You know one of my pet peeves I find most offensive is when someone treats me like a number and doesn’t value my time or my Brand audiences worth. I’m treated like a nobody. Bloggers really need to stand up and demand value to their influence and audiences.
The basic problem is some PR agencies or companies take the “tact” that I’m supposed to feel PRIVILEGED to _WORK_ their event or product by invitation to the party. The real PRIVILEGE is they get to work with ME and get access to my audience. They should feel privileged if they get my endorsements and access to my audience.
I could be wrong but valuing someones time and effort is extremely important in business relationships. I’ve bashed on PR agencies and companies that abuse bloggers on promotions with cheap trinkets and free booze while pocketing tens of thousands in cash. Bloggers shouldnt be used as patsies and the ones that sell their time for pennies, ruin it for everyone.
Half the time a company will BS their clients or employer they are doing a great job while meantime most of the bloggers at the beerfest are people with little or no audiences or influence. “Hey we spent chump change getting some bloggers no ones heard of drunk and Tweeting now pay us tens of thousands of dollars. I hate it when bloggers get treated this way.
Whats even more offensive and insulting is when I have to fight or negotiate that Forbes Top 50 influencers arent the same in influence as everyone else and we dont grow on trees and get to be treated as such. I’m not some newbie blogger with nothing better to do and a tepid audience. Its even more insane when a marketing or PR dept doesn’t even know how to recognize this since it should be their job to identify top people.
If you dont stick up for yourself people walk all over you.
There is a food chain, a pecking order, a hierarchy of successful people with influence. I’m not king shit, I know whose ABOVE me and below me. I know my place in the food chain but I’m not a nobody and I dont get dealt with in that manner. I’m not sitting by the phone hoping someone will call me. I’m not some delusional blogger who thinks that 3000 followers is king shit.
If you look at that graphs you’ll see the info for just ONE of my 8 Twitter accounts that have over 300,000 followers. Does the average person have that reach? 284 RETWEETS A DAY. 194 Favorites? Keep in mind thats just ONE account! Times that by SEVEN! I have HUGE impression rates in the multi-millions. Did I work this hard slaving for years to be thought of as average. I recently found my info showing at one time I was in the top 1100 people on Twitter back in 2009.
These numbers are actually old but are they are lot of people who have my kind of influence – do we grow on trees?
Forbes Magazine for 2 years running has named me in the Top 50 Social Media
I’m listed as one of the Top 50 people retweeted by other top social media marketers.
I have over 300,000 followers across 7 Twitter accounts.
Almost 13 MILLION VIEWS on Youtube and over 37 Million minutes watched.
Almost 20,000 subscribers on Youtube.
Rated the Top 1% most viewed Linkedin Profiles out of 200 million.
On Google+ My following is over 33,000 followers and my reviews show up in SEO on Google and 4 million G+ Views.
My Facebook, Fan Pages. Groups I control combined have over 25,000 followers.
I control 2 Big LinkedIn Groups like Social Media News that total almost 80,000 followers.
On Linkedin I have over 18,000 contacts and linked to over 30 million professionals
Did I slave for all of this to be treated like someone with significantly less influence? I think not. If you’re a blogger quit selling out for trinkets. If you’re a PR company do your job or learn it. Bloggers are doing you a favor loaning you their influence that is a PRIVILEGE bestowed up them TO YOU. Not the other way around. I hope more bloggers start realizing how much money is on the table and standing up for themselves. As long as influential bloggers accept trinkets and dont demand value they will keep ruining it for everyone.
If you’re a company or PR agency treat bloggers with value and respect. You have to EARN their business, not the other way around.
