Working with Brands: Is Your Blog Ready to Take the Leap?

Blogging about beer is usually regarded as a hobby. Let’s face it- most of us who put mouse to screen each day to talk about beer do not expect much in the way of monetary gain. Sure, there are the occasional perks but by and large, we blog about beer because we love the product and the great people who run the breweries, brewpubs, and beer bars we often treat as a second home.

Most beer bloggers create and contribute to their blog out of sheer love and nothing more, but there are those among us who take their beer blogging more seriously and might want to up their game to a new level and work with actual brand names on a regular basis. This type of marketing and selling your blog and content to a brand was the subject of Working with Brands, a practical and useful workshop session at the 2016 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference in Tampa, Florida, presented by Caitlyn Connolly who operates the fitness blog Live, Sweat, Sleep, REPEAT.

Know Your Brand, Know Your Self

Deciding whether or not to work with a brand is a simple enough decision, but formulating a strategy and creating/executing a plan of action isn’t always easy. First and foremost, you have to decide which brand or brands is a good fit for your blog. You might dream about working with, say, Lagunitas Brewing but if your blog focuses on a narrow niche that doesn’t pertain to Lagunitas Brewing, then you may need to rethink your decision. The brand you select needs to be one that relates well to your own blog’s brand. It doesn’t have to parallel exactly, but for the greatest chance for success, it makes sense to select a brand that reflects a similar niche, mission, style, etc. with the blog you own and contribute to each day. Caitlyn stressed the importance of finding the right match before you proceed any further. If the marriage isn’t right, it may be a candidate for a quick annulment within weeks of the blogger to brand honeymoon.

Social Media Matters

Posting quality content makes a difference and knowing the right people can always make life easier when you want to work with a brand. But even if you don’t have these advantages, you can still maintain an edge over others with solid social media numbers and an extensive media kit. Caitlyn offered useful advice on ways to improve one’s Instagram page, how to better penetrate Pinterest with pins and hashtags, and so on. Most importantly, she talked about ways to enhance your blog’s media kit so that brands will quickly know what your blog is about; its social media reach; your blog’s scope; and other facts.

Making Your Move

Working with Brands is something I already have some experience with, so when I attended this conference session, I wasn’t entirely green to the concept. I have already had brands reach out to me, I’ve sent out media kits,  and I’ve marketed Great Beer Now to specific companies. However, I am fully aware that the world of marketing and social media are ever- changing and no matter how well you think you know your stuff, there is bound to be something useful that you have never heard of previously. My desire to discover more about working with brands convinced me to attend Caitlyn Connolly’s Working with Brands session.

Caitlyn operates a fitness blog and before this session began, I was a little concerned that her experience with exercise and health related brands would not be relevant enough to apply to someone who blogs about beer. But as I quickly discovered, working with brands, media kits, social media exposure, and other like topics are universal. What works for one type of blog can often be applied to any type of blog. A good example from this session was Caitlyn’s advice relating to Instagram. Great Beer Now has an active Instagram account with a large number of followers, but there is still room to improve, as Caitlyn demonstrated. I immediately took some of her advice on ways to improve my Instagram home page, logging in and making her recommended edits right after the conclusion of the session.

A Hobby Blogger No More

Blogging about beer for the sheer enjoyment and passion that it inspires is reason enough to continue writing and sharing. The main reason most beer bloggers create a blog in the first place has little or nothing to do with monetization. Rather, it has to do with the love of beer and sharing one’s knowledge and enthusiasm with as many individuals as possible.

There is certainly nothing wrong with being a hobby blogger and I know many beer and other bloggers who have no real interest in monetary or other material gain. But if you’re the type who wants to take your blog to the next level, then consider finding a brand and forging a relationship. As Caitlyn Connolly showed everyone attending her Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference session, working with brands involves strategy, preparation, and execution. The advice she presented was quite useful and it was a conference session I’m happy I took the time to attend.