Jeneane Sessum and Todd Defren both posted excellent quizzes for any pr or marketing agency that purports to be a social media or blogging expert.
I have your extra credit question.
This week has seen two rather interesting blogger relations mis-steps: the Fleishman Hillard "Marlo Thomas" pitch and the Vocus white paper "spam." Many people have posted about these two incidents; if you need to catch up start here, here and here.
In addition to all the other advice you can find, on this blog and elsewhere, a couple points bear repeating and are the subject of today’s extra credit question.
First, give something first. Don’t ask the blogger to write about you. Give him something he wants — information, trial product, access, whatever. No strings attached. That’s what makes it a GIFT. And try to do it with a minimum of "marketing speak." If you wouldn’t say it, don’t send it. Try it sometime. Read one of your email pitches out loud. After you get over how stupid it sounds, fix it.
Second, remember: with bloggers, you do have a window into their lives. Make sure you aren’t approaching them at an inappropriate time. Personal/life bloggers blog about their lives, so there is no excuse for not knowing. But even business bloggers give clues. Look for them and reach out appropriately.
Here’s the question: would you pitch me on something this week? Specifically tomorrow May 25th. What would you pitch to me and why?
Okay, it’s the holiday weekend, so I am going to give you the answer.
Unless you are the manufacturer of a hot convertible and want to give me a demo model to test drive for the next month or you can offer me a set visit to Battlestar Galactica, I would seriously advise you to steer clear. And the reason why is only one click away from this blog, on my new photo blog Snapshot Chronicles. I also twitted about it. In other words, the information about my craptastic day is pretty much public record.
I’ll make it even easier for you. Even though Marketing Roadmaps is a business blog, if you read it, even just once in a while, you’d probably know:
- I am married and have a 7 year old son Douglas.
- I breed and show Scottish Terriers.
- I am a huge science fiction and fantasy fan with a current obsession with Battlestar Galactica. You can introduce me to Jamie Bamber, Edward James Olmos, Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin or James Marsters? You can frak-ing fill my inbox with as much spam as you want.
- I am a lifelong Democrat.
- I am vocal supporter of equal rights and often write about gender issues.
- I occasionally do book reviews on the blog but I have never reviewed products.
- I hate, hate, hate getting press releases with no cover note. Really.
- I just launched a new blog called Snapshot Chronicles.
- Today pretty much sucked.
These are easy to find clues about me, all accessible from Marketing Roadmaps. And guess what? I am not alone. Every blogger — personal, business, even anonymous — leaves clues about her interests, affiliations, current activities on the blog. Even what happened on a particularly craptastic day.
It isn’t about pitching bloggers. It’s about getting to know them and providing the information that THEY want, not just the information that you want to share. As I wrote to a colleague earlier today, don’t think about what you want to say TO your customer. Instead, think like your customer.
And by the way, that set visit? I’m waiting patiently. Ron Moore? David Eick? Are you listening?
Tags: Battlestar Galactica, blogger relations, pr, public relations
Bob Bly says
Do you think it is really worth a marketer’s time to do all this background research just to get into a solo blog like yours or mine? I also think your rules of when to contact are artificial: if someone sends us something really great, we’ll read and blog on it, no matter when we get it. Timing is also subjective: YOU don’t want to be disturbed on a holiday weekend, but I am MORE responsive because I’m taking it easy for a few days and not, as I usually am, too busy to read 99.9999% of what people send me.
Mom101 says
I’m totally tempted to send you a press release from one of the republican candidates asking for donations in the name of Jerry Fallwell…
Susan Getgood says
Bob,
Thanks for the comment. I think that if people intend to reach out to bloggers, they should understand who they are trying to reach and what is the best way to engage with them. And reading the blog is table stakes. If you aren’t doing that, you are spamming.
My point wasn’t about reaching out to me. I was using myself as an example of another point, which is that you should use all the info at your disposal to ensure a positive engagement. Bloggers leave lots of clues about themselves even if it is a business blog. You should be paying attention to the clues.
In my case, the issue wasn’t Memorial Day weekend, it was the absolute crap day I had Thurs. It is just that sort of information that can make the difference.
And you are right — if it is really great, we’ll write about it. But, the chances of me actually reading a *press release* are vastly improved if there is a cover note that tells me why I should care. That’s pretty good practice for reaching out to journalists too 🙂
Don’t want to go to all the effort it takes to do blogger relations? There are lots of other ways to market your products. But don’t do blogger relations poorly. Better to not do at all.