Posts Tagged ‘Social PR’
How to Pitch Bloggers
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009This post was originally published on the WebMarketCentral blog in July 2008.
Getting blog coverage for your product or service is now just as (if not more) important than getting written about in traditional media. Blogs are now mainstream, as almost 80% of Internet users report having read a blog within the last year. Blogs are also influential, trusted sources of information for buyers, particularly in the B2B space; the most recent ITtoolbox/PJA IT Social Media Index Wave II report updates earlier findings and concludes that “IT decision-maker and influencer audiences (now) spend more time consuming or participating in social media than they do consuming editorial media or vendor content.” Blog coverage helps increase awareness, build credibility for your brand, and helps with SEO.
Yet many PR people stumble badly when reaching out to bloggers, with blog outreach efforts a mix of good, bad and ugly. As previously noted here and elsewhere, making pitches both personal and relevant is the first step to getting a blogger to write about you. It’s also helpful to provide bloggers with useful assets such as images, video, audio and research findings (with original source links if it’s not your own material) that they can incorporate into posts.
But how do you get beyond the basics? What really motivates bloggers to write about whatever it is they write about?
It’s not about money—at least not primarily, for most bloggers. Therefore, outright bribery is a bad idea all the way around (that generally includes free products too, although there are a few exceptions to this rule, such as books).
Bribery is bad for you because you don’t want your company to become known as a firm that has to pay to get coverage. If your product is unique and interesting, it should be blogworthy in its own right.
It’s bad for bloggers. The vast majority of bloggers don’t want to ruin their credibility by accepting money to write positive reviews. And the minority who are willing to write pretty much anything they’re paid to write aren’t the ones you really want covering your product or service.
And it’s bad for readers. Blog readers want to be able to rely on bloggers for objectivity. Marketing brochures they can get from the vendor.
So what do bloggers want? While there are a wide variety of motivations for blogging, at some level with virtually every blogger it comes down to ego. Bloggers write to be respected and read. Respect is shown by practices such as personalizing communications and providing bloggers with access to key executives and internal experts.
Readership is an even bigger issue. Help bloggers increase their audience through writing about your product or service by linking to posts about your company:
- from your website (e.g. your online media room, “in the news” section or dedicated blog coverage page);
- in your company newsletter;
- in your own corporate blog (if applicable); and
- on any social networking sites where your company is active (e.g. Digg, Sphinn or Searchles).
In contrast to bribery, focusing on respect and readership creates a win-win situation. The blogger benefits from increased traffic; has a strong incentive to write a well-crafted piece (which is good for readers); and by helping increase traffic to that blog, you increase valuable third-party exposure for your own company.
PR and Blogger Outreach: Practical Tips
Monday, December 21st, 2009Note: this is the second of two guest-posts from PR guru-ess Cece Salomon-Lee on how Web 2.0 has changed the practice of PR. The first covered macro issues; this piece focuses on how PR professionals can best approach bloggers. This post was originally published on the WebMarketCentral blog in September 2007.
In my first post on PR and blogging, I had discussed the macro issues impacting the quality of outreach—both traditional media and blogging. I’ve been thinking about this topic over the past few weeks realized that good blogger relationships is one part doing your research, one part old school PR and one part transparency.
In some cases, bloggers will provide you with rules when contacting them. Some of these rules are included below, while others may be more specific to the blogger’s interest, for example, CK’s Rules for PR folks.
Based on these three components, here are 8 Tips about Blogging Outreach:
1. Bloggers are not journalists: One mistake is believing that bloggers are like journalists but they’re not. Bloggers write because they are passionate about the topic. Journalists write as a job and part of that job is receiving tons of emails and calls from folks like me. Most bloggers don’t come from the traditional reporter background so treating them as such can backfire.
2. Read the blog first: Don’t assume that you know the content of the blog by the title. READ the blog, understand the tone. Is it serious or sarcastic? Informative or rants?
3. Develop a relationship: Don’t pitch, get “coverage” and then leave. It’s like getting ready for a hot first date and being taken to a McDonald’s for dinner. When you start corresponding with the blogger, maintain the relationship.
4. Be Transparent: Whether you’re commenting on a blog or contacting a blogger, be transparent about who you are and what your intentions are. And after Edelman’s recent blog fiascos (no link needed, just search on Edelman, blog fiasco and you’ll get thousands of results) and Comcast’s recent astroturfing incident, I wouldn’t recommend ghostwriting a blog on behalf of a client. Check out Lifehacker’s tips for commenting on blogs.
5. Customize your emails: If you’ve paid attention to points 1 and 2, then you’ll know how to write customized emails that appeal to the blogger. Be succinct and provide something of value. If I have to explain this more, then you need to take PR 101 all over again.
6. Grammar and spelling do count: If you’re read the person’s blog, you should be able to identify the blogger’s gender and correct spelling of his/her name. And having good grammar just demonstrates you can write English well. Check out B.L. Ochman’s recent post on this topic.
7. Don’t disregard the smaller bloggers: Never disregard a smaller blogger. You never know who will read and link to a story that can gain a life of its own.
8. Read Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel: This book provides a great overview of the role that blogging now has, especially for businesses and customer conversations. At least read the the section about “Blogging Wrong & Right.”
Regarding point 4, I believe that PR’s role on blog comments is still in its infancy. Though I believe that blog comments should be from those who are working within the industry or are experts, I envision more PR folks stepping in, necessitating a different set of rules to follow.
In the end, Naked Conversations captures the essence of blogs well:
“One simple rule for doing it is be real. If you are going to blog, be authentic. Keep your conversations naked. Let people know who you are and where you are coming from.”
Note: Cece Salomon-Lee is the author of the PRMeetsMarketing blog.
PR and Blogger Outreach: Macro Issues
Sunday, December 20th, 2009Note: This post was originally published on the WebMarketCentral blog in August 2007, but has withstood the test of time very well. This was the first of two guest-posts from PR guru-ess Cece Salomon-Lee on how Web 2.0 has changed the practice of PR and how PR professionals can best take advantage of blogging and other social media.
When Tom asked me to contribute an article about PR and blogging outreach, I was both flattered and yet apprehensive at the same time. I mean, I admit it. I’ve been guilty of sending inappropriate pitches to reporters—and in the age of growing blogosphere influence and shrinking print staffs—bloggers as well.
But as I thought about this further, I realized that this is more than how to pitch bloggers versus traditional media. It goes to how today’s generation of PR practitioners are being trained—or maybe not trained—to communicate effectively with media, and by extension bloggers. It goes to the core skills of what being a GOOD PR person is or isn’t. And it may also be applicable to how PR agencies staff accounts.
I’ve had discussions with my colleagues about this over the years. In order to address how one should pitch a blogger, we first have to look at what is changing in our industry that may be impacting PR practitioners and in a round about way, answer the question of how to pitch a blogger. Note—I focus on agencies because the majority of PR is still done by agencies.
1) Multigenerational Workforce
I think that there is a huge generational gap happening right now. At no other time in our history have there been so many generations in the workforce: Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y/Millenials. Each generation has their own set of objectives, working styles and more. This is leading to a culture clash in many agencies where you have entrenched practitioners (typically Generation X or Baby Boomers) dealing with an influx of Gen Y and Millennials.
The next generation of practitioners come into the workplace expecting to be promoted every six months. They believe that they know everything without recognizing the value of senior counsel. And are oftentimes “arrogant” and don’t realize that they can’t do everything and should request help. Valley PR Blog put it well in a posting on “Feeding the ‘Burger King’ Generation”: They require lots of praise, are quick to judge, often take criticism too personally and, as an Internet-reared consumer culture, have to have things “their way.”
The issue isn’t “how we should be more accommodating” to this generation, but rather how does an organization recognize the multiple generations and work together to address them. Each generation must understand the pros and cons of each other to minimize these issues.
Otherwise, the industry may inadvertently be promoting individuals before they have the appropriate skills, which continues the cycle to the next generation.
2) Focus on Results, Not Quality
I consider myself “old-school” PR, receiving the majority of my training during the dot com boom and bust. During my “generation,” minor grammatical errors were scrutinized and higher ups weren’t afraid to rake you over the coals for mistakes. We were taught to thoroughly research reporter beats and magazines before pitching. I know, I know. It’s the still the case now, but I think there has been a shift in how this is done.
I think poor habits are being tolerated as long as the team can get the results. And in the fast, busy pace of an agency, people frankly don’t have the time to check everything that exits the doors. You get:
- Attention to detail is being replaced with just get the email out. Grammar and spelling be damn.
- If the reporter or magazine seems tangentially related, then don’t worry about taking time to research beats, past stories and magazine focus as long as you have the volume of pitches out there.
- Though results are still important, I believe that the “quality” of results is being sacrificed for quantity of numbers that may have some or none of your company’s messages.
3) Agency Structure Promotes Billings, Not Client Service
The quality is further exacerbated by how agencies staff accounts based on account size and billings. In order to remain profitable, each account person must fill all of their billable hours in a month. However, the way an agency staffs an account—minimally with a director, account manager and one junior member—oftentimes necessitates, in an ideal situation, a person be on 3-4 accounts in order to fill those hours. Honestly, this can balloon up to 5-6 accounts, if not more!
And in my experience, an account typically requires media relations (I’ll include blog relations in this for now), strategy, and than awards/speaking opportunities. Now multiply this by three or four different accounts, technologies, client expectations, managers, as well as new business—it’s very tough to keep the level of quality for all the accounts.
I personally advocate more focused teams (smaller) that spend a majority of their time on 2-3 accounts. I think we would see less stress, increased knowledge of a clients technology, and deeper relationships with media/bloggers who cover that company. Is this viable? I don’t know and would love to hear from PR practitioners out there.
I focused on the macro issues that impact how PR practitioners relate to bloggers. In a second posting, I’ll look at some tangible tips for approaching bloggers.
Note: Cece Salomon-Lee is the author of the PRMeetsMarketing blog. The thoughts expressed in this posting are not representative of ON24 and are the personal views of the author.
