above is valid with the press, too. But again, I’d like to stress a big difference between bloggers/podcasters and press: in general, the blogger or podcaster will be coming to you on his free time and of his own accord, whether the journalist will often be sent by his employer or client, on his work time. This changes things.

I like to define two types of situations in blogger relations: floodgates and outreach. The strategy for both of these is quite different: in one case you need to filter through a large number of incoming requests. In the other, you need to reach out to those you want to interest.

I’m planning to blog more on this topic (I’ve wanted to for a long time), but for now I just wanted to lay down some general thoughts.

Blogger Programme for Solar Impulse (Part 1, Brussels) [en]

The article was originally published a few days ago on the Solar Impulse blog — a project I’m working on. See the original article.

Are you a blogger or a podcaster? Are you excited about the Solar Impulse project? We have news for you.

As you might have seen if you’re following us on Twitter or Facebook, I (Stephanie Booth aka @stephtara) am currently working with the Solar Impulse team to set up special access and events around the project for bloggers and podcasters.

Solar Impulse 39

So, now that we’re excitedly waiting to be able to take off for our flight to Brussels (no kidding: we’re holding our breath every day, just waiting for the weather to cooperate fully), I can finally give you some news about what we’re planning.

Update 17.05.2011: this article was published on the Solar Impulse blog before the flight to Brussels, but it has now taken place successfully!

First of all, two words of caution:

  1. the offers in this programme are for established bloggers and podcasters only, that we will accept on a case-by-case basis;
  2. we do not know yet exactly when we’re flying to Brussels (flights are confirmed 24h in advance) — and bear in mind there is a small chance that all the necessary conditions for a safe flight may not be met before Green Week.

That being said, please use this form to let us know if you’re interested in taking part in our blogger programme. You can also simply sign up for the blogger announcement list, which will let you know about anything we plan specifically for bloggers and podcasters.

Current details on what we’re planning can be found below. We’ll be in touch with more as we finalize things, as well as confirmation — or, depending on the success of the blogger programme… more information about the selection process!

For the flight

The whole flight can be followed live on the Solar Impulse website and can also be followed on your smartphone (download the app for iPhone or Android). We have a small number of slots available during the flight if you would like to interview André while he’s in the air (ask him what it feels like to be outside Swiss borders with Solar Impulse!).

Update: departure and landing events are full, unfortunately!

It is also possible for us to invite a few people to the take-off, but as I mentioned, it will be on very short notice. We know it will be on the morning of the day of the flight, though. So, if you’re not far from Payerne and think you can make it for take-off around 8am if we warn you the afternoon before, try your luck!

There is a landing event in Brussels in the evening (around 8pm). Obviously we’ll have a little more notice than for take-off, but it’s still not much. We have a handful of invitations to that event for bloggers and podcasters. (By the way: even if you’re not a blogger, Brussels Airport are inviting 30 of their followers on Facebook and Twitter to be their guests at the landing — follow them for more information on that!)

The Week in Brussels (23-29 May)

During the time the Solar Impulse airplane will be in Brussels (during Green Week!), there are four occasions on which we can invite you — two of which will be open only to bloggers/podcasters (the other two are events which are open to a part of the public, but you’ll be able to attend as our guests).

First of all, a chance to see the plane in its hangar before everything starts — Elâ and I will be your hosts. That will be on Monday 23.05 morning, probably 9-11 (but we’ll confirm the exact time once it gets closer). This will be an opportunity to meet up, get to know fellow bloggers, chat about the project, photograph the plane, etc. The only people there will be bloggers and podcasters (and maybe some photographers!)

The second “blogger exclusive” event will take place on Saturday 28.05 morning, and it will be a discussion roundtable with André and Bertrand. Breakfast included! As we want to keep this conversation “human-sized”, the number of spots for this event is quite limited.

On Tuesday evening, there is the EUFORES/EREC cocktail event. About 300 people will be invited (political and economical spheres), and we have a certain number of passes for bloggers.

Wednesday evening is the side event Solar Impulse is hosting for Green Week. Again, a chance to see the plane and a presentation (we’re expecting about 700 people that evening and the European Commissioner for Environment Janez Potočnik will be speaking).

And also…

We aim to bring a community of bloggers together around the Solar Impulse project, beyond this first trip outside Swiss borders (next stop: Paris, more details vers soon, and who know what after that!) — at some point, we’ll define criteria for an “official blogger” status with visibility on our website.

We’re looking forward to meeting you, reading you, listening to you… and answering your questions about the project! If you have any other ideas, don’t hesitate to let us know using the “Anything to add?” field of the blogger programme form.