Jeff Pulver on How To Pitch a Blogger
Okay so, maybe it's more about How to Pitch Jeff Pulver, but it's definitely good advice for all you PR pros looking to reach out and connect with certain bloggers. I've talked about this in earlier posts, but it's important you as a PR pro, and we as an industry use ethics in social media relations. There are far better ways to contact potential writers, editors and bloggers than always spamming your headline through a distribution service. Here's my earlier post on this, and here's Jeff's advice:
How to Pitch a Blogger (or at least How to Pitch Jeff Pulver in 2008)
I enjoy hearing from my friends about new products and services that excite them. This is one of the ways I discover new things. But solicitations from PR professionals who are total strangers to me generally come across like spam.
When I’m on the receiving end of an email pitch from a stranger, this is generally a result of someone working for a PR agency who was given an assignment to contact “the blogosphere” about their client’s products and services. Most likely the person choose the “pray and spray” method for their default communication which resulted in doing a mass email to a bunch of bloggers. Depending upon what kind of day I’m having, my reaction to this kind of solicitation will vary but rarely does it result in me taking a look at what was being pitched to me.
To my (future) friends involved in the PR industry, the next time you see my name on a list of bloggers to pitch your client’s product or service, please consider the following.
“Get to know your target (me)”
- Read my Bio. Get a feeling of what I’m about.
- Read my Blog posts. Try to get to know me.
- Join in the conversations on my blog.
- Follow me on twitter<. - Make the effort to reply to one of my “Good Morning” messages.
- Follow me on Friend Feed. Comment and establish yourself.
- Friend me on Facebook and say somethng.
- Email me and introduce yourself. Ask questions.
By engaging in the above, you are sending me a meta message. That you care enough about what you are doing to make the effort to get to know Me. That to you, I am not just a name on a call sheet but someone who you want to build a relationship with. And this in turn will result in the establishment of a new node in our social networks.
“Friends are invited to come in the front door”
Once you establish a relationship with me, you are encouraged to pitch me again in the future. And as you get to know the kinds of things I find most interesting, you might share with me something you discovered that is outside of the work you are doing. And sometimes a real friendship is born because of this.
“Bloggers are People Too”
Investing the time getting to know the bloggers who are in the space you are covering will prove to be a worthwhile investment over time. Take the time and make the effort to get to know us and some of us will be there when you need some help getting the word out about a shiny new product or service.
“The Virtual Cocktail Party”
The next time you decide to solicit a blogger with the pitch of a client, imagine we are both meeting at a cocktail party. Imagine I don’t know you and we are meeting for the first time. What is the first thing you would say to me? I don’t think it would be the same words that you would have otherwise used when doing your “pray and spray” email solicitations about your client’s shiny new product or service. No, I think you would first introduce yourself and look for something in common between us. And then only if you were feeling comfortable would you try to pitch me on behalf of your client.
“PR is Not an Industry for Lazy People”
After looking at the suggested road map to approach Jeff Pulver, a PR professional might feel that it is not worth the effort to get to know me if my name is one on a list of 150 others. The lazy PR professional might just continue with making the minimal effort to establish relationships and promote their clients with spam emails. But the engaged PR professional might take my list as a starting point and add to it and create a methodology that works for them which can be shared with others in their firm.
In life there are few times we can be success and lazy at the same time. Successful PR is not a lazy person’s sport. Real energy and real efforts needs to be done on a continual basis to grow your network, grow your relationships and to stay on top of your game.
If you are a PR professional and we are not already friends, please feel free to introduce yourself and connect with me one on or more of my social networks.
I would also appreciate hearing from other bloggers on how they approach “the solicitation” and insights they could share on ways to make the experience better for everyone in our ecosystem.
Read Jeff's original post on his blog.
How to Pitch a Blogger (or at least How to Pitch Jeff Pulver in 2008)
I enjoy hearing from my friends about new products and services that excite them. This is one of the ways I discover new things. But solicitations from PR professionals who are total strangers to me generally come across like spam.
When I’m on the receiving end of an email pitch from a stranger, this is generally a result of someone working for a PR agency who was given an assignment to contact “the blogosphere” about their client’s products and services. Most likely the person choose the “pray and spray” method for their default communication which resulted in doing a mass email to a bunch of bloggers. Depending upon what kind of day I’m having, my reaction to this kind of solicitation will vary but rarely does it result in me taking a look at what was being pitched to me.
To my (future) friends involved in the PR industry, the next time you see my name on a list of bloggers to pitch your client’s product or service, please consider the following.
“Get to know your target (me)”
- Read my Bio. Get a feeling of what I’m about.
- Read my Blog posts. Try to get to know me.
- Join in the conversations on my blog.
- Follow me on twitter<. - Make the effort to reply to one of my “Good Morning” messages.
- Follow me on Friend Feed. Comment and establish yourself.
- Friend me on Facebook and say somethng.
- Email me and introduce yourself. Ask questions.
By engaging in the above, you are sending me a meta message. That you care enough about what you are doing to make the effort to get to know Me. That to you, I am not just a name on a call sheet but someone who you want to build a relationship with. And this in turn will result in the establishment of a new node in our social networks.
“Friends are invited to come in the front door”
Once you establish a relationship with me, you are encouraged to pitch me again in the future. And as you get to know the kinds of things I find most interesting, you might share with me something you discovered that is outside of the work you are doing. And sometimes a real friendship is born because of this.
“Bloggers are People Too”
Investing the time getting to know the bloggers who are in the space you are covering will prove to be a worthwhile investment over time. Take the time and make the effort to get to know us and some of us will be there when you need some help getting the word out about a shiny new product or service.
“The Virtual Cocktail Party”
The next time you decide to solicit a blogger with the pitch of a client, imagine we are both meeting at a cocktail party. Imagine I don’t know you and we are meeting for the first time. What is the first thing you would say to me? I don’t think it would be the same words that you would have otherwise used when doing your “pray and spray” email solicitations about your client’s shiny new product or service. No, I think you would first introduce yourself and look for something in common between us. And then only if you were feeling comfortable would you try to pitch me on behalf of your client.
“PR is Not an Industry for Lazy People”
After looking at the suggested road map to approach Jeff Pulver, a PR professional might feel that it is not worth the effort to get to know me if my name is one on a list of 150 others. The lazy PR professional might just continue with making the minimal effort to establish relationships and promote their clients with spam emails. But the engaged PR professional might take my list as a starting point and add to it and create a methodology that works for them which can be shared with others in their firm.
In life there are few times we can be success and lazy at the same time. Successful PR is not a lazy person’s sport. Real energy and real efforts needs to be done on a continual basis to grow your network, grow your relationships and to stay on top of your game.
If you are a PR professional and we are not already friends, please feel free to introduce yourself and connect with me one on or more of my social networks.
I would also appreciate hearing from other bloggers on how they approach “the solicitation” and insights they could share on ways to make the experience better for everyone in our ecosystem.
Read Jeff's original post on his blog.
Tags: blogger, jeff, media, pr, public, pulver, relations, social
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