I Hate PR People: The Rules of Pitching Bloggers and Media

It's frightening the collective disdain that PR pros have garnered, which makes it suck for those of us who are trying to do it the right way. It 's exhausting having to expend so much energy trying to get coverage for our clients in a medium that's going to be used to wrap fish in the next day (newspaper). I teach my clients that they need to Get R.E.A.L to get noticed by being realistic, engaging, authentic, and long lasting (in other words, real) with their clients. And, I teach them that they can get all the visibility they want without ever engaging traditional media.

Harsh, but helpful and practical tips for those of us who pitch to bloggers. Thank you for your post!

@Soulati @ginidietrich Bad ones make good ones look extra good, but it always makes reporters/bloggers want to ignore most.

@wesdavenport @courtenayrogers At this point I've often been covering companies way before they hired their current publicists.

@wesdavenport @courtenayrogers Hasn't been so bad for me except for the lack of research.

@stephanies Based on my inbox this week, no...they don't.

I Hate PR People: The Rules of Pitching Bloggers and Media http://t.co/yCKjtYGp via @samfiorella "do your freaking research"

@writingrenee I'm a smart butt (as my mom would say)

@yossoura and i hate you too...

@djfrankieee thanks :-)

@dbvickery @ginidietrich I think they're pretty smart they are the only ones I can get away without showing actual analytics..:-)

Happy birthday, Lindsay - looks like Gini should be kept from all sharp objects until her frustration dies down. Fun read, though. Glad I'm not in PR and repeatedly asking Gini to run content. And the "end around" generally sets up for a big loss versus big reward - in business and in football!

@ChristianGAdams Clearly relevance isn't common sense.

Now that's blunt “@PublicityGuru: !?!? "I Hate PR People: The Rules of Pitching Bloggers and Media" http://t.co/zyi9qxwe”

@danperezfilms @ginidietrich Yes. The client/pr dynamic is key to preventing hateful pr. Somehow parlaying these rules to clients is key.

Gini,

I enjoyed your post and can't imagine anyone disagreeing with you that there is a significant portion of the PR industry (for lack of a better term) that has no business doing press outreach or representing any brand/client to the public for that matter. That said, the tips above are pretty much table stakes at this point. I have no doubt that if everyone followed those steps alone the collective reputation of PR people around the world would immediately see a boost and journalists would cry unicorn tears of joy as a result of hundreds fewer emails every day.

But even more than improving email etiquette and doing basic research, the PR function (meaning all of us) really needs to get better at basic communication. Why does something matter, how is it relevant to the journalist's beat, what is the opportunity being presented (journos don't want to rewrite press releases; it's a necessary evil but but they hate it). I'm not sure when it became acceptable to simply blast out bits of seemingly unrelated information and pray that something sticks, but the fact that most PR people lack a basic understanding of how to construct a story is sad and pathetic. 

I'm not sure what the answer is, but it probably has something to do with agencies training better. A creative writing course here and there wouldn't hurt either. Anyway, thanks for starting the discussion. Hopefully one day soon we'll all be able to talk about how things have improved...

@RockChristopher @GetBinkd @mistygirlph Huum! The "lawless internet" back in da day would say: "Summer Rules Mean No Rules."

@neilglassman @ginidietrich @SpinSucks Thanks! Definitely will keep this in mind!

@tonia_ries @ginidietrich Lack of basic research is what kills me. It's so ridiculous when I get pitches for things way out of my purview.

@ginidietrich Not enough RTs?

@aliciakan xoxo

@timepass @SpinSucks This is really good. Thanks :)

@robin324 It IS exhausting, isn't it? I didn't realize how bad some PR pros are until we started getting pitches for this blog. You should see some of the bad pitches we get. It sounds like you're doing it exactly the right way. Keep doing that kind of work and you'll continue to have good clients.

@heatherakemi I know. I'm sorry. I was on a rant. It probably could have been toned down a bit.

@ginidietrich It's so sad. But bloggers who do nothing but reviews & giveaways foster bad PR pitches, too.

@brasker What? Doesn't blogging = no research required? Or "attributing Wikipedia is research enough?" #pr

@ginidietrich Haha, those rules need to sink in, though! I share those same sentiments on a pretty much daily basis :)

@AmantMystere LOL lis l'article avant de dire ça

@iStratBuzz You're quite welcome!! =)

@gunshotdigital @ginidietrich Yikes ;)

 @dbvickery Think about this for your business, though. Do you ever have news to announce? Do you guys work with a PR pro? How ashamed would you be if you knew they were pitching your business to journalists and media in this way? It's not good.

@SusetLaboy Which, of course, is sometimes easier said than done. But there are some things PR pros can do with not so good news

 @jyarbrough A creative writing course sure wouldn't hurt! I totally agree with you. I think the issue is that, for a gazillion years, everything stayed pretty much the same. In the past five years, the industry has completely been upended and most pros aren't keeping up. Want to understand how to do blogger relations? Blog. Want to understand how to use social media to engage a group of loyal customers? Use it personally. Want to create a measurable program? Dig into analytics in your own time. Most people won't go to these lengths so the industry is stagnant. 

@jevtich1 smile ... yes indeed way "back in the day" ...

@Yuricon Exactly!

@giesencreative (I was being sarcastic)

@ginidietrich Please tell Lindsay happy birthday!

@sweeEkriti i agree, some very sound advice to stick with. @SpinSucks

@stephanies I suppose. But you still should do your research. I know blogging has taught me so much about media relations.

@samfiorella you also don't give your sales a lead outside of your target market, same for approaching influencers and bloggers

@writingrenee It's so frustrating, isn't it?!?

 @ginidietrich Ashamed and embarrassed - absolutely.

@ginidietrich Indeed. And sometimes saying no to a client (no we can't pitch x,y,z to x,y,z) is necessary. Good clients will understand.

@RockChristopher Happy Wednesday (to complete the Rhyme conversation) #rhymetime

@ginidietrich ^_^

@ginidietrich :D

@belllindsay! @aliciakan says happy birthday!

@timepass @SpinSucks This is really helpful.. and so are the comments that follow :)

@writingrenee People is right! LOL!

@ginidietrich Totally. I wrote a similar post trying to convey "if you wouldn't do it on your site, don't do it here!" But alas. People. :)

@ginidietrich @aliciakan LOL - thanks so much! :D