So, Samir Balwani has a blog called Left The Box where he blogs about Web strategies and social media and of course, he’s on Twitter @LeftTheBox. He just blogged about a recent experience he had with Yoostar.com and its blogger outreach program: Yoostar invited key bloggers to NYC to demo their new product (check it out, its loads of fun), go back home and blog about it, spread the Word and create a big BUZZZ!

Samir was one of the bloggers invited. His blog is all about what Yoostar did right and why it was such a success. Please read his blog, its worth it.

I’ll sum up my key take aways:

- Give people (after all, bloggers are people too) enough lead time. They too have lives, schedules. Don’t send an invite a week before the event, please.
- Personalize and individualize the invitation. Do your research about that person and tie in his/her blogging and coverage with why you want him/her at the event and why it will make all difference.
- Give them some added-value, something fun, unusual or novel to experience over and above the event itself.
- Give an enticing, interesting, passionate presentation or demo. Nobody, but nobody, wants to sit through another boring PowerPoint.
- Be creative, think and do something out of the box. Bloggers love this.
- Make sure the information in the press pack is easily accessible. USB flash drive is a great idea.

And last, but definitely not least, maybe the most important, treat each person like gold. Don’t rate or “value” the blogger by the amount of traffic on his blog, or how many followers he has on Twitter. Each person is important. Each person has taken the time out of their busy schedule to attend. Pamper or spoil them – not necessarily with gifts, although that’s nice – but with attention and the right attitude. Make them feel super special. But be genuine.

I know I will keep this top of mind for our next blogger outreach program.

Thanks Samir for blogging about this and sharing with us. Awesome stuff.

PS: I wrote a blog in October on Pepsi’s Rebrand: Reaching out to Bloggers. That seems like ages ago. Things have changed since then, hopefully…