"A stranger is a friend you haven’t met yet." — Irish proverb
Blogger relations has been a hot topic in the PR/marketing blogosphere over the past few days, starting with a post by customer marketing evangelist Ben McConnell that advised companies to stick with the folks, the customers, they already know rather than to reach out to bloggers they don’t know. Ouch. I definitely agree with Shel Holtz and Chip Griffin, both of whom disagreed with this notion.
Certainly, we should pay tremendous attention to our customer, and nurture that relationship, whether she has a blog or not. And absolutely, many companies have made an absolute hash of blogger relations. More on that in a minute.
But I cannot think of anything more valuable than making a new friend. Of introducing something of interest to a blogger, who is this strange meld of influencer and participant that makes for unique, and valuable, engagement.
You have to do it right, as Elise Bauer, Michelle Madhok and I discussed at our recent panel at BlogHer: read the blogs, understand what the bloggers are interested in, ask permission, give the bloggers something unique or exclusive, let them know they are important, don’t send press releases. And so on. Read our Do’s and Don’ts here. {Note: McConnell subsequently updated his post, which brought his position pretty much in-line with the rest of us, that establishing a relationship before "pitching" was the key.}
When companies do it right, they can make new friends. Some good blogger relations campaigns: GreenStone Media’s outreach in September 06 with Gloria Steinem, and the current Nikon DS80 campaign.
And when they don’t, it’s ugly. Microsoft’s Vista launch comes to mind. Ben McConnell and B.L. Ochman share some other examples.
When they don’t, they give everyone a bad name.
Somehow, somewhen, I ended up on a LIST. I think it is a list from Vocus, but haven’t confirmed that with them. And being on the list isn’t the problem per se. It’s the blog spam I’ve been getting. And I’m not even in the top marketing/PR blogs.
- Mass mailed pitches
- Press releases without pitches or cover notes of any kind. With buttons that lead me to… email links. Sometimes 3-4 in one day. From the same company. That never bothered to ascertain my interest. Umm?
- Regular updates from a NY PR agency on their client’s activities, when I’ve never been asked if I was interested or even blogged about the client. And the kicker, when I extended the courtesy of emailing to ask how and why I was in their database, no reply.
- Pitches about products, even though I rarely write about products. Web 2.0 services and silliness, yes, but I don’t review products. Perhaps the occasional book, but that’s pretty much it.
- Pitches telling me so and so is available to interview. I don’t do many interviews, although if I can get my podcast going, I’d do more. But see previous point, I rarely do product stuff.
Now, it is pretty clear that none of the senders of the above crap actually read this blog, or they wouldn’t have sent me the garbage they did. They’d know that I have high standards for the practice of blogger relations, which their "pitches" just don’t meet.
I am tired of getting this stuff, and tired of these poor practices giving those who practice ethical blogger relations a bad name.
But, I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Which is why I haven’t named any names…yet.
However, starting May 1st, when I’ve been spammed three times by the same person, I plan to write about it. Naming names.
Fair warning, I think.
UPDATE: Going through my notes, I found one more comment I wanted to link to — Tom Murphy. Fitting I think, that I open the post with an Irish proverb and end with an Irish blogger.
Tags: blogger relations, ethics, public relations, PR
Mom101 says
Ooh, I love your three strikes idea.
I recently got the single most awesome pr spam in it’s sheer cluelessness – to promote a book by some evangelical minister about talking to our kids about Jesus.
1. I’m Jewish.
2. Um, no. Never.
I just may have to write about it – would that be unfair with only one strike?
Great post, Susan. I’m with you all the way.
Ben McConnell says
Thanks for your comments about my post which, I fear, was a bit too oblique.
My point was to implore PR people to stop introducing themselves to bloggers via a pitch. Spam, no?
But as I clarified with an update, there’s no reason why PR people can’t introduce themselves to a blogger and gain their permission to begin a relationship.
Susan Getgood says
Mom 101 — Not unfair at all. You’ve mentioned more than once in the past few weeks alone (re: the baby name debate) that you are Jewish, so there is absolutely no excuse for sending you this pitch. Can’t wait to read the post!
Ben — I did mention the update, which I saw after most of this post had been written. I was already planning the post, so was quite glad to see an ongoing conversation where it fit so nicely. As to introducing yourself with the pitch, I think it depends on how well you’ve done your research. If “it” is something that the bloggers will really love, I don’t see a problem with it. But it has to be really focused; if your blogger a-list has more than 15-20 bloggers on it, you haven’t narrowed enough.
Ether Breather says
Dont Spam the Blogosphere
Susan Getgood has recently written about the importance of cultivating actual relationships with bloggers. The post contains a link to some notes she has written up about Dos and Donts with regard to pitching bloggers, which is a great …
Kye Strance says
Susan,
I could not agree with you more on the importance of creating relationships with bloggers, and avoiding the mass e-mail approach. As a product manager with Vocus, I can assure you that we take all measures possible to educate our clients and customers on the importance of doing their homework before approaching a blogger. More importantly, we take all efforts to communicate the need to avoid spamming bloggers or journalists.
When customers first sign up for Vocus, they work directly with a consultant who coaches them on how to use our software. Our consultants’ goal is to convey the message that our tool is for relationship-building and outreach and not a spamming device. In fact, our latest release includes an opt-out feature at the bottom of every e-mail so that journalists and bloggers who feel that they are getting spammed can instantly remove themselves from future correspondences with that company.
With that said, I would like to ask your permission to post your entry (attributed of course) in our community forum. It would be extremely beneficial for our customer and clients to learn more about PR best practices from industry experts and entries like yours’ can really help hammer the point home.
We are also hosting a Vocus Users Conference in Washington, DC on June 7th and 8th and would like to invite you to discuss the very topics you are outlining in your entry. If the conference is something you are unable to attend or in addition to, we would like to invite you also to conduct a webinar on this topic as we host monthly webinars on various topics and have an audience of 200-500 people.
Best,
Kye Strance
Product Manager
Vocus
Tanya says
Hi Susan,
Thanks for the reminder of one of my favorite quotes: “A stranger is a friend you haven’t met yet.” — It’s so true, as long as you do the outreach right.
I wanted to thank you for the links to GreenStone Media, and let you know that we’ve just rolled out a brand new community blog there (along with a new website).
Thanks for a well-thought-out post. And, I agree wholeheartedly with you. If you are considering approaching a blogger for a viral campaign, at least do your homework first!
Great blog — I’ll be back!