How (not) to pitch a blogger
Friday, December 8th, 2006 - 7:03PM
I know a lot of PR firms have taken a while to accept bloggers and blogging as a new form of media, but few can deny that it’s now an essential part of spreading news, building buzz, and reaching clients, customers, and people in general. Believe it or not, I can pretty much boil blogger relations down to two words, which, incidentally, also could also serve as the blogger credo: be real. Here are a few friendly guidelines on how (not) to pitch your news to a blogger (but this increasingly also probably applies to any other kind of journalist), in order from first contact to maintaining a relationship:
- Introduce yourself - If we haven’t met, say hello! Most bloggers — myself included — are often pretty easy to get a hold of. Believe it or not, I’m a regular guy and I’m not out to destroy your company or your client. If you want to call my attention to something, drop me a line, say hi above the release you’re about to send; don’t worry, I won’t bite (unless you’re with the RIAA or MPAA — even then, probably not).
- Read the site - I’ll be honest, I can tell in about 30 seconds whether someone who calls reads or has read the site. Usually because they’re calling about something I couldn’t possibly care less about (a new e-holiday event invite service?). You don’t have to be an Engadget fan — I don’t even care if you think Engadget is any good — but save us both the time and trouble by doing a cursory amount of research.
- Email is good, IM is better - I didn’t mention phone. Why? Because I don’t really have a lot of time to take calls. I live in email and IM, not with my head attached to my mobile — which is why email is good, and if you’re someone I can trust, IM is better. (Side note: when my email address changes and I ask to not be emailed somewhere any more, please take note!)
- Please don’t call five minutes later - You’d think it goes without saying, but please don’t followup call five minutes after you email. Unless you want me not to look at your press release if I haven’t already, because that’s a pretty good way.
- Feel free to pass my contact info around - On Engadget, for example, we don’t publish our contact information on the page — we already get enough bad spam (as opposed to good PR spam), but we’re still easy to find or contact. So don’t worry about sending around our contact info to relevant coworkers and colleagues, but please…
- Don’t just add me to your lists - I’m happy to be on email lists — we all are. It’s a great way of getting information in real time. But don’t add me to your list willy nilly, especially if we’ve never had any kind of contact.
- Email from a live address - You’d think this goes without saying, but shockingly it does not! Don’t ever fire off a boilerplate PR email blast from a non-live address. And really don’t compound the problem by not including relevant contacts in the release. Man alive!
- Don’t “pitch” me - If you start an email with “story idea”, “story pitch”, “hot tip”, or something similar, I’m going to delete it before I even read it. You just told me I’m not smart enough to think up my own stories, and are standing by to tell me how you want it written. No, thanks.
- Remove me from your lists when I ask - I had to ask this PR guy Andy Marken to remove me from three of his Markencom PR email lists (none of which I signed up for) a grand total of nine times. Seriously, nine times. The likelihood of my ever writing about something he sends me is basically nil. Learn from Andy.
- Followups are ok, within reason - A followup a couple days later is cool, it’s possible perhaps I missed your first email. A followup a couple hours later is not cool. See also #4.
- Don’t ignore me when I say something you don’t like - It’s my job, and the job of any self-respecting (citizen-)journalist to be skeptical and brutally honest. Don’t take it personally when you or your client make a crappy product, and I say as much. Ignoring me later will only make things worse for both parties.
- Don’t ignore me because I didn’t write about your whatever - Seriously, we can’t write about everything in our scope (although we try!). You don’t have to stop communicating with me just because I didn’t write up your last widget, we still cool!
- My editorial is not for sale - Everybody has different editorial policies, but if you want to make sure I never, ever pay attention to you again, send an email asking for a writeup “in exchange” for a product or service. Sorry, I don’t want your product and I don’t want your junket. I do, however, want to have a real relationship with you.
- Don’t only get in touch when you need something - There’s nothing that drives me more crazy than a rep that refuses to give me the time of day — until they want something, or they aren’t happy with something I wrote. That’s not how you are with your friends and colleagues, is it?
Hopefully that didn’t come off too grouchy. If it did, see #11.
So, did I miss anything?
Nice list - I can add a couple more though -
1) Don’t assume you are the most important person in my life. Chances are that you are not.
2) Don’t get mad at me if I don’t like what you are pitching - I’ll never dis you or a product without offering constructive criticism - learn from it.
3) Sometimes I am just really, really busy - but that doesn’t mean I am ignoring you.
4) Please use my name - preferably my first name when you email me, or IM me. Act like you know who I am.
5) Improve on #4 above - actually spend a few minutes and get to know who I am - Google will help you with this.
But I like it Ryan - and I’m not even in your same field - but I do get people asking me similar questions about social networking issues - like this snippet from a recent email that really, really didn’t get my attention:
“Sir, MySpace can be beat, and we are proving it every day. We have a faster adoption per visitor rate than YouTube or MySpace…”
It goes on for another 700 words or so. I read about the first ten and unplugged. I’m human - engage me at that level, and do it VERY early in your communication!
Rob
Comment by Rob La Gesse — Friday, December 8, 2006 @ 8:09 pm
Ugh, I totally understand this list.
I was recently hassled by a supposed “friend” who works for a Microsoft affiliated PR firm about an XNA event in the UK in a few weeks.
Even though I truly appreciate being invited to such events, I think 12+ phone calls and 4 voicemails might be overdoing it a little.
Comment by Con — Friday, December 8, 2006 @ 9:31 pm
[...] Robert Scoble had this blog post in his shared feeds, on how not to pitch a blogger. [...]
Pingback by Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Pitching to a Blogger — Saturday, December 9, 2006 @ 11:10 am
Hey Ryan,
Think of it this way - I get to ping bloggers and I also get pitched because of my blog.
And, well, my blog is pretty specific that it’s on … PR and I still get the most random pitches.
So, add to that that I get to explain outreach (because I don’t believe in pitching) and it’s a whole fun bag of worms.
Plus, I took it another level - I emailed the head of an agency whose people were spamming me. That got me off the list pretty fast.
Cheers.
Comment by Jeremy Pepper — Saturday, December 9, 2006 @ 8:06 pm
15. don’t write your emails in formatted text that is 30pt and bright purple. when you copy text in a reply email, cut out the irrelevant stuff and reply to each point directly underneath the relevant quoted material.
16. if i have to go, i have to go, don’t take it personally if i haven’t said goodbye and have a pleasant day at the end of a chat session.
17. i’m human, don’t expect me to be chipper about tech every single day of the year.
Comment by fbz — Saturday, December 9, 2006 @ 8:48 pm
[...] Bingo! Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
Pingback by Sample the Web — How (not) to pitch a blogger — Sunday, December 10, 2006 @ 10:18 pm
[...] How (not) to pitch a blogger » Ryan Block PR people, take note (tags: pr pitching bloggers citizenjournalism) Tags: No Tags [...]
Pingback by links for 2006-12-12 | pollas.dk [permanent meta] » Blog Archive — Tuesday, December 12, 2006 @ 1:26 am
Ran across this post while taking a break from the mounds of PR email I’m shifting through to get to the relevant information to post something about on my blog.
Excellent list with two tweaks for me personally:
Since I’m busy I really don’t mind when people contact me only when they want something (so I’d delete #14). Other than that, I’d add “send me information relevant to MY blog - customize your email blast lists to cover different categories. Just because your PR firm has sent email to me in the past about a product in a certain category does not mean I want to receive EVERY email blast your firm sends out for different industries!”
Comment by Doug Felteau — Thursday, December 21, 2006 @ 10:08 am
LOL, methinks Andy Marken is gonna have to do some PR about himself now… like it :-)
Comment by Guy — Wednesday, December 27, 2006 @ 9:02 pm
[...] lesson in how not to pitch. I just got possibly the worst, most vulgar, tactless PR email literally ever from a guy named [...]
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not sure why you’re so down on the Apple/ EMI no DRM announcement. seems like you guys should be loving this, it’s exactly what you’ve been asking for forever. best> JL
Comment by Jeff Lorber — Monday, April 9, 2007 @ 10:11 pm
[...] (For reference, this is the same problem faced by editors of publications large and small. Personally, I’ve dealt with it for years usually by ignoring / deleting, replying with a template, or, for the more persistent ones, telling them only to call / email back when they actually grok Engadget and have something relevant to our coverage. Ask around, I’m not shy about doing this. I even wrote a post about it.) [...]
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