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February 21, 2007
Embracing the B-Listers
Colleen Wilson, Senior Interactive Producer at KQED, spoke during our panel session this morning about their foodie blog, Bay Area Bites. When they first decided to create a blog, they invested a lot of time investigating and participating in Bay Area food blogs. One might assume that the goal was to identify and recruit the A-list food bloggers in the community, but they didn't. Instead, they embraced the B-list bloggers: second-tier bloggers who were good at what they did, but hungry for more. If you're an A-list blogger, it might take a lot of incentive (read: money) to recruit them away from what they're already doing, but bloggers just below that tier are more likely to embrace new opportunities.
Once they selected a team of bloggers, KQED offered them training to improve some of their technical skills, like image editing. They weren't paid at first; they had to prove themselves on the new blog and demonstrate their commitment. After a while, KQED started paying them a stipend - $25 a post. It's not a lot of money, but it was enough to give them a sense of ownership in an important community resource. -andy
Tags: A-List | B-List | Bay Area Bites | bloggers | blogs | food | ima2007 | KQED
Posted by acarvin at February 21, 2007 11:12 AM
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