Do you work in the PR industry? No? Do you have your own startup? At some point you are going to have to face the facts and reach out to bloggers if you want to get some press. So how do you get a positive response after reaching out to a blogger? While it is not guaranteed that you will get positive feedback, there are a few steps that you can take to ensure that you get better feedback from the blogger that you interact with. Here are a few key steps:

1. Write your own blog - Bottom line: bloggers stick together. If a blogger knows that you experience the same challenges that they do, they are much more likely to sympathize with you. If you want to have increased odds of receiving positive feedback, share your blog with them. This is the number one way of reaching out to bloggers. For bonus points, link to the blog of the blogger you are targeting.
2. Read the blog of the person you are reaching out to - This is a no brainer. If you really want to communicate effectively with a blogger, you should read their blog and be able to provide feedback. Comments on their blog are an effective method for this. I have had authors reach out to me after I post about their book all because I linked to their personal blog. The key is to truly understand the person you are communicating with.
3. Make personal connections with other bloggers - The number one way of building a connection is through referrals. So get out there in the real world and start making real connections. The best way to go about this is pick an industry and target the second to most popular bloggers in that industry. The most popular bloggers are typically hard to get in touch with, but the bloggers just under them love the attention. Your job is to reach out to these individuals and become good friends with them. This requires sincere interest in these individuals but you will benefit greatly from these relationships.
4. Be honest and genuinely interested - With anybody that you are reaching out to, they can cut through the b.s. The goal is to build a lasting relationship with people. So reach out to them and sympathize with their problems and find ways that you can help them. Helping people is the best way to build contacts. While I wish I could give you the quick and easy route to successful social media PR, there is no quick and easy route. The only true route is through building genuine bonds.
5. Have something to offer - Do you have a tip on a hot story? Maybe you have an article that would fit perfectly in that person’s blog. Whatever it is, you need to provide some sort of value to the person you are reaching out to. So find out what their interests are (this is pretty easy given that their interests are publicly available on their blog) and satisfy their needs. Randomly picking people out of the pack is practically useless. Do research on each blogger you are targeting and provide them with something that will help make their life easier that day.

Follow these steps and you are on the road to success. The art of public relations is building valuable relationships. Truly connect with your fellow bloggers and you will reap the rewards. Conversely, randomly targeting bloggers because they fit within a given niche will be practically useless unless you can relate to them. So start blogging and reading other bloggers’ blogs and you are on the right course. True social media PR is a challenging task, but if you stay determined and focused you can make a huge impact.