The PR Pro and Blogger Manifesto

Who said a PR officer's life was easy. It is a delicate balance between achieving the corporate goals, and keeping the bloggers from feeling they are being told what to do or bossed around. I totally agree with the mass e.mail remark. NOBODY should send mass e.mails.

@SelfishMom Ah! I was JUST reading your comment!

What a fantastic post! I will do my best to see that every blogger & pr pro I know reads it.

Lots of fantastic comments here to add to an informational and interesting post. As yet another who frequents across the PR - Blogger line to dabble on both sides, there is one thing you may have left out. While others have touched on it, both bloggers and PR people are very connected and influential. Treat both sides with respect - this means answering emails from both sides! In a timely manner. In both the journalist and public relations industries, a week is too long. And if you can't compelte a request, have the courtesy to say so instead of leaving things hanging. As you said above, it's a relationship! Cultivate it.

G'Day Gini,

I'm a slow learner, I just found all these beaut little videos on your blog. There was even one about some woman musing over the length of her hair. Imagine that!

Now: to the important business.

I think that you should have a contest to discover how you can ride your bike and blog at the same time. The prize could be something like a three tutorial program on "Hailing a cab on a busy New York street in peak hour on Friday while maintaining Exquisite Understated Elegance"....or

" Learn Scots Gaelic from The Consummate Celt, Danny Brown" ...or

The "How to photograph your children and get your eldest to leave glowing comments on your blog under 176 assumed names" seminar with Marcus Sheridan.

Come to think of it, you could also have a contest to decide the prize. Please tell Lisa G not to worry. It's merely senile decay setting in. It's why I don't charge to talk.

Avagoodweegend

Regards Leon

You can take her word for it @elissapr: Best #PR pro & #blogger manifesto yet: http://t.co/iN48SOa

@prdrln Doesn't it makes you want to scream sometimes?!

Love, love, loved seeing you on video. Do more video. VIDEO. The phrase of the day is GINI ON VIDEO. Wait, there's another reason I'm here... oh yeah!Blogger outreach is my favorite thing to do, though I don't get to do it often. First time I'm seeing a list for both sides of the fence. The key thing the list implies is - treat people with professionalism, respect and dignity. Works out for everyone involved if you do.

It's sad because I get so turned off by blind pitches that I hardly ever say yes to inbound outreach, and it's always some offshoot of the reasons you've listed above. Some company wants to put its hand up my skirt and it's not even the FIRST date yet, never minding whatever date I would do that. But when everyone sees one another as people... it all works out so much better.

I want a longer video!

Anyway, my information was forwarded along to a non-profit and right away the woman hit me up for a donation. I replied " I already donated. I am interested in writing a blog post. Look at all the great posts I write about women's issues"

It has been several emails back and forth, but it looks like I will be writing a post for her cause. I will give more details once it is confirmed.

My point to all of this, is that she could have checked her database, saw I already donated and asked me a different question. It works both ways. I don't write to someone unprepared, so imagine my surprise when she hit me up right away for more money after I just donated, and just got the thank you email last night.

I am going to go post a question on your wall. A good one.

I think this was a great list Gini. Unfortunately I don't have anything new to add. But one of the biggest ones that stands out to me is understanding the bloggers goals. This is actually a pretty big one because it takes some time, and often some relationship building to really get to that point

Out of curiosity (and lack of experience): I often find the bloggers I'm building "relationships" with are, naturally, the one's I'm personally interested in.

If you have one client and are totally immersed in that circle/industry/topic, actively engaging with bloggers would be easier to handle than juggling multiple clients with multiple spheres, right? I've also heard stories of PR pros and journalists developing out-of-work friendships.

What level of dedication and personal friendship is appropriate for the blogger/pr pro relationship? Any advice or anecdotes on the topic?

@ginidietrich I've had this open for a couple of hours and keep coming back to it thinking about what to say. I completely agree with your manifesto. Those are excellent, basic rules of the road (yes, I saw your biking post too...). What's haunting me a bit is that it just should not be necessary and yet I know it is.

Common sense and courtesy are the keys to relationships. (Media Relations, Blogger Relations, Customer Relations, etc.) If you don't care about the other side of a relationship they aren't going care about you. If you don't want the story told with another person's objectivity - buy an ad (phew, didn't swear there.) People who don't understand those kind of basics should just get out of communications because they're clueless. (And I want points for keeping that sentence free of curse words too.)

Great job as always. Thanks!

I've been watching all of these posts about PR and bloggers, and PR people doing it wrong. I saw @dannybrown's post the other day on a bad PR approach. We're working on a small product that we hope to release this summer, and of course I want to send out a press release and I hope to get some coverage. While I can certainly avoid being obnoxious as per Danny's post, reading all of these articles about what to do and what not to do has me worried! It's like a newcomer to Twitter learning the etiquette. There's a PR/blogger etiquette that you wouldn't know if you weren't in PR and/or a blogger big enough to be regularly approached.

@kdillabough Did you see the questions they left on the page?!?

@melanierenzulli Harmonious relationships between PR people and bloggers? Hilarious.

THIS RT @martinwaxman PR folks: good advice to consider when you're reaching out to media or bloggers from @ginidietrich http://t.co/GffNMvv

This is near and dear to my heart. I received a pitch this morning that was addressed to Dear Mommyblogger. Every time that happens I want to dress up in drag and go visit the person that sent me that note.

There is really no reason for their to be an adversarial relationship between PR and bloggers. I blame most of that upon miscommunication and misunderstanding between the two sides.

I have had more than a few conversations with other bloggers about the need to educate themselves about business and why they need to understand the PR side. It really helps to cut down on some of the issues.

And it would behoove some of the people doing blogger outreach to follow the guidelines you listed above and to think about what they are doing. You don't have to be the leading expert on my blog to gain my respect but I expect you to know that I am not "Mommyblogger" and to have at least skimmed it.

It saves everyone time and energy.

@josepf Hello my long lost friend!