COMMENTS
I haven't gotten any bad PR pitches yet, but I am a PR person and I would never do that! After reading David Meerman Scott's book and starting our own blog, there are so many better ways to spend your time!
Every time someone sends you a bad pitch, write them back and tell them to read David Meerman Scott's book! :)
it may be annoying, but I think this is great for you. Most company bloggers come across as company shills, but this is clearly not the case with the HubSpot blog. I think the leap from perceived shill to expert is something all company bloggers should aim for and just take the PR spam in stride.
You mention Chris having the same problem, and I can understand why, because his social media content is so good in his area.
Congratulations!
I know that its a pain but at least you have (like you needed it) more proof as to the effectiveness of your blog. Obviously people are reading it and taking it seriously and they appreciate your writing style.
If you don't mind selling out to the highest bidder, a decent side business for you could be starting up a new blog and doing their PR requests.
Tim
I'm glad you finally wrote this post. Now I'll have to be inspired to write one...and to make things worse I'm a PR person. I've even gotten pitched! : )
I wouldn't mind if the pitches weren't so hilariously off topic. I do financial aid, yet I'm getting pitches about new DVD players, home fashion, Virgin Airlines, etc.
It's astonishing to me - there are plenty of blogs to hit up in those target areas. Even a junior PR person should be able to tell what the rough subject area is for a blog, no?
Mike - I'd like to say congratulations for having such ubiquitous content that PR folks think you're blogging about the industry more than your company (which you do in many ways) but the reason you're likely being pitched is because most PR people don't pay attention to whom they're pitching. (I'm a PR person. Bear with me here.)
The whole issue of PR spam has sparked an ongoing conversation that I'm helping address with blog posts (http://tinyurl.com/5zznlt), conference presentations, webinars -- One from Vocus is next week in fact -- and having conversations like this one on your blog adds to that growing knowledge.
I'm pleased that your reaction was to have a discussion about it and not embarass those who are pitching you. While they may certainly deserve it, that solves nothing. The biggest thing bloggers -- corporate and otherwise -- can do is understand that most PR folks aren't inside the technology bubble, don't understand the pull instead of push nature of our world using RSS and have gotten into bad habits with traditional media over the last 30 years in shotgun blast pitching that new media folks are rejecting. PR people are also going to be slow to learn because until now they haven't had to know the technology.
However, with a little understanding, some open discussion like this one and even perhaps the occasional polite response illustrating the error in their approaches, bloggers everywhere can help PR professionals get up to speed.
No, it's not the responsibility of the blogger. The fault for bad PR pitches lies squarely on the shoulder of PR professionals themselves. But some of us are trying to guide the others. We just need some patience and time.
Great post and thanks for the conversation.
Hi Mike,
While the bad pitches may be annoying at times, it does demonstrate the breadth and reach of your blog. Maybe I should be happy that my blog is narrowly focused that I don't get pitched? =)
Congratulations and thanks for addressing the topic,
Cece
PS - I have a page linking to various bloggers and their blogger policies. Maybe people will find it helpful at: http://prmeetsmarketing.wordpress.com/pitching-bloggers/
PS - Susan from http://www.techprgems.com/ was the one kind enough to check the database and send me a screenshot of my listing. Thanks!
Mike, That's hilarious! I think Jason makes some excellent observations and continues the conversation really well. Unfortunately as you noted this is one of those things that will probably only get worse before it gets better. Education and open discussions like this are important.
The other question I would ask is I'm sure you also receive a fair amount of sketchy linktraders, buyers, or black hat SEO people wanting some sort of backlink too. I think that's what drives me more crazy than anything. I don't really get any PR blog material, but because I manage a college website I get lots of sketchy people wanting to trade links on a trusted .edu domain.
I'm a former newspaper columnist so I was pretty high-viz before I started my blog, <a>www.600words.com, which focuses greatly on the U.S.-born Latino experience. But even as a strictly-on-line columnist, I do get pitches from across the country.
As you can imagine, I'm especially attractive because I mostly speak to the hot "Hispanic niche" and because I push out my 5 columns a week to a list of over 7,000 (and quickly growing) subscribers which includes many Chicago and national media people.
The PR flacks of Hispanic singers, newspeople, CEOs, authors and others I've never heard of pitch me before they get to town because they want to start building buzz before pitching the print and TV people.
Paper ads? Yeah right, the smart ones figured out long ago that the four-color ads in my town's two emaciated newspapers stopped cutting it a long time ago.
I'm lucky, though, I rarely get the crappy automated press releases, because everyone knows I'm so responsive to my email (even though I get over a hundred a day) I mostly get personal pitches...and they mostly work :)
Internet marketing guides can be found here: http://www.3rd-marketier.blogspot.com. Theyre more informative than normal and in plain english for newbies. It explains not only how to do it, but WHY your doing that particular thing, that confuses a lot of people, you do it without knowing what its really doing.
I am one of those "really junior PR flacks" and it pains me to see so many blogs referring to how poor pitches to bloggers are becoming. I consider myself a PR practicioner and not a "flack." I do believe there is a difference. It is the "flacks" that will disregarding PR and social media marketing's most basic principles, establishing trustworthy and genuine two-way communication to achieve reach. Last I remembered a press release was designed to get picked up by outlets to get more press and not just establish awareness.
great post! I really enjoy learning from this blog.
Cheers,