Why writing a blog doesn’t mean you’re a blogger

Not a bloggerI’ve never called myself a blogger, even though I write blogs. Why not? Because, let’s face it, the word blogger has a bit of a bad reputation in some circles. I still see people looking for bloggers and influencers and it works really well in some industries. In other places, well…

What is a blogger?

Personally, I have nothing against bloggers. I just don’t want to be one. If you work in the travel industry you’ll hear an awful lot about influencer marketing. It’s common in other sectors too, for example if you want to promote a product in a market where there’s a strong blogger presence.

This kind of marketing works incredibly well where there’s a relationship between the blogger/influencer and the customer. Influencers tend to be people who have a strong social media following in a particular niche. For example, you might have someone who loves to travel off the beaten track or get involved in adventure sports. Equally there are lots of ‘Mummy bloggers’. Some of them are just funny but others will write sponsored posts for products or experiences they love alongside their more personal posts. These relationships work because a blogger’s followers trust them to only talk about things that they’ll enjoy and a business can tap into an audience that will like what they do.

On the other hand, there’s huge potential for it all to go wrong…

Bloggers are parasites

You may remember a social media storm that was whipped up earlier this year when a blogger called Elle Darby contacted the White Moose Café in Dublin asking for a free stay in return for publicity via her social media channels. I won’t rehearse the whole sorry story here but here’s a link that gives you a summary.

What went wrong? Firstly, it wasn’t a hotel contacting a blogger to help them as part of their marketing strategy. It was a blogger sending a message to a hotel owner that she didn’t know and obviously hadn’t researched. If she had she would have realised that the White Moose Café trades on controversy and also has a far larger social media following than she did. Did she deserve the treatment she got? I’ll leave that up to you to decide, but the massive publicity that the story attracted probably helped both of them a bit.

Why I’m not a blogger

As I say, I have nothing against bloggers. With the right sort of relationship they can be a useful part of your marketing strategy. These days most of them will do videos and photos as well as traditional blogs to help you reach people across different platforms.

By contrast, I don’t have a lifestyle that people want to follow and learn from. There are bloggers with my lifestyle – I love reading their blogs but I don’t really want to write my own version. I’d much rather be the voice of your business. I’ll work with you behind the scenes to create words that sound like you rather than me. That way you can shine and I can stay at home with my family and a bottle of gin!

Do you need an influencer or someone who’ll help you to create compelling content for your business? Let me know in the comments and if it’s the latter, get in touch!

Further reading

Some of my favourite ‘Mummy’ blogs:

Hurrah for Gin

Mummy Barrow

If you’d like to find out more about ways to work with influencers this article from Hubspot has some great advice.