Sucking Up To Bloggers
I’m probably gonna get some flack for this, but I can’t let Guy Kawasaki’s post and some of the responses go.
I think everyone’s getting hung up in semantics and details in Guy’s post. I can boil it down to three basic points:
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Make a great product. This is the important part of the process, else “sucking up to bloggers” will fail.
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Give your great product to people who are interested in it and will write about it, i.e. give schwag to the bloggers. Guy’s post talks about stroking the bloggers. All you need to open the door to a blogger is to give him schwag. Bloggers will do what they do best–write. I don’t think Om can say with a straight face he hasn’t written about schwag he’s gotten from companies. If you try and put requirements on the schwag, or at the very least on the content of the writing, any blogger worth his salt will tell you to go take a flying leap. You want the honest feedback, you really do. Even if it’s ugly. All press is good press as long as they get your name right.
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Profit from the good reviews and good relationships you’ve nurtured by giving away cool schwag to bloggers.
Am I totally off base here or is there something I’m missing?
