I am waiting for the moment when the light bulb goes off: this blogger is my customer. That is PR 2.0, ladies and gentlemen. The sooner you realize that, the better your conversation gets. Instead of asking yourself: how can I send this pitch in a way that all these bloggers will publish it? Ask: how can I talk about my service and product to a potential customer?

Remember when we were talking about advertising that way not a year or so ago? Well, we may still be talking about it that way. You’ve got to stop treating your customers like they are morons - they are your (increasingly) daughter, too. If you think of it that way, wouldn’t your whole attitude towards the medium change?

So, now that you know that bloggers are your customers, what are the thoughtful steps you will take to open a dialogue with them?

1. First off, lose the attitude. They owe you nothing. Just because you are showing up announced in their email box, it does not mean they should even read your message. There are many messages just like yours piling in their in box.
2. Then figure out if who you are trying to reach is a match for what you’d want to say. It begins with listening, in this case reading. What is the author writing about? What if you find out that that blogger does not write about what you’ve got? Go out of your way to connect them with content they want, as a kind gesture. You may know where it is.
3. You do that and add a third step, depth. See, bloggers are proud about what they write, and they like to have a special angle for their readers. Have you got one to offer? It will probably not take you long to ascertain what the core interests of both readers and author. Look at the list of topics and see which ones have the most entries.
4. Do you want to score points? Continue a conversation they started at their blog. I know, I know, that would mean you’d actually want to pay attention to what they write about. This is not exactly the same as pitching main stream media. This means reading more closely, contributing to the conversation in a meaningful way to the blogger. He selects his content, not his editor.
5. Talk with them (not at them) as if they were your customer, chance are they may very well be. When you do that, keep it real. Be yourself, answer additional questions honestly, go out of your way to be helpful. Bloggers don’t mean to be difficult, they are generally busier than main stream media - in many cases, the blog is not their day job.

Has the light bulb gone off, yet?