Blogger Spotlight: Lee Kynaston, Grooming Guru

Poised as “an expert’s guide to male grooming”, journalist Lee Kynaston offers news on men’s fragrance, shaving, beard care, and skincare product launches and collections. Leaning on over 16 years of experience writing about male grooming products, Grooming Guru reveals expert tips to help you navigate through key grooming essentials. In this spotlight Lee chats to us about why he describes himself as being brutally honest, why he dislikes overtly ‘transactional’ PR, why Twitter is his preferred social channel, and why PRs need to lower their expectations when it comes to working with bloggers. 

Lee Kynaston

Why should people read your blog? What makes it different? Well, I’ve been writing about male grooming for over sixteen years now and have contributed to a huge number of publications – amassing a fair bit of knowledge  in the process –  so hopefully I know what I’m talking about. I’m also brutally honest in my reviews, which I hope my readers value, and I try to keep things real with a big dose of humour.

I like to think that sometimes I take a different approach to things too. For example, instead of reviewing a new fragrance recently I highlighted how out-dated and offensive the campaign was instead. And because the blog often references my writing for other publications it opens up a whole, quite wide, world if you’re interested in anything to do with male grooming.

How do you measure the success of your website? By the fact that people are still reading it after seven years! And that people are still interested in working with me and have discovered me as a journalist through my blog. I’m not a Pro Blogger in the sense that journalism is my main interest and source of income but The Grooming Guru is a great shop window for that world and is great fun to do too.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a blog? First and foremost, be yourself. Don’t try to ape other blogs or write in a style you ‘think’ is appropriate. The best blogs are those that exude their creators’ personalities. I personally hate ones that just tell you something is available and show a picture of it. Everyone has an opinion so allow it to show! Make it about you and your personality because people are as interested in people as they are in products. Oh, and learn how to be a good photographer! I’m still rubbish because I think in words not pictures. The best bloggers are those that master both.

How do you work with marketers and PRs? I tend to deal with each approach on its merits but I can’t tell you how important basic politeness is. So many people approach me without really understanding what I do and as if I am just a commodity. I hate that, which is why I’m quite fussy about who I work with – I not only have to like the product but the people and the approach too. I really dislike overtly ‘transactional’ PR – which is increasingly prevalent these days. A PR once asked me what coverage they could get (post/instagram/tweets) in return for taking me out to dinner just to show me a product, which I thought was outrageous! I rarely go on trips these days either because they invariably come with a shopping list of guaranteed mentions here, there and everywhere. Again, that’s just too blatantly transactional for me. But then, I come from a world where press trips were essentially bonding exercises and were about long-term relationship building not short term ‘paid-for-in-kind’ coverage.

How do you use social media to promote and share content? What are the challenges? Everyone has their own preferred platform – for me it’s mainly Twitter. I’ve just started using Instagram (yes, am late to that game!) but often use the tricks I learnt as a magazine editor for getting people to click on links. For example, “Could this be the moisturiser that changes your life?” is much better than “Clinique’s new moisturiser: my review”.

What can PRs do in working better with you? Really understand the blog, what it does and who it talks too. You’ve no idea how many approaches I get from people who say they love my blog but have no idea what it’s actually about. I think the best thing a PR can do is give you all the information you need and a sample to try and the rest is up to the blogger really. Sometimes I think PRs need to lower their expectations – and realise that getting a product into a bloggers’ hands does not lead to a guaranteed (or glowing) review. Like a lot of bloggers I hate embargoes too – especially when info about a product is already in the public domain. If I can Google it, I can write about it.

What has been your blogging highlight? Winning Fashion Monitor’s Beauty/Grooming Blogger Of The Year Award in 2013 award and P&G’s Best Blogger Award the following year. Awards are great because they validate all the hard work bloggers put into their blogs.

What will be big in your blogosphere in the coming months? Sadly, advent calenders. If there’s one thing I hate it’s advent calendars! lol!