PR

Auld lang syne

January 1, 2009 by Susan Getgood

Over the past month, there were three interesting brouhahas in the social media blogosphere. While I didn’t write about them at the time, I did tweet and comment here and there. I decided to bring them back for today’s post, for old times sake, because each one has implications for topics that I plan to cover in the coming year.

First, in early December there was a massive twitter-storm about a sponsored post social media consultant Chris Brogan wrote on his Dad-o-matic blog. Long story short, his post was part of an Izea campaign for Kmart, Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang posed some legitimate questions about sponsored posts , and a Twitter storm erupted.

I was mostly offline that weekend, but the general gist was that many questioned Chris’s integrity for writing a sponsored post, arguing that it compromised his objectivity and ethics.

When I came back online at the end of the weekend and saw the fallout, including more than a few posts discussing Chris’s actions, including his, all I could say was “huh?” I had seen the post some time earlier on Dad-o-matic and really didn’t think much of it.

While I have my concerns about the paid post model, particularly in its earliest forms which did not require disclosure, Chris was very clear that this was a sponsored post, the content was appropriate for Dad-o-matic, and there was a charity angle. No biggie, and I had a hard time imagining how participating in this Izea campaign could compromise Chris’s ethics or expertise. As I tweeted, folks should be less judgmental, and perhaps look to their own glass house.

Twits indeed.

There’s no question that the Izea model is an improvement over predecessor Pay Per Post. But… I still have a few concerns. Here are some topics that I plan to explore in the coming year.

The model seems much closer to mass market advertising than it does to blogger relations. Will big companies take this expedient route, thinking it a shortcut to robust relationships with their customers online?
Some sponsored campaigns are starting to have a cookie-cutter feel. Variations on theme of the blogger shopping spree or giveaway product, and contests for the blog’s readers. There’s nothing wrong with any of these approaches. I recommend them to clients. But, without a specific creative angle that reinforces branding, when do they all start to blur?
Is the sponsored post model really just for big companies with big budgets? And big bloggers with big audiences? What happened to the long tail and niche markets? Something for everyone? How do smaller companies compete? Ditto, niche bloggers with smaller but loyal audiences.

Topic Two: Embargoes.

The most recent salvo comes from Michael Arrington at TechCrunch who announced mid-month with his usual fanfare that TechCrunch would no longer honor embargoes.

“PR firms are out of control. Today we are taking a radical step towards fighting the chaos. From this point on we will break every embargo we agree to.”

I don’t think anyone was particularly surprised; Arrington’s anti-PR polemic has grown increasingly strident over the years, sometimes for good cause, sometimes not so much. This post was just the latest in a long line.

It is also more than a warning shot that he’ll break the embargo. Read between the lines – Arrington wants to break the tech news, and unless you give him an exclusive, he’s increasingly likely to NOT cover your news.

What does this have to do with blogs? You can’t really generalize the typical blogger’s reaction to an embargo request from Arrington. TechCrunch isn’t a blog; it’s a tech publication that uses the blog form. It’s competing with c|net, CNN, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and so on. Companies have to decide if TechCrunch is the most important outlet for their news. If so, giving Arrington the exclusive — a real exclusive — may make sense. If not, TechCrunch gets the news when it hits the wire, and you may not get any coverage there at all. That’s your call.

Will bloggers honor embargoes? I believe they will, if approached with respect. Will they honor an embargo that is noted on the top of a mass emailed press release? Unlikely. A journalist wouldn’t either.

In the coming year, we’ll talk about some of the positive ways companies can include bloggers in their confidential plans. In some ways it is far easier than with journalists. Remember, bloggers are your customers too. They like to be involved with your products at an early stage, and will keep your confidence.

Topic Three. Regular readers know how much I love lists and rankings. Not.

On more than one occasion, I’ve discussed the flaws in these rankings on Marketing Roadmaps, and I follow my friend Ike Pigott’s periodic exposes on how to game the systems with delight.

Erin Kotecki Vest, known to many as the Queen of Spain, raised the topic again last month. Her complaint started with the recent rise of Twitter ranking mechanisms, but the comments quickly expanded to embrace the issue in total. And particularly how these faulty constructs often are used to imply legitimacy, expertise and influence.

That’s what we’ll look at in the coming year. How do you determine a blog’s influence? Or a blogger’s expertise? The ranking systems, flawed as they are, impart some information, but we need to look much much farther than that. Most Internet ranking systems can be gamed and use flawed inputs. Business decisions should not be made on the basis of a popularity contest.

As Groucho Marx once said:

“I sent the club a wire stating, PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION. I DON’T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT ME AS A MEMBER.”

Finally, please check out Toby Bloomberg’s 2006/2009 retrospective post. Going into 2006, she asked a number of social media bloggers about their wishes for the coming year. She reached out to us all again this year, and it is very interesting to see how things have changed. And yet not.

I’ll leave you with a bagpipe group’s rendition of Auld Lang Syne and Amazing Grace.

Happy New Year!

Revisiting the 3Rs of Blogger Relations, Part 1: Respect

November 2, 2008 by Susan Getgood

Quite some time ago, my friend David Wescott wrote a post outlining the 3R’s of blogger relations: Respect, Relationship and Relevance, a framework quite similar to my own approach both at the time and still.

Not at all surprising, since a shared conviction about how to engage with bloggers was how we met in the first place.

Since I am more or less relaunching Marketing Roadmaps at this new URL, I thought it would be a good time to revisit these core concepts.

Let’s start with Respect.

What made David’s post so good was the introduction of the word Respect. Most of the thinkers in the space (myself included) had been talking about Relationship and Relevance as well as the ideas he categorized as Respect. But his post was the first time, to my knowledge, that anyone applied the actual word.

And it is such a perfect word to describe the attitude with which you, the pitcher, should approach the blogger, the pitchee. Yes I know that is not a word. Sue me.

With respect. For his time. For the passions that fuel her blog. For the person. For the blog.

Here are some of the things that demonstrate lack of respect for the blogger that have crossed my desk in the last few months, either directly or forwarded from friends.

Messy emails, with multiple fonts, addressed to Dear Blogger, Name not available or some such. Probably forwarded more than once,
No actual signature, just a boiler plate email signature. Even worse – an email sent from one account but signed by another person. Really has that personal touch, you know.
Pitches to review books that want the blogger to flog the book or interview the author but don’t offer a review copy. Why on earth would anyone do that?
Repeated follow-ups, often through multiple channels. One is acceptable. After that you are stalking. Back off.
Refusing to provide review product after sending a pitch. Hullo — you got a hit. Assuming you targeted properly (yeah I know, big assumption), you should PLAN on sending review product. Offering a jpeg? Not good enough.
Pretense. Here’s a recent example. Sara from Suburban Oblivion relates a pitch she received from a product geared to preteen girls. She was somewhat interested and requested review product. The company refused, and not in the most elegant fashion. Bad enough, really, but when Sara blogged the story, someone related to the company left an unattributed positive comment on the blog. Read the denoument on Suburban Oblivion. Remember — pretend is a great game for children, and even has its place in our adult lives, but it is not an appropriate blogger relations tactic.
Invitations to events the blogger couldn’t possible attend. Even worse, press releases about PAST events to which you did not invite the blogger at all.

If you are going to reach out to bloggers, you must develop a very healthy respect for the the fact that most bloggers have no intrinsic reason to be interested in what you have to say. They may indeed be your customers and interested in your product, but it is not their job to promote your product. That’s your job. If you want their help, you have got to put it in a context that is important to them. That’s the concept of Relevance, which we’ll review later this week

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In a special hell all its own is the absolutely awful pitch that made the rounds last week following the family tragedy of actress Jennifer Hudson. I won’t link to it here, but here are some commentaries from Twitter pals Katja Presnal, David Parmet and Kevin Dugan.

I wish this was the first time in my life I had seen such a piss poor PR reaction to a tragedy, but it isn’t. People are blinded by the perceived relevance of their product and lose all perspective about the personal nature of tragedies. It’s stupid, tasteless, disrespectful and shows a total lack of common sense. And happens all the time. It’s also easy to avoid. When the temptation strikes to capitalize on tragedy, and it well may, just say no. There is absolutely no way your product is SO RELEVANT that it merits the disgraceful behavior of capitalizing on another person’s tragedy. Full stop.

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Finally, all practicing PR people should read BL Ochman’s post PR Industry Leaders Put Their Feet in Their Mouths at Critical Issues Forum and ask themselves, is this me? Am I doing better or perpetuating the problem? What can I do better?

One of the things we can most definitely do better is to improve the relevancy of our pitches, and not just to bloggers. To journalists too. More on that later this week.

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UPDATE, 11/3: This post hadn’t been up a day before a friend, a Massachusetts mom blogger whose home page clearly states her name and state, tweeted about the pitch below. Unfortunately, I couldn’t ask for a better example of the importance of respect for the blogger, especially since the event is for a good cause which is also tarnished by the bad pitch.

Link Exchange Requests are NOT Blogger Relations

September 6, 2008 by Susan Getgood

I’m working on a longer bad pitch post that will cover some recent faux pas perpetrated on bloggers by marketing and PR professionals in the guise of blogger relations. In combing through my pitch file, I found some link exchange requests, which reminded me to tell you about the "special place in hell" reserved for those that send link exchange spam. [An HP Photo Book for the first reader who correctly identifies the special place reference. Mum, you can’t enter.]

Link exchange requests are spam. Full stop. They are sometimes sent by newbies who don’t know better but most often by spammers who just don’t care.

Note the time sent: a sure sign of a mass email program. This one is probably a porn site.

Spelling errors, highlighted in both. Another sign of the spammer. No relevance to my blog other than I mentioned a trip to California.

When you are cataloging the list of PR agency sins, don’t tag them with this one. While there are always exceptions to any "rule," link exchange requests are rarely used by reputable agencies with any online experience — even those that send crappy blog pitches to <insert name here> with multiple jpeg attachments.

What should you do when you get a link exchange request?

If you sense it is from a newbie who just doesn’t know any better, send them a brief email. Tell them that you add people and sites to your blogroll that you find interesting or valuable to your readers, but you do not do link exchanges. If you sell advertising, by all means offer it up as an alternative. If the blog or site is on target to your interests, perhaps offer to check it out but make no promises. Give them the link to this post if you think it will help. If it really was a mistake on the sender’s part, they should appreciate the kindly meant advice.

Spammers? Block the sender in your spam filter and delete the email.

And think about that special place in hell just for them.

Tags: link exchange request, spam, PR, blogger relations

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PS — The reference to my mom is a clue for anyone who has heard me speak recently, as I often use an anecdote about her as an example. And did you know, faux pas is a pun in French. Literally it means "false step" but it also rhymes with "faut pas," as in "il ne faut pas," which translates roughly to "one must not."

The secret sauce for the perfect pitch

August 13, 2008 by Susan Getgood

First things first. No matter what we’d like to believe, there is no such thing as the perfect pitch. One person’s spam is often another person’s breakfast.

Here are my ingredients for the secret sauce of a nearly perfect pitch to a blogger.

Relevance

Relevance is a key ingredient. Without it, it is highly unlikely that you will get even a nibble from a blogger. Do your homework. Make sure that your product or service and pitch match the blogger’s interests. And please don’t assume that the blogger will connect the dots and understand that your pitch is relevant. Tell her why you sent her the pitch, why you thought it was relevant. Otherwise, a blogger just might assume that you got lucky, not that you were smart.

Respect

Don’t patronize. Nothing irritates more than the arrogance that you, the company, are doing the blogger a favor by telling them (and 1000 of their closest friends) about your "thing." Certainly tell the blogger why YOU are excited about whatever it is, but don’t suggest that they will be as well. Or that their "readers will love it". That’s for the blogger to decide, and that phrase, more than any other, will consign your pitch to the trash heap.

Don’t ask the blogger to write. If the pitch was good, you don’t have to ask. There are a few exceptions of course, mostly related to charities and fundraising where you will be forgiven for asking folks to spread the word. But truly, you are much better off if you focus on developing a program or offer that the bloggers will want to share with their friends. Also known as the readers of their blogs.

Brevity & Clarity

Get to the point. Quickly. Tell the blogger who you are, why you are writing and why you thought this pitch was relevant. One to two paragraphs at most. Bloggers don’t want a laundry list of features or a lot of marketing-speak and PR puffery. They may be reading your pitch on a mobile device or even a dial-up line, so ditch the attachments. Instead, tell them the WIIFM.

What’s in it for me? Answering that question for the blogger is what makes a nearly perfect pitch.

Value

Your pitch or program should add value. Otherwise, you should advertise.

What does adding value mean? A personal blogger writes about things he is interested in, generally from the perspective of how they impact him. He’s telling his story, and you need to give him a good reason to include your story in his. That means putting your product or service into his context, not talking at him from yours with a press release, list of features or carefully crafted message point. Here are some ways to do this.

Provide access to exclusive information. But make sure it is access that the blogger actually wants. Few bloggers will want an "exciting interview" with your marketing VP. Sorry. But if your brand uses a celebrity spokesperson, some might be interested in an interview or even a meet and greet if there is an appropriate venue. Others might love access to your product managers, a factory tour or an invitation to participate in an advisory board.

Offer evaluation products or samples. Pre-release or beta is okay, just be clear on what you are sending and whether you want direct feedback, to improve the product, or are simply sending it so they have a chance to try it out. Remember, bloggers don’t need it to be new, although they do like to be clued in on the new things. Who doesn’t? What bloggers really need is for your pitch to be relevant to their interests. This is a golden opportunity for companies who are able to make their products "new to you" with relevant stories. Word of warning: Do not expect to get the products back. If your budget cannot support sending evaluation product to every blogger you pitch, cut your list back to a number that it can support. If your product is a high priced item, such as a computer or a car, consider ways to offer trial through loaner programs and events. Both Ford and GM have used these tactics very successfully recently to get folks into their vehicles. Computer companies have long sponsored the Internet cafes and email stations at industry conferences for the same reason. [BTW, if you are a computer company, I came up with an idea for you while writing this post. Call me.]

Offer products to the blogger that she can give away to her readers. Many personal bloggers use ads to offset the cost of their blogs; giveaways and contests attract readers, which in turn can increase advertising revenues. It’s such a simple way for a company to add value for the blogger while achieving its own goals of promoting the product.

Events and junkets. While I often worry that we put too much focus on events and trips, they are a good way to expose bloggers to your products and most importantly, your people. Important: while every blogger relations effort should be considered, and measured, in the context of your marketing and communications strategy, this is particularly critical when it comes to events and junkets. No matter what your budget for the event, no matter how big or small your company, your event is going to consume a lot of resources, both hard dollars and soft costs. You have to have a clear objective and a way to measure it going in, or you will be wasting money. No matter how much the bloggers loved the event. You should also look into sponsoring events or conferences that already attract the blogging population you want to reach. Consider sponsoring the attendance of a few bloggers who might otherwise not be able to afford a key industry conference. But don’t make hollow offers. Make it meaningful; a free registration isn’t much use if the blogger can’t afford the plane fare.

Support the charities and causes the community cares about. Many companies do this already in "meatspace." Think about how you can extend your support into your online and social media efforts. But beware of token support or the appearance of carpet bagging. Charitable involvement must be organic to your business or your product; don’t just jump on the latest bandwagon, throw a few dollars at something and expect to reap the rewards of your largesse. Folks can spot a faker. Just look at all the firms that have tried to "go green" with superficial efforts and have ended up more red-faced than anything.

Put the blogger at the center, not your product. Feature them on your site. Invite them to be part of an advisory council or product focus group. Actively solicit their opinions and feedback on new products. We did this with the Photographic Memories project during the HP Photo Books launch. A central element of the program was interviews on hp.com with moms about the role of photography in their lives. No question, there was a connection — if photographs are important in our lives, what better way to share them than a Photo Book — but that was not the focus of the interviews.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll take some good pitches and dissect them for the value element. I’ll also share a bad pitch that could have been so much better if the company had just focused on adding value for the bloggers, not just pushing their products.

Tags: blogger relations, public relations, PR