Every once a while a tool comes around and you think, “I have to have that!” And you have to have it so much, you’re willing to pay for it (cough, see yesterday’s blog post, cough).
Well, that’s the case with BlogDash. Truth be told, I was first enticed by David Spinks. I like him a whole bunch and I was curious what he had up his sleeve. And, while I no longer do media or blogger relations, the beta was enough to keep my interest.
Now that they’ve launched, and now that they’ve listened to feedback from their beta testers, you have a tool available to help you in your targeted and relationship-based blogger outreach.
It’s not a list developer, like Cision, Burrelles, or Vocus. It’s a database that allows you to search based on preferences, influence, and topic. So, while it’s still important that you build relationships with bloggers and not mass pitch them with a one-size-fits-all news release, BlogDash gives you access to blogger preferences that make your life just a little bit easier.
The full profile features the blogger’s bio, location, social networks, blog posts, all the blogs they contribute to, blog stats, Twitter stats, and more. It also recommends other bloggers you should be targeting.
The company is funded by Scribnia, a blog network site, so the initial information found in there about bloggers came from that directory. It does include Twitter, Facebook, and Klout scores (because, I guess people care about that – I only care whether or not the blogger has influence for our client, not what their score is, but that’s a different topic for a different day), but not email address or phone number.
So I see two things that need to evolve: 1) Giving businesses all contact information and 2) Right now, as a blogger, you are required to enter your information, verify you own the blog (as seen by the little pencil at the bottom of this post) and provide a bunch of information about yourself.
If the second thing doesn’t become easier or happen automatically (maybe with an email to the blogger asking for verification?), the database won’t be complete and you’ll still have to combine it with your traditional media database.
That said, the starting price is only $99 and you get a seven day trial when you sign up, so it’s worth it to see what you think. I think you’ll like it and it will add great value as it evolves from this initial launch. It’s cheaper than the big boys and more up-to-date. Let’s hope it can stay that way!
