Although the term “blogger” may conjure all sorts of images of the early 2000s, the blogging community is still alive and well on the internet. They just look a little different. Collaborating with bloggers should be an integral part of your overall marketing strategy.

Bloggers today are content creators, just like the influencer community at large. In fact, bloggers have diversified how they post their content. Bloggers now post to Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Patreon, and Blogs.

The definition of blogger has expanded to include:

• Traditional bloggers who post personal narratives or content to a blog. The blog is typically hosted by WordPress or a similar CMS.
• Instagram bloggers who share longer captions that include personal narratives. This is a subset of the Instagram influencer community.
• Vloggers who share their content exclusively through video, hence the V in vlogger. Although they may share their videos to a website, they typically use a video site like YouTube or Vimeo.

What are the Differences between Bloggers and Influencers?

In short, social media influencers and bloggers have the same goals, but the difference is in how they reach them with their content.

Bloggers and influencers both want to reach a large audience with their content. The size of a blogger’s audience is similar to other micro influencers. However, bloggers focus on bringing an audience to their site, while influencers post to existing social networks.

Although all bloggers and influencers share engaging content in unique ways, influencers tend to be more image-driven in their content (like Instagram posts), while bloggers focus on written content and video content.

Another way that influencers and bloggers differ is income and monetization. Influencers on social media and bloggers have different assets that they can monetize, so the structure of their brand deals and income-producing channels are different.

Bloggers can place third-party ads on their website to generate income, create sponsored content, and sell courses or other merchandise. Influencers can generate income through their sponsored posts, brand deals, affiliate commissions, and (on occasion) selling merchandise of their own.

As Instagram influencer marketing and blogging continue to develop, the differences between these two groups become less noticeable. Many of the bloggers who started in the early 2000s during the “blog boom” have also managed to build sizable followings on social platforms, making them both bloggers and influencers.

Influencer Collaborations with Bloggers

With bloggers and influencers rapidly becoming members of the same community, brands should be pursuing relationships with both bloggers and influencers to build brand awareness.

Reasons to work with bloggers:

• SEO – Having bloggers link to your website in one or more of their posts can help your website’s domain authority. The more backlinks that you build going to your website, the better your website will appear in the search results.
• Multi-faceted campaigns – Bloggers have a lot of the same social platforms as influencers, as well as having their own website. If you’re looking to work with influencers and bloggers that can share your brand’s message in several locations, then bloggers can help you create campaigns that can be shared on their website and social media accounts.
• Trustworthy reviews – blogs are still a source of trusted information for consumers. Having an honest review of your product on their site could help consumers find information about your products when they are researching their purchase. In fact, 81% of consumers trust what they read on blog sites.
• Authentic content – Because bloggers are creating longer and more extensive content than their social media counterparts, bloggers are able to really develop the argument for your brand and products in a way that feels natural. No one wants to learn about the brand from the brand’s website. Instead, they can browse the blog and still get well-developed information about your brand.

Bloggers and Instagram Influencers

Collaborating with bloggers and Instagram influencers could be as simple as creating a campaign around a single concept. If you’re a clothing store, then you could pitch to influencers and bloggers to create content around 10 ways to wear white after Labor Day. Influencers may post styled outfits to their Instagram stories, while bloggers create high quality blog posts about the same ideas.

If you have your influencers and bloggers sharing about the same concept, you’ll be able to drive a high engagement rate for your digital marketing campaign, thus driving visitors to your site to shop for the related products.

Having both influencers and bloggers creating content gives you options to share to your other marketing channels as well. Influencers may be good partners for providing product lifestyle shots, while bloggers may be qualified to provide product reviews and other marketing assets.

Collaborating with bloggers can be a way to diversify your brand’s influencer marketing. They can provide additional benefits, like search engine optimized-content, and provide an alternative to typical digital influencer marketing campaigns.

If you’re looking for ways to boost your brand’s visibility, bloggers can create content that is sure to win over your target audience.

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