GigCoin connects with popular bloggers

There is growing discontent between bloggers who are determined to get paid and companies who desire to keep working with them. And it’s brewing into a full fledged tantrum. PR agencies, companies, and brands are starting to get the message: Bloggers have influence, Word of mouth is the new ‘it’ marketing, and Bloggers aren’t willing to do it for free any longer.

As the once juvenile and now moody teenager stage of ‘new’ Social Media begins to develop a deeper voice and grow um… more mature, everyone involved is feeling the same growing pains.

I had the opportunity to interview several prominent bloggers while at BlogHer in August. Here’s a sample of the questions I asked:

• What is making sense for you in today’s social media, on your blog, Twitter, Facebook etc.?
• What used to work for you (but doesn’t any longer) as a blogger when dealing with PR and Company Brands?
• What types of recent campaigns were ‘win/win’ for You and the Brand?
• What outside the box creative ways can bloggers get value out of a connection with a company and still keep firm control of their own brand and voice?
• Do you need to be compensated in cash, or are there other value adds to a blogger?

The bloggers and brand representatives first response often was the same:

“Oh my gosh! I totally want to know the answers to these questions.
Please share what people are saying!?”

I will be diving in with a new series here on the GigCoin blog discussing the creative thoughts and ideas of bloggers and various types of brand representatives spanning the scale of newly joining social media to influential veterans.

To tease you a little bit, here are a few responses from bloggers while at the hugely popular BlogHer event. Later in the month I’ll share what the brands are saying.

• I learned from Michelle Davies, creator of EverythingMom.com, that companies need to start treating bloggers as publishers. She is willing to listen to a PR agency, but she is creating her own content; not the other way around. If their product is a timely fit for her current content she may find a way to connect with them. She made it clear she pays her staff and writers. She believes online publishing magazine owners need to stop expecting to get all their content for free. The same way PR representatives can’t expect an independent blogger to run giveaways, write about brand campaigns, and generally evangelize for free.

• @MissLori talked with me at length one evening about project pricing. Her advice to new and increasingly prominent bloggers submitting proposals to potential clients is to create an itemized list for each distinct project. She recommends that you identify, in detail, what activities you intend to perform for your quoted price. However, when you submit the proposal to the client do so only with the whole figure price. Then if the client comes back and tells you their budget is less than your quoted amount you can negotiate the price simply by whittling down your line item list to fit their budget, and your efforts. This not only gives you a blueprint for compensation, but also a road map for completing the project.

• Michele McGraw (@scrappinMichele via Twitter) was pleasantly surprised recently when a brand came along and asked to partner with her for four separate posts on her Scraps of My Geek Life website spread out over a month’s time, specifically to talk about their product. They compensated her for each post and provided the product to test out with her family. These were sponsored posts, or advertorials. It was all disclosed to her readers and made sense for her as she felt her time and writing was worth the value.

• Sarah Pinnix of RealLifeSarah.com asked the question: “Isn’t talking about a brand or product on my blog much like a celebrity endorsement?”  It’s a great question and when a blogger has over 15,000 page views per month, she has a very real audience and a fan base. And her opinion is both valued by her readers and the company with a message to spread.

• On the other hand Tracy Beckerman who writes a syndicated humor column for several newspapers with over 350, 000 page views, plus her own popular blog: Lost In Suburbia says, “I’m going after sponsors for my upcoming production of Lost In Suburbia webisodes”. I asked her if she would call what she does a celebrity endorsement and she said, “Not really.  I don’t endorse the sponsored products so much as integrate them into the webisodes. I think of it more as product placement than product endorsement.”

It’s obvious, blogger opinions are as varied as their content and who’s to say any of them are right… or wrong?  Everyone is growing up at the same time and all the different sides are ready to understand each other and find solutions to fit.

GigCoin is ready to join the conversation in a giant way. Let’s get this Gig Rolling!