Bloggers Festival Guru

Guest Post - Our host is Nick Steeves, Here Nick shows us how he has managed to get huge brands promoting his content.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

So you’ve got a blog and you’re picking away at the basics - getting backlinks, optimizing your tags and meta-data and posting to but you’ve yet to see any major spikes in traffic.There are people out there with established audiences which you would love to tap into, but how? These people are bombarded with requests at all hours - how do you get their attention?

Flattery is Your Best Weapon

Everyone loves to share a glowing review about themselves, and thought leaders are no exception.Talking about why someone is successful and how others can emulate them to be successful will get you a much quicker shout-out than simply soliciting one by telling them why you’re so great.

I have done this successfully with a number of large brands on Twitter - most notably DKNY who retweeted me (@GetLocalShopprs) each of the three times I tweeted them over the course of several months.

- ReTweet From DKNY

How Did I Do It?

My goal was to get the attention of retailers to turn them into customers of our Social Store app. I went after retail leaders with the most to gain from self-promotion and the most vanity - large brands.Like all bloggers I started out with no base - so don’t think you need one for someone to listen to you.

The key is great content, and especially a great title, that uses the brand/person’s name a lot. Make the title as obvious and flattering as possible, for example “3 Reasons DKNY’s Gonzo Journalism Twitter Approach is Successful” or “4 Reasons VW is Successfully Promoting the Beatle in Social Media”.

- Tweet From Volkswagon

Your blog’s content should also be complimentary. The sub-headings are key: Have 3-4 short paragraphs with pointed opening sentences about why the brand/person in question is doing a great job. Their social media team has little time to read and will most likely just look at these main points before forming an opinion. Follow each with an example that backs it up so the reader sees that you know what you’re talking about - this scores you major points.

- ReTweet From Berfdorf Goodman

How Can You Do It?

Find thought leaders in your niche that have a wide distribution and a vested interest in self-promotion - the best are people/brands who sell products and services.

• If you blog about online marketing - write about successful marketing agencies and marketing application developers and tweet them.
• If you blog about books - write about the authors and what makes them so interesting/insightful and tweet them.
• If you blog about gardening - write about The Home Depot and tweet them.

- Tweet From The Home Depot

Take time to get the find the right content formula and people to reach out to. Not everyone will be open to this, but many will, especially those who are trying to build their image as one’s with great customer service.

One final point: never ask directly for a retweet or mention, this will make them catalogue you as spam. Simply post the tweet with a mention of the person/brand. Even if they don’t retweet you, you will still get exposure to everyone who searches for them on Twitter.