Friday, July 16, 2004

Blogs Are Changing The Old PR Formula

I was reading an interesting post from B. L. Ochman today about how clueless PR folks are in their attempts to begin using blogs as part of mainstream PR campaigns.  Although the entire article was great, there were a few parts that really stuck out.  Here is an excerpt from his post.
 
Tips for effective PR pitching
Pitching to bloggers (or any journalist!) requires a short, smart, striking e-mail. Nobody wants to get a pitch that everyone and his dog has also received. And no journalist wants to be sold.
Keys to a great pitch include:

• Address the blogger by his/her name, or just say "hi." Never say "dear editor" or "dear sir/madam" (honest, I get pitches addressed that way.)
• Don't tell anyone they "must" or "should" write a story or book a guest. Instead, explain why the topic is of interest and why this person an expert worth knowing. Don't be cute.
• Reporters and bloggers all follow headlines. Explain how the idea or person you are pitching ties into a current news item or a trend.• Let the blogger know you've at least looked at the publication and see if you can find something to praise. For God's sake though, don't say "Loved your great post the other day" unless you read it and you mean it. People who look at dozens of releases and pitches a day can pick up on baloney faster than a hungry hound.
• Don't whine if you don't get coverage by saying you "can't believe" the blogger didn’t include, won't write about, haven't heard of XYZ company.
• Bloggers aim to provide a personal view of the news. They write in conversational style as an antidote to the canned news of traditional media. Why would you send a canned PR-speak pitch?
• Run your content through Bullfighter or similar software to be sure it is bullshit and jargon-free before you send it out.

Inhale > That's some good stuff man, whoa, kind of makes your head spin > exhale :0)
 

By Jason Dowdell at 04:59 PM | Comments (0)

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