Once a list of friendly and like-minded bloggers has been assembled, organize them in an Outlook Contacts folder.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to individual bloggers and friendlies
informally in order to build a connection and a conversation. It is
important to make sure any formal outreach is carefully considered
before moving forward.

When it is time to reach out and message to the list, there are
several things to consider before emailing. The most important thing is
to make sure you have something important to share or a gift to give.
This can be in the form of something simple, but there always has to be
a reason for reaching out.

One way to make the connection feel more intimate is to use
Outlook’s fine email merge to send out an email. Listservs and mailing
lists can be seen as too impersonal, as are formatted
newsletters-looking missives. After sending out one of these group
activation emails, be sure to respond quickly and personally to each
and every personal query and response you may receive.

The primary goal is to build a relationship between other bloggers
and your company’s community. The secondary goal is to have the
community blog about your company organically on their own; saying
whatever it is they want to say.

Ideally, if everything is done above board and transparently, and
the prospects are tried and true, then any and all coverage will be
either very positive or at the very worst, neutral in tone.