While our recent Asia-Pacific survey of bloggers had a small number of NZ bloggers quantitatively, we conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with many, so I feel it is valid to share some observations about the NZ blogosphere.
- Kiwi bloggers welcome PR contact and don’t seem to be drowing in spam. This surprised me, but even some of the most popular bloggers in NZ said they rarely receive press releases. The survey says that the most popular sources of info are other bloggers and mainstream media, and a reading of most blogs backs this up.
- Personal networks and relationships count. In many cases where a local blogger has promoted companies or start-ups, they’ve said it’s from their personal offline networks, not because a stranger pitched a story to them cold. This backs up one of the other key recommendations of the research – develop a relationships with bloggers. One way to do this suggested in the report is to attend the same events bloggers attend. In New Zealand (and many large Asian cities) this is absolutely feasible. This principle is much like traditional media relations or influencer relations. You’d expect any reputable PR professional to have a working relationship with key journalists in their field of specialism. The same will now go for bloggers.
- Kiwi bloggers are less likely to talk about companies than bloggers in other Asia Pacific markets. In fact, there is a noticeable shortage of blogs about the business community in New Zealand. Is it because we’re a ‘nation of small businesses?’ Is this to do with Tall Poppy syndrome and our generally low opinion/suspicion of business people? The NZ blogosphere seems to be dominated by political discussion instead (despite our opinion of politicians). When I worked for Fonterra, NZ’s largest company, I was amazed at how few grassroots blog there were that either followed the company or even the dairy industry.
- Kiwi bloggers have heard of and liked the idea of social media news releases. In addition to the social media elements, maybe we like the ‘cut-the-crap/hype’ tone and manner that comes with them.
- Not all bloggers are the same. There’s a good quote in the research report from Michael Netzley at Singapore Management University that there are “two quite distinct ‘flavours’ of bloggers across Asia: those who took a commercial, publisher-like mindset to their blogging, and those who proudly retain their amateur status.” This is certainly true in NZ. We have some very professional blogger/publishers and some part-time multi-taskers. I would add a third category here: trained journalists who have extended into blogging in addition to their mainstream media rounds. Stuff.co.nz, herald.co.nz, nbr.co.nz are prime examples of this. In this case you can engage with them as journalists, but may get coverage in a blog instead – especially if you provide them with multi-media suitable for a blog as well as traditional press ready materials.