Philadelphia Eagles give bloggers respect...and a trailer

(Photo Credit: New York Times)
Sports Illustrated's Peter King reports this week that the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles will provide local bloggers and blogging reporters with their own trailer at this year's mini-camp to help them meet the public's expectation for real-time updates. Here's a quote from King's "Monday Morning Quarterback" column:

"Reporting on the NFL has become such a 'now' business,'' Eagles PR czar Derek Boyko said. "I saw this [trailer] as being in the 'need' category, because so many bloggers are doing immediate stories, and now the beat reporters are doing the blogging, too.''

Is your industry any different? Granted, few organizations command the attention and scrutiny of an NFL franchise, but reporting and commentary is a "now" business in just about every industry. I won't suggest that you lobby your CFO for a blogger trailer just yet, but the Eagles' creative strategy ought to prompt a few questions:

1. What opinion, if any, does your company's leadership have of bloggers generally? Does that opinion accurately reflect the commentary and readership of bloggers who cover your industry, product, or company?

2. When was the last time you monitored the blogosphere or Twitter for references to your company, product, or industry? What did you find? Was it accurate? How did you respond?

3. What has your organization done to introduce itself to industry bloggers?

4. What has your organization done to make information as accessible as possible for industry bloggers who cover your company, product, or industry?

We have written in the past about the dangers of dismissing bloggers as a fringe community. Highly successful companies like Dell have learned that determined bloggers with an interesting story line can influence public opinion on a significant scale.

You may not be rooting for Eagles on Sundays this Fall, but we'd all be wise to learn from their forward-thinking approach to blogger relationships.