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! :)
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?
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,