Are You PR Friendly?

I was recently speaking to Laura from Six Out of Ten when she offered to do a guest post for me about how to be PR friendly.

Here is a bit about her:

Laura works half in PR, half in marketing, and spends the rest of her free time writing about London and lifestyle in her online magazine. She has a cat, a boy, and loves Revels a little too much (don't we all!).

Here is what she had to say:

Although I think calling yourself PR Friendly is redundant (as most bloggers are lovely and wouldn't dream of being unfriendly) as well a waste of precious character space on your Twitter bio and blog, being PR friendly is another matter entirely.

You see, bloggers have seen a few people add it to their accounts, and everyone has followed suit. It's almost the same as adding clichéd phrases such as 'works well in a team' and 'hard-working' and 'works well under pressure' to your CV. They don't really mean anything until you see them in action.

To PRs, just saying you're PR Friendly isn't enough. So what can you do to demonstrate that you can be a PR's best friend? Here are four really easy ways to get PRs on side.

1. Remove PR Friendly from your blog and social channels 

As soon as you mention PR Friendly, you're immediately classified as a review blogger. As in, you only care about working with me and my client for what you can get out of it - a new lipstick here or a press trip there. 

I want to work with bloggers who love my brand and all that it stands for, regardless of whether I might be able to offer a comped meal or sample. I want them to be discerning and strict about who they feature, to not cheapen my client's name by lumping their brand in the middle of fifty others.

I'll avoid PR Friendly bloggers as the reputation behind the phrase, unfortunately, isn't a good one.

2. Have an up-to-date, well-written about page

The first think I look at when scoping out bloggers is their about page. I'll usually look at this before their posts. Why? Because this is where I find out about your story. Why you blog. How you started. Who you've worked with.

You should include the following:

a. Your name (use a blogger alias if you don't want to reveal your full name)

b. Where in the country you live

c. Why you started your blog and how it came about

d. Your perceived successes and a few brands you've worked with

e. Your future plans and targets

f. Your link to contact information and a media kit (if this isn't visible from the homepage)

3. Your contact information

It's amazing how many bloggers have a PR Friendly badge in their sidebar and then literally no contact information available. How can that be considered friendly? How am I mean to get in touch with you? Through an easily-missed public comment on one of your posts that'll head straight into your spam folder? 

No. Have a contact page set up, or be sure to include this in your about page, as above. If you want to include a number you can, but at the very least a text-based email address I can actually add to my address book. Include a contact form too, but your actual email address is the most valuable part.

4. Make your site easy to use

Nothing puts me off more than a cluttered site where I can't find anything. If you're not the best at HTML or CSS then hire a designer to install a clean, easy-to-use template. And make sure it's responsive and mobile-friendly. In case you don't know, Google will be penalising non-mobile-friendly sites from now on. There's no point spending time on SEO if there's no chance 40-50% of your mobile readers won't see it.

If your site is easy to use it means your readers will be able to find my client too. 

By following these really simple steps, you'll ensure you go from saying you're PR friendly, to being PR friendly. And I'll love you just a little bit too.

The Perks of a Plus Size Blogger

The plus size community seems to be at antsy with itself lately and it is a sad thing to see.

Bloggers are being accused of various things to include: peacocking about working with brands, having too many gifted items on their blogs, always going on about going to events and generally saying that everything is "gorgeous" as long as it is free.  They are also accused of encouraging consumerism and killing fairies.  Ok, not the last one, but such negatively towards people in the same community as yourself makes me rant a little.

I properly started blogging about fashion about a year and a half ago.  I started because I caught sight of Becky's blog, saw all the fabulous, colourful and fashionable clothes that she was wearing and her awesome attitude and thought to myself, I want a piece of that.  Not the free clothes, the confidence and her attitude.

The number of plus size fashion blogs I read grows on a daily basis.  I don't pick and choose based on their brand interaction, I chose on the basis of if I find their blog interesting and also the kinds of clothes that they wear.  Seeing how clothes work on different bodies is extremely helpful to a plus size person and also seeing someone wearing something that you would not have dared to, encourages you to be a little more adventurous and jump out of your comfort zone.

One of the unexpected perks that has arisen is that occasionally I get opportunities from brands in order to review clothes or maybe attend an event. This isn't something I expect or court, but when it does happen, it is obviously extremely exciting. When I see other bloggers doing similar things, I feel happy for them also. 

The biggest perk I have gained from blogging though is this: I am so much more than the shadow of the person that I used to be.  Fashion blogging has completely changed my life. I am no longer hiding and I wear the clothes that I want to, not the clothes that I "should".

Someone said on Twitter today that wearing clothes doesn't give you confidence, but they are wrong.  Fashion can take you out of your safe place, which often can be the very place that you are hiding in, and into places that you could never dream of. 

The other bloggers in the community continue to inspire me and I draw my own confidence from them.  I don't care if the clothes they show are free, paid for, stolen or borrowed, what makes me continue to read their blogs is their confidence and their friendliness to others.

The plus size community has always been a supportive and friendly one and it is a shame when discomfort arises because some work with brands and others don't.   Blogging is hard work and time consuming, especially if you are working too, or have children, or both! If someone gets a perk from doing their blog then well done to them.

I love writing my blog, both my opinion posts and my fashion posts.  If I stop loving it, I'll stop, simple as that.  If you don't kind reading someone's blog, then don't read it.

This is just a little of my perspective, but I urge you to check out Hanna's post and Leah's post

*Edit
Having read Gina's comments on the Facebook feed