News & views
There are bloggers and bloggers . . .
A follow-up to yesterday’s post following a particularly animated discussion on Twitter the main gist of which is that you can’t tar all bloggers with the same brush. Some will grab every freebie going. Some will discriminate and retain their detachment.
What doesn’t get said often enough is that bloggers are different - just as paid journaists are. There’s a world of difference between a national critic whose paper pays for his/her meals and a local restaurant reviewer in a small town who has to live with the restaurateurs he/she reviews - and may even have to accept their hospitality.
Some bloggers like Jeanne Horak-Druiff and Daniel Young have been writing for years “before freebies even existed” some have just started. There may be a good 10 years of experience - and 15-20 years of age - between them. You can’t expect the younger ones to hit the ground running, talented though some of them are.
Some are more professional than others. Many come from high-flying professional or business backgrounds and find blogging a release for their more creative side. (See this earlier post about what motivates food bloggers) They’re used to acquiring training to improve their skills which is why they go to photography workshops (could do with one myself) and events like Food Blogger Connect (above).
The interesting thought is what happens to the established bloggers going forward. As they become more confident, more critical, less willing to buy into whatever freebie is going will they be perceived as less useful by PRs? If a PR can get a dozen reviews for an event or restaurant to show a client, are they going to worry too much about how big or influential a following a blog has particularly if the review crops up on the first couple of pages of Google? It’s all about noise.
PRs will never diss the big boys (and girls) of the national press. They can’t afford to do without them so they cultivate them assiduously. But they can - and seemingly do - discriminate against ‘tricky’ customers (like me, apparently) who write as they find, regardless of whether they get invited back. Human but wrong-headed, in my opinion.
When I was in PR (shock horror revelation!) long before the days of blogging and the internet we had to know all about our 'opinion formers' and what might interest and appeal to them. We didn't expect immediate results in terms of coverage - we were in it for the long term. Just sayin' . . .
If you found this post helpful and would like to support the website which is free to use it would be great if you'd make a donation towards its running costs or sign up to my regular Substack newsletter Eat This, Drink That for extra benefits.