I’ve seen it happen. PR people or clients start believing in the power of the blogosphere, and want their next communications plan to involve "blog pitching." The PR firm agrees, not really knowing anything about it or really, even where to start. They figure that it must pretty much be like pitching reporters.
Pitching bloggers is a touchy subject for a few reasons:
- A reporter won’t write a story about you on the front page if you hit them with a bad pitch (though they might pass it along…)
- A reporter probably won’t be mortally offended by your suggestion that they would write about anything other than exactly what they wanted
- Bloggers are under no obligation to get facts right, and are all but immune to libel claims
- Reporters are (ideally) less apt to write based on opinions instead of facts.
This isn’t to say that bloggers are unprofessional, but the fact remains that some are, and pitching to them is akin to trying to pet a tiger. It looks like it could be soft, but you might end up missing half your hand.
I’ve always been open to PR pitches, both in this blog and my other one, though I can count the number I got on one hand. That doesn’t mean that every blogger is, though – in fact, some are downright hostile about the whole thing.
I’ve had some success pitching bloggers – and the key, it would seem, is the personal touch. Search through Technorati to find people blogging on a certain subject. Read each one to see a) if they’ve said anything about asshole PR people contacting them and if b) they really do write about the subject their blog is tagged with. At the very least, the first time you contact a blogger, you should be familiar with what they write about and the tone they write in. You should also know something about them – often on a "contact" or "about" page, bloggers will list what they do and do not want to be contacted about… obey these warnings, or face the consequences.
The pitch is important – keep it short, keep it personal, but don’t assume a level of familiarity that doesn’t exist. Make it clear that you have actually read their blog – if you read it regularly, tell them… but don’t lie. Provide them with everything they need to make a decent post – including a choice of images, a link to a YouTube video or another media source.
The big thing to remember here is that it is entirely possible that a blogger will reproduce your pitch in its entirety. It has happened to me a number of times… and frankly, always makes me uncomfortable, regardless of how well thought out it is. Be prepared for a story that begins with "so and so emailed me and said <BLOCKQUOTE>"
I know I’ll miss some here, but these are some golden rules of pitching blogs from my experience. If anyone has others they’d like to add, I would LOVE to hear them.
- Be transparent – let them know that you’re a PR person and who your client is
- Aim for conversation rather than "pitching." I’ve ended up continuing correspondence with some bloggers I’ve pitched cold just because they were cool people.
- Give them an out – the first time you pitch them, make sure you let them know if they don’t want to know about whatever they’re pitching you on to let you know and you’ll stop. And then actually stop, if they do, of course.
- Give them something to cut and paste. Writing is hard work, and blockquotes are part of the tools of the blogging trade.
- Don’t pitch them something they’ll never be interested in. It’s not worth the effort / stress / potential backlash
- Offer swag whenever possible – if I’m going to write about your new phone, you better give me one to play with
- Give them something to link to. You need a good website to link to – preferably one that has a plethora of information and media for people to link to and visit.
- Be cautious with pitching A-listers. Unless you know it’s something they would be interested in, don’t waste your first chance to make a good impression on wasting their time.
The big lesson here is something that has been said before – pitching blogs is not like pitching the media. It’s much more time consuming, and much more dangerous.
Any PR people or regularly pitched bloggers want to add to this list?
