Bloggers want to connect with PR industry

Hong Kong - Blogging is a powerful force in communications today and a new survey shows bloggers generally welcome contact from PR professionals and the corporations they represent.

Between 22 April and 16 May, Text 100 surveyed a total of 153 bloggers around the Asia Pacific region, of which 125 completed the survey.

In what is believed to be the first survey of its kind conducted in Asia Pacific, the study shows that bloggers are not just a group of cynical consumers, but rather a professional group of people who want to engage with the PR world, but generally on their terms.

Asia Pacific bloggers are not particular about who they engage with, but they do prefer to speak with whoever is closest to the story and not necessarily the traditional spokespeople.

Jeremy Woolf, APAC peer media lead at Text 100, said social media has changed the way PR professionals do their job and it is critical that they understand the social media space.

"Peer media, or new media or web 2.0 media, how ever you want to phrase it, is vital for us in the communications profession, because these are the people influential to our communities," he said.

"A lot of people are generalizing about the blogsphere and that is really dangerous. There are really high profiles of mistakes where companies have failed to listen to what is going on. The first step is to always listen.

While most bloggers ignore traditional press releases, the survey found 88% were aware of so-called social media releases and indicated they were in favour of using elements such as videos, quotes, pictures and links from these releases in their posts.

"There's a perfect storm of business change, societal change and technology change, and those three things have created an environment where consumers just don't trust the big institutions anymore, so what they're looking for is advice from their peers," Woolf added.

A detailed copy of the survey and links to the social media release can be found here.