Courting bloggers
Bloggers are not traditional media, so the last thing a PR person should do is create another column on a spreadsheet that includes in future email blasts.
I’ve been pondering this same issue while trying to help multiple clients reach their target bloggers. I do agree with Ben’s point of view since we know full well that bloggers (most of them anyway) are both journalist as well as consumers and their platforms are conversations instead of editorial.
Ben then takes it one step further to say that the value of PR is in the relationship you can have with the blogger. That’s fine too. We’ve been doing that with the media for ages and it definitely works for us. In fact, Hill & Knowlton Singapore just had our biggest media party ever last week!
Ben’s post kept my head nodding while I was reading it in a train ride home until I hit the last line which said:
Save your client some money: stop pitching bloggers you don’t know.
This terribly absolute statement stopped my head bobbing and made me smile. I know where he’s coming from, but as a former journalist and blogger, I’d like to add that bloggers, just like journalists, are not stupid. However “close” you are to them, they’re not buying a lemon from you. At the end of the day, content is still king and that’s the Purple Cow for us PR folks.
Say, if I had a the latest gadget from a client up for review, wouldn’t you tech bloggers whom I’ve never met approach me for a review unit?
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To clarify the point Ben was making (at least as far as I understand it) -
He’s not saying that you should only talk to people you know, rather he’s saying that before you start pitching, introduce yourself. It’s a courting ritual, really. And as we know from other courting ritual, asking someone on a date without first giving your name or providing any context for that request is just odd. Sometimes it takes days or weeks before it’s “right”, sometimes the conversations makes it such that it makes sense almost immediately. The second is far fewer, in my experience.
It’s like I used to tell my buddies: “Woo her first, then ask her out.”
Sure there are certainly times when someone might come to you, or you have some cool thing to give out. But in the courting model, would you just approach someone cute and, as your opener say: “Would you like to go to a hockey game with me? I have great seats!”
And of course Ben’s not saying to simply pitch crap as gold.
Thanks for stopping by my site!
Jake
communityguy.com
Hi guys - I’ve followed this conversation with interest, and feel I owe it to my friends in the blogging community to provide some clarity to my comment.
Without question newswires, PR agencies, PR practitioners and other communications professionals must recognize the differences - the very distinct difference between the purpose of blogs and traditional media. But, what I was trying to suggest, albeit, not as clearly as I would have liked in the edited version of my commentary placed in Mr. Van’s recent piece was this…despite the fact that one should’t just add a blogger to a ‘press list’, companies would be well-advised to understand that at the end of the day EVERY conversation, whether it is launched in a blog, or splashed across the headlines of your local newspaper begins with ‘people’, and that people respond better to people with whom they feel familiar and / or have a relationship.
My point? Rather than just assume that we have something ‘important’ to share with you, Mr. or Ms. blogger, and just thrust it upon you like we’ve seen so many do for so many years to traditional media; recognize that bloggers, social media, Web 2.0 and PR 2.0 (and any other buzz word, catch phrase, etc. you can articulate) is providing all of us in the business of spreading ‘news’ (good, bad or indifferent) to do it ‘better’ this time.
And, doing it better, in my humble opinion, is going back to the basics and realizing that behind every great conversation, clip or bit of coverage, there has to be a great person with whom you have at least ‘tried’ to create a meaningful two-way dialogue and relationship.
I hope this helps.
Thom
Thanks for the comments guys. It appears to me that we’re all aiming for the same goal just having different ways of getting there. Thanks for the clarifications on both parts of the issue. I guess at the end of the day we’re all looking for the science (method) behind blogger outreach when there possibly isn’t any ONE method. To be fair, I have seen bloggers treated like journalists and others who hate the “pitch”.
Sure there are certainly times when someone might come to you, or you have some cool thing to give out.