(UPDATED Feb. 11, approx. 9:15 a.m. with examples below, marked **. These examples either involved me, or my current employer.)

More and more I’m convinced that public relations should be categorized as a social science in colleges, universities and in the professional world. Not in “Communications.” Not part of the journalism or English curricula. (I’m also convinced that journalism is more of a trade than a profession that requires a degree. Ask, and I’ll explain why.)

At its roots, public relations — and, I suppose, advertising and other marketing communications — is about communicating to people. (Very similar to one of my two college majors, economics.) Social media like blogs, online communities, boards, etc., is a couple steps closer to a true social science than traditional marcomm activities.

While I’m still a firm believer that corporations have the most significant control over their brand, you can employ a bit of social science thinking to work with others (not use others) to try to communicate your brand to others.

Unfortunately, many in our professional don’t have faith in their fellow mankind or don’t know how to work with others to accomplish their social media efforts. And, they resort to fake blogs* or use services like PayPerPost (legit, but definitely not as credible as true, objective, third-party blog posts).

They’re afraid to lose control of the message. But, in traditional media relations, we do that all the time in working with the media. There’s definitely value in having a reporter publish a story about your company, but there’s also a level of risk.

So, why should working with Joe/Jane Blogger be any different?

Here are a couple ways to successfully engage bloggers about your company, product, service, etc. 

Enlist bloggers to review your product. People who blog are naturally opinionated — why else start a blog if you don’t want a soap box or have a cause. So, ask them to give you feedback. Don’t ask them to blog about it. Let them know that if they do blog about your product, you’ll offer their readers a discount or other something special. But, be sure they know that you do value their credibility and objectivity. So, even if you don’t get publicity (i.e., a post), you’ll still get objective product feedback. That’s always valuable. And, if you do get blog posts out of it — afterall, these are opinionated people you’re dealing with — then you’ve achieved two positive results.

Remember: Be careful on the perceived value of anything you send bloggers. Their credibility is important. You don’t want to be seen as buying their positive feedback. If you’re in doubt about the perceived value of a product, make sure bloggers know that what you send them is a loan (and you will pay for them to send it back). If the product price is low, say $15, that’s likely nothing that will be perceived as undue influence if they keep it. (For an example, here.**)

Offer bloggers an opportunity they normally may not have. Offer them access to your company, to beta test a product, or to attend a special event. And, then let them blog about the opportunity as they want. You want their credible, unbiased opinion — you don’t want a paid hack. Better to err on the side of less than more in terms of any type of compensation or expectations from you. (For an example, see here.** Note that expenses were paid, not time paid.)

Our job entails determing the how in communicating a message as much as what that message is. Get to know your audience and those who reach your audience, and figure out how best to reach them.

– Mike

*Note that the link takes you to a Google News search without “Edelman.”