A Few Questions for the PR Minded

March 9, 2010 By 16 Comments

This is not intended to be a rant.  At all.

Merely a question, or a conversation starter.

bloggerpr

File this under Improving Blogger and Pr Relations.

Because I think the collective voice of the two sides is tremendously powerful.  But there is still a gap in understanding. (note: this is not a blanket ‘this-applies-to-everyone’ statement)

I have worked with some amazing, fantastic PR individuals and firms.  That goes without saying. And I would love to encourage that Blogger/PR Relationship. And yet, I am perplexed by something.

I receive emails like this a lot:

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Hi Danielle,

Over the past few months, there has been anticipation around the release of XXXXXXXXXX in the U.S.… The wait is over! Your readers will be excited to know that XXXXXXX will be available for pre-sale, starting today at both XXXXX and XXXXX for $XXX.XX

The product will be available in-stores and for online shipment starting March 28. Please keep in mind that quantities are limited and are available while supplies last. Feel free to share the pre-sale information with your readers, or direct them to the below Web sites for more information on how to reserve a unit for themselves.:
(links to sites)

Additionally, your readers will enjoy the new features on XXXXX including:

Best,

XXXXXX

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

I have to confess, I am perplexed.  Here are my questions:

*Is the hope that I will just copy and paste the press release on to my site?

*That I will be so excited about the release that I will tweet the links? (Despite the fact that my family will NEVER be using this product)

*Does this mean that the sender does not know that I am NOT a Deal/Coupon site?

*Does this type of blind email work?

*What would be the most helpful feedback?

I get lots of what I call ‘news-type’ press releases: St. Patrick’s Day Party Ideas, 7 year old girl writes book, Ways to Combat H1N1, How to be smart on your taxes, etc.  These make some sense to me – partially because I’ve done a few HARO requests looking for an ‘expert’ on a topic and now I’m on a few email lists. But just a straight, ‘your readers will love this/post it’ seems odd.

If I am misunderstanding, set me straight.

Also…..I don’t know if you got this email – I know some people who did, but really?

Hi,

I’m currently doing web promotion for my client. I was wondering if you’re
willing to do a blog post for them on extraordinarymommy.com. My client is
willing to offer $50 for this blog post. We can also provide the blog post
content according to your guidelines.

If you’re interested, payments are sent via paypal. Or if you have a different
proposal, let me know and let’s see how we could work things out.

Thanks in advance,
Iris

Are there people (Iris could be anyone – I’m not saying she is a PR gal) who believe I am so desperate to make $50 that I am willing to agree to post about an anonymous ‘client’? That I will potentially sacrifice content on my site for someone who clearly knows nothing about me?

I want to be clear about something.  I am NOT questioning sponsored posts.  I have done sponsored posts.  I am not questioning anyone’s desire to make money from their site  - in fact, I hope that you can.  However, I don’t think it would be wise to agree to sponsored content without know what that content is.  And I question this particular approach.

That would be a ‘no, thank you very much‘.

I would also like to address this from a, “what can bloggers do to improve relations’ standpoint.  Post coming soon.

I would love to know your thoughts. Share away.

Edited to add to the conversation 3/9/10:

I wanted to share a comment I received via email from a PR friend of mine here in St. Louis.  Brian works at Blick and Staff Communications. He wrote:

*I’m sure you get a ton of emails but I’d bet the PR rep would benefit from learning this isn’t something you would consider (although you shouldn’t feel obligated by any means). Maybe it would encourage him or her to go back to the drawing board and look for a better approach.

*We (PR folk) are taught to go to the blogger’s site and check out recent articles and past articles related to your pitch angle.

*One other possible tip to make it easier for PR pros to understand how you’d like to be approached and what types of pitches you’re interested in could be to include a “PR” subhead on your home page or as a subset off of your “contact” subhead. Then we can easily find it and read a couple paragraphs to determine if pitching makes sense and how you like to be pitched (ie twitter is OK or not, no need to follow-up because you will respond if you’re interested, etc.). I definitely don’t think you are doing anything wrong with your current page setup, just wanted to offer another option to consider.

I am extremely grateful to Brian for chiming in!

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  • http://www.meladramaticmommy.com Melanie @ Mel, A Dramatic Mommy

    With all the posts we do on pitches gone wrong, how we like to be approached, what types of campaigns we’d like to see, which firms “get it” etc. etc. one would think we shouldn’t need to have this discussion anymore. But, I’m sure it’s beneficial for new bloggers who are trying to find their direction.

  • http://www.tidymom.net TidyMom

    Glad to know I’m not the only one getting some of these crazy requests………do you even respond to them? often I just hit delete.

  • Danielle

    Cheryl~ I do try to respond as often as I can – especially if I think I might be able to help, suggest another blogger or let them know if the direction is appropriate for me. That said, I definitely don’t manage to do it all the time.

  • Danielle

    Mel~ this is the first time I have posted on this, though I’m sure there are dozens of similar posts. However, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an answer to the questions I posed. Have you? (I’d love a link if you have one :) I thought it would be interesting to have the conversation. I am well aware there are many PR firms who engage respectfully….maybe some of them can offer a few suggestions. Thanks for stopping by :)

  • http://blogs.babycenter.com/momformation/author/ksauerwein/ Kristina

    I’ve received emails like the first one you described. Usually it’s about some DVD or CD and it is written as if I’m should be jumping up and down with joy because I have been asked, essentially, to write a free ad for company/product. Often, the product has nothing to do with what I write about; or it sorta does but still. I think it comes down to this: A lot of PR firms don’t get bloggers/social media and, this will sound crass, they think we’ll just write anything, as if we’re blog whores. Great post. Am interested to read more responses.

  • http://SavingTheFamilyMoney.com Karen

    While I am still relatively new to blogging publicly (1 year) I have gotten emails like the ones you describe. The first types I usually delete because they have nothing to do with my website content and they seem to be spam. I have done paid posts about a website that I frequent and that my readers would benefit from hearing about. I find it insulting when a company contacts me with a set price and assumes this is acceptable and I will jump at the chance to make $XX. When I respond with my more realistic price, I get the following, “Currently we are paying other bloggers $xx for this type of post.” I am not other bloggers and I don’t think we all want to be clumped together. Any company that contacts me about a “client” will be researched before I commit to anything. I too am curious about these techniques and if there is a percentage of them that actually work. Maybe they are throwing so many out there, eventually one will STICK.

  • http://www.chambanamoms.com Laura (@chambanalaura)

    I just had a conversation with a PR friend about some of these issues (more of the first one you describe). My takeaway was that most PR people want to be marketing to bloggers, but they don’t have the time or the resources to market to individuals. So, they send out these blasts because it’s “cost-effective” (her words). Of course, my reaction to that was, why bother?

  • http://www.clevergirlscollective.com/ Cat/@DearBadKitty

    This is exactly why Stefania (@CityMama), Sheila (@xiaolinmama) and I started Clever Girls Collective and the Clever 1000 blogger network! We were tired of getting those pitches ourselves, and explaining to PR folks (not to hate — many of them are very nice people) how and why to do it right.

    And by right, we mean making personal, individual contacts with bloggers. When we get a Clever Girls project, we brainstorm about which bloggers would be interested in the client. Nine times out of 10 we’re talking about people we know, whom we follow on Twitter, and hang out with at conferences. They’re our community. We don’t think it’s too time- or resource-intensive to get to know people before we ask them to work with us!

    This is an ongoing discussion. Stefania has written about it several times on CityMama, and she was just on a fantastic panel about bloggers and PR at Mom 2.0, with Amie Adams and Ciaran Blumenfeld. It was moderated by Stephanie Schwab from Kaplow PR, who does a great job of personal outreach.

    There are some agencies that get it. Cheers to you, Danielle, for helping the rest figure it out! In the end, we all benefit from the open communication.

  • Danielle

    Cat – thank you so much for your comment – I think you hit it right on the head. I really do believe it is about understanding the ‘fit’. With CCC, you are able to match bloggers with PR/clients based on understanding our community and individuals as well as the needs of the PR folks. Both sides have goals – it is a matter of opening that door and inviting the two to have a conversation when they are a ‘match’. Bummed that I couldn’t make Mom 2.0 – that is a panel I would have enjoyed.

  • Danielle

    Laura~ I wonder about the ‘cost-effectiveness’ of this type of email blast. That PR person is being paid for their job, right? And the return, I imagine, is minimal. Wouldn’t it make more sense to invest *a little* time to learn about the person you are pitching? (this goes for bloggers pitching PR and companies too!!) I don’t expect ANYONE to know my entire history, but I would think knowing I have small children and not babies or teenagers would be helpful in determining my fit for a particular pitch or campaign. Yes? Thanks for commenting!!

  • Danielle

    Karen~ It sounds like you have had some similar experiences. I do delete a lot of emails, but end up wondering if I should respond with a suggestion or two. Smart that you do the research and stick with companies that you really care about and who provide value to your readers. Appreciate your comment!

  • http://www.theunexperiencedmom.com The (Un)Experienced Mom

    This is a great conversation! I actually wrote about bloggers working with brands yesterday. I’ve been saddened by the disrespect or flat out “we don’t understand the purpose of bloggers” attitude I’ve gotten in the email pitches I’ve received. Again, this is not true of all of my interactions with PR people, but enough so that it’s bugging me.

    As I said in my post, if brands would like us to take the time before contacting them about a potentially beneficial partnership, they should at least take the time, even 5 mins, to read a bit about us to tailor their pitch. I like that your friend Brian said that PR folks are supposed to do so, but have found many who don’t. I get the feeling that some PR folks just think we are people who will work for free because we are honored that they would even contact us. Just not right. And not respectful. Partnerships need to be based on mutual respect, and that doesn’t help set things off on the right foot.

    Again, just my opinion and not true of all of the brands/PR folks I’ve interacted with.

    Here’s the link to my post yesterday about Brands working with Bloggers:
    http://theunexperiencedmom.com/2010/03/bloggers-working-with-brands.html

  • http://www.RobynsOnlineWorld.com Robyn’s Online World

    I get about 50% great PR pitches and 50% bad PR pitches these days. I have found that once I have worked with a company once or twice then I seem to get a much more personalized pitch from them, and others in their office, after that. Many of the bigger PR firms are seeming to be at the point they are “getting it” now. Then of course are the random PR pitches that are irrelevant or do not ask for any action. If you are going to send me a pitch, take the time to tell me what you want. Also, just because I have reviewed books before doesn’t mean that I will review books on any topic under the sun (I have gotten on some book lists and get lots of book pitches). Just because I’m a mommy blogger doesn’t mean I have a tiny baby, toddler, or young child at home either, my son is 15!

    I think the PR page, as suggested, is a wonderful idea. I have one of my own and I have a short bio about myself and my family as well. The problem is that not all PR reps will stop and read that.

    I’m sure that the PR folks have just as many gripes about bloggers too. I would love to hear from them what we, as bloggers, can do to help them on their end also.

  • http://www.amberpagewrites.com amber

    I used to work in PR…but this was long before blogs became outlets we needed to think about. However, I’m guessing that this type of email blast comes from the “throw a bunch of big numbers in the client’s face to prove we’re working hard” line of thinking.

    In other words, by sending this email to you and every other blogger in the western hemisphere, the PR person can tell her client “we contacted X number of bloggers – surely you’ll get big exposure from that!”

    Just my two cents.

  • http://savvysassymoms.com Andrea Fellman

    Very interesting topic and something I am dealing with every day. Some of the e-mail’s I get are terrible and others are very smart and thoughtful. I was at Mom 2.0 andthe Panel about PR was one of the most open and honest but I did have some unanswered questions… that just may spark you to write another post about “When You, the Blogger are the one doing the Pitching!” I am not a Seasoned, Famous or Top Mommy Blogger so I have taken the initiative to actively search for and contact companies that I think “fit” my brand and my readers. Are there any tips, advice and suggestions for a blogger doing the pitching?

  • Danielle

    Andrea – I appreciate you asking those questions – those are the ones I would love to answer in another post because I know (I’ve been told) that PR companies and brands get just as many poor pitches as bloggers do (just as they get good ones). I appreciate it!