Gadget Blogs and Public Relations

Keith O’Brien has one of the best articles on blogs and their role in marketing that I have seen. PRWeek, which is subscription only, has graciously made this link available to blogosphere.

Gadget blogs gain in popularity and corporate PR begins to take notice

On March 24th, loyal readers of gadget blog Gizmodo were rewarded with some grainy pictures of Danger's hiptop 2, the second generation of popular mobile device that allows users to email, browse the Web, IM, call someone, play video games and, with a camera accessory, take pictures.

The hiptop 2 has not yet been released and the photos, taken from a trade event, were not supposed to be viewed publicly. While not commenting directly about the incident, Susan George, Danger's director of marketing communications said, positively, "It's nice that people are excited about it."

If I were Susan George, I would be ecstatic. What could have more credibility that an amateur photo on a personal web log? Of course if the trade show is just a preview it would be a shame to have a lowly blog get a jump on your product launch, after you have persuaded all those editors to hold your news release. But for viral marketing, blogosphere has no equal.

Here at Presto Vivace we take a ground up approach. Who are your client’s customers? Which publications do they read? Which blogs do they read? That is why Technoflak attends so many meetings, so I know who I am writing for and what has credibility.