Originally Posted by
freeloader
Overall, i was suprised that any blogger would go talk to the credit card companies. Seriously, there is no gain for the "readers" when this happens.
Credit card companies are no different than any other company and they all have PR and social media outreach programs.
Hotels, airlines, car manufacturers, they all reach out to these groups.
As a journalist, I get invited to a lot of car launches but I'm fairly picky about which ones I ultimately attend to ensure they are relevant to readers of Frequent Business Traveler and The Diesel Driver magazines. We also get invited to a variety of other meetings, briefings, and fam trips.
On the social media side, this past week, Ford invited almost 400 bloggers and a handful of journalists to become more familiar with Ford's future plans covering vehicle technology, the environment, and social issues. Ford had Bill Ford and Alan Mulally present at various times both speaking and mingling.
Therefore, I'm not surprised that credit card companies do host bloggers. I also don't see anything terribly wrong in such outreach.