The Jeff Pulver Blog: PR 203: How to Pitch a Blogger (or at least How to Pitch Jeff Pulver in 2008)

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July 10, 2008

PR 203: 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 - 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.

Tags: Public Relations, blogger, PR, Social Media, Jeff Pulver

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Posted by jeff on July 10, 2008 10:07 AM | Permalink

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Comments

Great post. Thanks for reminding me why I got in this business in the first place. It's all about developing relationships and digging deeper to find out what a publisher is looking for. I look forward to reading more.

Posted by: Leigh at March 6, 2009 01:06 PM

I love this post. I must say that you have captured my attention about your perspective on the ethics of PR firm vs. blogger. As a PR manager, I would have to say that my intention is not to bombard your inbox with junk, I believe that I have valuable information that yourself and/or readers will find useful. You are right, great PR takes tenacity and building solid relationships. Unfortunately, I had to learn this the hard way on a few occasions. I look forward to reading more of your blog. Much success!

Nicole Dawley
M80

Posted by: Nicole Dawley at November 25, 2008 02:50 PM

i can tell you jeff that as a professional blogger and writter myself, it is a real pleasure to have come across yuor blog.
our industry needs more people like you. you are inovative and some one for youngons to look up to.
us writters have to thimk about the younger gineration coming up in this world to fill our shoes.

Posted by: susie at November 22, 2008 06:15 PM

Brand new to the PR industry and currently working as an intern, what you have written has marked me in a positive way and I'm sure is advice that will carry through with me for the duration of my career. I have been trying to familiarise myself with the who's who of industry bloggers and have found the vast amount of information overwhelming at times - yet nothing has swayed me from spending the hours reading and getting to know who's saying what. I have to laugh as I found your name whilest undertaking a project to list all industry related bloggers for a database I am compiling - needless to say, I have attached many notes beside your name, and will continue to do this for every name I enter into our list!

Thanks for the great advice!
Joanne

Posted by: Joanne Blanch at October 7, 2008 02:17 PM

I love the post. As an influencer relations professional I commend you for putting this post out there and apologize for any PR/AR/IR professionals who have spammed you. I am head of influencer engagement for Influencer50 Inc. and arrived at your blog to better understand what you're working on and your interaction in the greater telecom space because we recommend that one of our clients get to know you better.

I'm going to go ahead and ping you by email (I hope you'll read it!) But I am actually recommending to our client that he should be reading your blog and posting comments and watching what you're doing and listening to what your saying. Our research indicates that you are a strong contributor in the greater VoIP "Community" and are a recognized thought-leader--someone our client should pay attention to and seek out opportunities to engage with you, but not bug with spam.

Posted by: Christine Fife at September 17, 2008 06:39 PM

- bit -

Posted by: begre at August 5, 2008 04:29 AM

Love the cocktail party analogy! It definitely speaks to me. ;)

I'm looking forward to watching the PR world evolve. Unfortunately, it's just not as quick as the social media world.

Posted by: Shana Glickfield at July 28, 2008 11:46 AM

Jeff, you made THE POINTS. Congrats. Honesty and transparency are the result of the shift in communications, and EVERYONE has to understand it. For once! Get the big picture and make it small!

Bests

Posted by: Marilia at July 21, 2008 02:53 PM

Susan Getgood at Marketing Roadmaps has a great series on how to pitch bloggers, incluidng good pitch/bad pitch, which always cracks me up. http://getgood.typepad.com/getgood_strategic_marketi/2008/06/blogging-social.html

Posted by: Alanna at July 21, 2008 02:00 PM

Jeff....great post. I pitch to bloggers and I, as a blogger also get pitched.

Me? I prefer personal pitches from PR people who actually have read my blog or are pitching based on a particular post. It shows you have done your homework and that you are really reaching out to me for a specific reason

Posted by: Alan Weinkrantz at July 13, 2008 10:18 PM

Just wrote on a similar topic (10 Tips for Pitching Mommy Bloggers) on our PR Blog because I am also a product review blogger.

I have been amazed at some of the pitches we've received--wrong names, wrong blog names, no clear pitch, etc.--and even from huge firms representing billion dollar clients!

It used be called your "reputation" and establishing a "relationship" and now it is networking and branding, but the same basic common sense principles apply.

And if you think a blogger has something valuable to offer (advice, audience, experience, friendship, writing, pagerank, whatever) then do not imagine we are not aware of our value and don't expect something for nothing. If you do not think the blogger has something valuable, then why are you pitching that person?

Posted by: Candace (Mama Luxe) at July 11, 2008 12:12 AM

Good Afternoon! I am in PR, but I am currently more interested in learning from you then pitching you. Thanks for posts like these, they help me make sure then when I do get to pitching, I'm doing it right! This is my introduction. Pleasure to meet you.

Posted by: Meghan Burns at July 10, 2008 04:51 PM

Jeff, BTW I wanted to pitch you something...

How you been, haven't seen you in a while.

-Jeff

Posted by: zemote at July 10, 2008 03:58 PM

What if we are just trying to share something that wwe think you or your blog readers might be interested in? I am a memeber of a game called WISEOZ and we all are trying to netowrk the informatiion to others about the site. How do you suggest we do that for blog readers? INTERESTED IN NETWORKING, just a player, not PR or IT!!

Posted by: madmad59 at July 10, 2008 03:25 PM

Wow! I think I may have been the inspiration for all of this. I must point out that I am not a PR person. Rather, I'm actually an IT Project Manager by day and an entrepreneur of a dream every other waking minute of my life. I do not work for a "client". I can not afford a "PR person". I have a dream and I am pursuing it. I sent a friendly email directly to Jeff Pulver (it was not "pray and spray"). No one paid me to do it. In fact, I am in debt, not paid, and not so very well rested either. So, I guess I will go hang my head in shame for even trying. How absurd!

Posted by: Stephanie at July 10, 2008 03:05 PM

Thanks for the tips Jeff. Can you elaborate on what type of info you'd specifically want to know in an intro email from a publicist? thanks!

Posted by: Termeh at July 10, 2008 02:36 PM

Thank you for the invitation.

Posted by: Josh Morgan at July 10, 2008 01:27 PM

Well said. It's good to look at things from the POV of the recipient. I've passed this along to other social media marketing folks at Marketing in a Web 2.0 World: http://lasandrabrill.blogspot.com/2008/04/conversations-matter-field-guide-to.html

Posted by: Carolyn Schuk at July 10, 2008 01:05 PM

Great post! Very interesting to see how times are changing to get news across and agree that a relationship should be built before a pitch. Love your cocktail party reference, very true.

Posted by: Andrea at July 10, 2008 12:53 PM

Dear Jeff,

How can you remain so inspired and write so well and in such a prolific manner? Your posts are always insightful and full of good ideas.

Communication and engagement, as you've mentioned, are KEY.

Thanks for this.

Posted by: Raul at July 10, 2008 12:43 PM

GREAT post Jeff. I have written about this on my blog repeatedly - the EASIEST way to be successful in tapping the blogosphere is to create a blog and post daily.

That's the best way to know how to approach bloggers - be one!

http://thefuturebuzz.com/2007/11/28/why-every-marketer-and-pr-exec-should-have-a-blog/

Posted by: Adam Singer at July 10, 2008 12:35 PM

jeff, thanks for this post. it's always great for people in my industry to be able to crawl inside the head of anyone in the media -- traditional & bloggers. my experience is bad (most not all) pr people are usually inexperienced vs. lazy. your insight to the inexperienced is priceless.

rock on!

Posted by: kel kelly at July 10, 2008 12:32 PM

Approaches from PR folks who haven't done their homework (as you suggest) are like those broadcast Linkedin connection requests you get from people who give absolutely no reason why they want to connect with you.

Posted by: Dennis McDonald at July 10, 2008 12:31 PM

It's always amazing to me how many people try to game the system. Social networking isn't a system or a game.

At least, not any more than a dinner party or a family or a group of friends hanging out at the pub drinking Guinness.

Now if I could just figure out how to use Friend Feed efficiently...

Posted by: Mark Goodyear at July 10, 2008 12:12 PM

Hi Jeff, I work for Edelman Digital in London have been involved in the process of teaching my coworkers many of these fundamentals - things that seem obvious to those of us who blog ourselves and are in the industry, but to many PR people are still a mystery. If you don't mind, I'd love to use your section about "PR is not an industry for lazy people" in a training document I'm developing. Full credit to you of course!

And - hello! I'm not PRing anything at the moment (except myself, I guess) but I've been reading your blog for a couple of weeks now and have definitely been enjoying it. So now seems like a great time to say 'hi'!

Posted by: Jason Mical at July 10, 2008 12:06 PM

Thanks Jeff! reminds me that I haven't said hello in awhile...! Hope all is well!!! :) Great post!

Posted by: nicole at July 10, 2008 12:00 PM

Great do list ... also maybe a don't do list .. to drive the point?

Don't email me a word document of 30 page press release and canned email cover letter. I'll hit the delete button faster than you can say delete.

And, if I do write about you, don't take my words out of context ... like not including the phrase that was critical.

Posted by: Beth Kanter at July 10, 2008 11:18 AM

Well than... Good morning Jeff, and have a good flight.

Posted by: Tal Ater at July 10, 2008 11:16 AM

Jeff:

Great post. So I have this product.... Just kidding. I am not in the PR world, but occasionally email reporters /bloggers if they have written about my industry and my specific field to see if they might be interested in covering my company. Over the last year or so I think I have befriended a few through comments and passing along stories they might have missed.

It seems common sense to establish this bond, although I am not tasked with blasting 150 tech bloggers. I don't see that many taking the time to follow all of your steps - only the good ones who want to last in this industry and be successful. As you say, PR is not a lazy person's pursuit. I enjoy @bmorrisey's comments about the solicitations he gets.

Be well,
Alex

Posted by: Alex Sicre at July 10, 2008 11:12 AM

Jeff:

You've defined the social media inspired shift very well. A shift to transparent communication and relationship building. This will weed out a lot of the old PR guard. But it's a wonderful opportunity for those who understand and embrace the fact that the Evolving Web is a wonderful place and way to do business.

Posted by: Jeff Crites at July 10, 2008 11:03 AM