Asia's thriving community of bloggers is quickly becoming regarded as a trusted source of information, comparable to traditional media. Their growing influence spurred The Hoffman Agency (HA) to initiate a blogger outreach program on behalf of Google. The company needed a cost-effective strategy to maximize the exposure of its products and to encourage more people to use them. Since bloggers are technology's early adopters and influencers, HA saw an opportunity to seek their help in promoting Google's technology and product offerings.To gain a better understanding of the blogging community, HA immersed itself in the blogosphere — participating in online discussions, reading blogs, engaging in conversations via popular Web 2.0 tools, joining blogger groups and attending events. Eventually, they became bloggers themselves.
With the groundwork established, HA then initiated a two-way engagement between Google and key bloggers. By keeping bloggers in the loop about Google news — offering product previews, organizing meetings and holding exclusive events — HA helped the company to grow its number of blogger contacts and also strengthen its relationship with them.
It was this show of commitment from both HA and Google that inspired Hong Kong's local bloggers to create Google Guru, a 118-strong online community of Google users and enthusiasts.
The bloggers not only provided valuable feedback on products, but also served as evangelists for Google applications, and were often on hand to help out as user spokespeople for traditional media interviews.
In Taiwan, for instance, HA partnered with the Programmer Club — the most popular and credible online forum for programmers on the island — to promote the iGoogle Gadget contest, a global initiative wherein users were encouraged to develop gadgets/applications for iGoogle. Their collaboration resulted in 190 gadget submissions — the highest number of submissions received by Google.
Furthermore, our iGoogle campaign was recognized as Asia Pacific PR Awards' Technology Campaign of the Year in 2008. That same year, The Hoffman Agency Hong Kong was awarded a Certificate of Excellence by the same awards-giving body for its Google Maps Hong Kong launch.
With the success of HA's blogger campaign, Google has decided to extend its community outreach further. In Singapore, HA has now started an engagement program to reach out to a broader audience. It is now working with schools, real estate agents and travel portals in a bid to introduce relevant applications and to gain a better understanding of the market's level of interaction with Google tools.
