Blogger Spotlight: Shay Mason, What’s on the Blog?

An interview with Shay Mason, author of British beauty and lifestyle blog, What’s on the Blog? Shay spoke to us about how she works with PR, attending a blogger bootcamp and the five best practices marketers need to follow for better blogger outreach. 

Why should people read your blog? What makes it different? I have tried to tap into writing about things that I would genuinely be interested in rather than what gets sent my way. Like most bloggers do now I want to write real content that isn’t part of a bigger social piece for a company. I love giving updates on my own life such as my house moves and my new additions (kittens). I also plan to become a lot more personal over the next few months – shaping my blog into a diary entry of my own life. Something for my kids to read in the future!

How do you measure the success of your website? I tend to go by Google Analytics to measure success. I know not everyone will comment on a post and do not tend to get hung up on it if no one does. However, in the background I can see how many times someone has landed on a page of my blog just from a Google search.

What’s your favourite blog and why? I love Temporary Secretary. I’ve followed Sarah since I’ve started blogging and she’s the sweetest girl ever. Her posts are exceptionally well written and I love her personal style! We also share the same birthday and for the past couple of years she’s been so sweet to wish me a happy one year older!

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a blog? I think the biggest piece of advise I could give is don’t get wrapped into comparing yourself to other bloggers, each person writes differently and you need to let that show. There was a time where a product would be released and the whole of the blogosphere was writing posts on it – this made it seem like a robot community. Write about what interests you and don’t be afraid to write about something in case other people don’t like it! It’s your blog!

How do you work with marketers and PRs? There are many ways to work with marketing & PR people. Most of the time they contact me via email from landing on my site however sometimes you see the odd tweet or post looking for a blogger that can help them out and you just so happen to be that blogger!

Who do you work with in brand marketing? I work with PR companies mainly on product work – I work full-time so juggling blog life with real life has been a struggle. I look to work with more people in the future though and this is part of my whole branding plan for the blog!

Can you list five PR best practices for blogger outreach?

• Identify your market by looking for reviews online of the product/service
• Discover via social platforms where these bloggers are i.e. Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram
• Engage with them, talk to them reach out to them using hashtags such as #bloggerrequest #prrequest
• Comment on their blogs (engagement)
• Sign up to blogger outreach programs putting you in touch with bloggers that may meet your requirements

What has been your blogging highlight? I have a few but one of them was going on a blogger bootcamp with other bloggers and spending 3 days in intense training. It was tough but with a mix of different bloggers you got to learn from them but most importantly I am now in touch with these girls and consider them friends!

What will be big in your blogosphere in the coming months? Lots of home posts! Also planning to showcase my makeup artistry work more. I am also going to be creating YouTube videos more frequently!

Editorial information on  Shay Mason, What’s on the Blog? and thousands of other media/blogger contacts and outlets, can be found in the Cision Media Database.