The biggest mistake a PR professional can make is insulting the gentle sensibilities of a blogger. Influential bloggers are the Buddhist monks of the online world. They live simple, serene, ascetic lives and can find even the slightest upset or break with their daily routine emotionally jarring.
There are many basic rules that can help you avoid the wrath of a blogger. Remember, hell hath no fury like a blogger scorned by the shock and pain of an imperfect e-mail.
First, craft your pitch carefully. NEVER WRITE A PITCH USING COMIC SANS. I cannot stress this enough. Here's what it would look like. Not a good thing:
It's also important to have a genuine relationship with the blogger. Like any relationship, this should be based on an understanding of the blogger's personal style and preferences. Many bloggers, for example, like luxury items, such as chocolates or fine timepieces. Let me offer a few suggestions here:
- Godiva chocolates = FAIL. Know your brands. Good chocolates are not sold at the supermarket. Sending the wrong kind of chocolates could result in a career death spiral that will leave you lucky to get a job as a Wal-Mart greeter
- If buying a watch, resist the temptation to have the watch engraved. It makes it difficult to resell on eBay. Again, know your brands. Patek Philippe.
- An iPod with no music on it is useless. Pre-load it with the blogger's favorite music.
You can also endear yourself by making the blogger's life easier. As a courtesy, always include in your pitch your latest information, such as street address, social security number, ABA routing number and any major surgeries you've had in the past 10 years to assist with the public humiliation process. This is called "anticipating the blogger's needs and staying one step ahead."
Here's a tip for recent grads. While you may have had an education, your certificate from the Sequoia Institute of Social Media may not have adequately prepared you for the communications environment you now find yourself in. Fortunately, many bloggers have now stepped up to offer reasonably priced seminars on how to pitch them. Some of these take as little as a half day of your time. Or think seriously about one of the week-long "pitch camps" bloggers are holding around the country as a way to round out your professional capabilities. The PR industry still places too much emphasis on understanding its clients and the industries they are in, newsworthiness, writing, and research, though fortunately, some are moving away from this outdated model.
Since the right pitch method varies so much from one blogger to another, you should pick up a specially modified Magic 8 Ball now being offered by the Public Relations Society of America, featuring answers to the question "how should I pitch this blogger?" such as "email," "Facebook," and "not at all."
Existing references, such as Roberts Rules of Order and Burke's Peerage, certainly apply to this complicated thing called blogger relations.
I was also very excited to learn of the launch of Outterz, a new social network where lame PR losers can out themselves in an open, collaborative community. The idea that social media can be used to solve problems created by social media is a time-tested strategy.
Ultimately, though, if you violate these simple principles, or you're just lame, no carefully crafted, definitive blog post on the topic, such as the one you are reading, can help you.
Tags: blogger relations, outing, PR people
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