Robert pointed me to 19 things to consider when planning a blogger launch event by the Mobile industry review. I read through it left with very mixed feelings. On one hand it was pretty open and clear about things they like or dont like. On the other hand they seemed like a bunch of prima donna’s asking for free handsets, asking hosts to pay attention to food. Anyway it got me thinking about the blogger events we have hosted and what we learned from them.

When we hosted blogger outreach events at my previous company the question always comes up about a) What are the best things to do and b) how do you measure the success of such an event. So I thought I’d take a stab at 5 simple tips to being a great host for a blogger event.

1. Figure out the level of your bloggers and cater to their specific need: Tech bloggers like to actually play with the products, see demos, etc. The last thing you want to do with this crowd is to put 30 min PowerPoint slides upfront about your company, culture, market etc. If the bloggers are more strategic in their thinking and not the hands-on type, it makes more sense to provide access to C-level executives who can provide their opinions on the market, stategy, etc.

2. Location and time matter a lot: This is an obivious one, but where you host your event tells a lot about the importance you place to the event. I would highly recommend hosting your blogger event at your company. Pick a relatively large sized room and keep the number of attendees from your company to about 1/2 the number of bloggers invited. With respect to time, most full-time bloggers prefer lunch or late evening (early pizza) times, but dont attempt breakfast blogger sessions. Having tried 3 I can tell you they always start late, end late and mess up the rest of the day.

3. Giveaways: Highly recommend keeping them consistent with the brand and theme of your product / company. We hosted 2 blogger events and had a nice table top logo bean plant giveaway and a flash drive with the press release, latest whitepaper and product details pre loaded on them.

4. Measurement of effectiveness: The only measurement we did was to learn how many of the 21 bloggers invited to the first event showed up, how many blogged about the event and what the general sentiment was. The bloggers collectively had an audience of about 35,000 unique visitors and the cost of the event was about $1500. The total number of bloggers that wrote about the event was 11 (18 of the 21 invited showed up). The collective audience of the ones that did write about the event was about 8900. Treat it as any other press event. There were other benefits we got from the event – good will, some link love, but those were more difficult to measure.

5. The right people attending and available to answer questions. Believe me, most bloggers are there more for learning and sharing than for the food. The best thing you can provide to them is access to the right people in the company that will be able to build that connection with them so they can understand more about the company, the culture and products. Depending on the type and level of audience, make the right folks from your company available to discuss with them. ]]> http://news.buzzgain.com/5-simple-tips-for-hosting-a-great-blogger-event/feed/ 1