Why is it helpful to invite bloggers to your startup?

Where is the success?

To succeed, a person must have all sorts of qualities: hard work, talent, a fresh look at things, etc. However, a startup, anyone who comes up with a new idea, is not enough, you need not just "be good", you need to know about you. To get online, the usual marketing methods just do not fit, and there is no money for them. Therefore, we need new, "human" solutions. One of them is to invite bloggers to visit.

Bloggers

Not all of them play fair and some start to earn money by trusting themselves, but many of them may be interested in your idea and they will be ready to talk in person. Moreover, you invite them to visit, but do not offer to believe a word and swallow another batch of "fresh" advertising. No one owes nothing to nobody. If your startup or just a new unique project is really interesting, original and can benefit people, feel free to invite bloggers to your office - if they like your ideas and how you implement them, they will tell everyone about it, and not so much the facade of the project, how much about how it looks from the inside. And not only in the network, but also in personal communication. In general, they gain from openness!

Case of our team

Recently, as part of a blog tour, bloggers (and simple users of Workle) visited us . A lot of noise, a lot of fun, a lot of good. Below is a small photo report and conclusions on the topic of why it is useful to invite bloggers to the office of your startup.
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Where are the legs of races here

By themselves, blogging is not a new concept. Tourist blog tours, educational blog tours, and even blog tours at NPPs regularly take place (there have been two of these lately). Businesses get extra advertisements, bloggers satisfy curiosity, and everyone is happy. However, blogoturov in startups has one significant difference - criticism. Few people can reasonably criticize the work of a nuclear power plant, or the mastery of landscape painter, but there are always thousands of experts in startups (like in football). Another thing is that in startups (as opposed to football) their advice can be really useful.

In general, blog tours, as a link between the project and the audience, look quite interesting and promising. In short, blogging brought us several hundred users, several thousand visits, and tons of motivation that still works. More - inside.

Reason # 1: Unknown bugs "pop up"
Not all bugs can be caught using testers, usability testing, or even an open launch. At exhibitions and conferences, everyone tries to be polite and not point out anyone's flaws. While on an informal blog visit to the office, the “And the king is naked!” Effect may work when you find out that the menu is inconvenient for you (and this is true, you are just used to it) e-mail as spam, and so on. In our case, it worked out weaker (users from HabraHabra actively help with criticism), but some important points were still a novelty for us. A bit unpleasant, but worth it.



Reason # 2: The motivational effect of direct contact with users.
Good professionals want and like to work in an effective company that brings some real benefits to society. That they were proud of their workplace, they could boast of it, etc. etc. But publications in the network (even on Habré), or in the media are not always perceptible within the team. Another thing is when real people come to the office, ask real questions and sincerely sympathize with the project. Or, on the contrary, they give you a lot of negativity, which hurts pride (such emotional recharge is especially useful for large successful projects so as not to be conceited). In general, listening to living people can and should be useful.

Reason # 3: Promo Effect
The most obvious and easily measured advantage. Bloggers write, comment on them, repost and so on and so forth. Specifically, from February 8 to 10, we received:
• 396 blogging and Workle mentions on Yandex.Blogs;
• 2500+ unic. visits Workle.ru (with deduction of regular attendance);
• 305 new registered users (minus regular registrations).



On this, perhaps, everything. Invite bloggers, make your projects better, and enjoy life. May the force be with you! :)



UPD: Invites are on a separate page . Use on health.

And yet, a lot has changed at Workle, but that's another story.