Watch out, travel writers! The power bloggers may be hot on your trail when it comes to scooping up comp trips and airfare. According to Shanktar Gupta over at MediaPost, the Netherlands Board of Tourism is partnering with BlogAds to offer 25 bloggers a sweet little trip over to see what there is to be seen.
What does this mean to folks in the blogosphere at large? Opportunity. This kind of opportunity normally knocks at the door of those in the traditional travel writing industry or the journalists who need to head out to seminars, conventions, and events for coverage anyway. (Remind me some time to tell you about my trips to Vegas for the Future Horizons' Autism/Aspergers conference or the GodBlogCon, okay?) Such trips are the standard "call to arms" for recruiting travel writers, frankly. I can't help but think that this will be only the first of many promotions focused on using bloggers to spread the word about tourism board efforts.
How does this help writers at large? Freelancers who aren't already blogging need to realize what a powerful opportunity they have to market themselves and their work. There are a lot of free publicity options out there, even for writers. Blogging is an excellent way to get the word out about your services and portfolio...and to create a file of clips that an editor can access instantaneously. What better way to share your tone, style and expertise than to create a blog that an editor can peruse? Add in the potential perks these bloggers are receiving and you can see where it could be a win/win situation.
Small business people, keep an eye on this concept. Even if you aren't a blogger or writer yourself, this bears close watching. Think about the marketing and publicity opportunities in this case. Here we have the Netherlands Board of Tourism, already accustomed to laying out some pretty serious dough on advertising via traditional journalist itineraries, dealing with bloggers and an online marketing option. Think it through. What could this mean for you?
Think outside of the box. Sit down and brainstorm similar partnerships in your field. Keep in mind that bartering and cross-promotion are excellent methods of attaining publicity for your company. Build your brand, build your business, and then examine the pathways that become available to you.
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