Archive for the ‘pitching’ Category

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A Message To Non-PR Folks: We’re Not All Like This

08.12.18

Black Sheep

John Biggs at CrunchGear and Michael Arrington at TechCrunch both wrote in the last day about a nasty encounter they had with a public relations person (I would normally say professional, but…). I’m not naming the person here – that’s not my style – but I’m disgusted enough to link to posts where you can find their name.

The Biggs and Arrington documented a laundry list of bad practices by the culprit, some of which have also been documented previously on the bad pitch blog and other sites including the Freakonomics blog:

  • Off-topic pitches;
  • BCC’d spam pitches;
  • Relentless phone calls to people throughout publishing organizations, even while acknowledging that it’s wrong;
  • Abusive replies to people who complain about the pitches.

I’m not going to go to town on that person. Others have done that enough.

I’m directing this post to anyone who reads this site:

Not all public relations professionals are like this.

This is important. People need to know this.

We do the background work

My colleagues and I spend hours creating and refining our media lists when we begin working with clients, and we refine those lists on an ongoing basis. Occasionally we’ll land off-base; when we realize that’s happened we fix our lists.

We contact people individually

When I send email pitches, they begin with the recipient’s name. Next!

We build relationships

As far as I’m concerned, public relations is a two-way business. Our clients have their objectives; journalists have theirs. We do our jobs best when we help both sides. That means building relationships with journalists so we know what they’re after and can help them with that. It takes time and effort, and it certainly doesn’t involve spam or insults.

We target

We might approach a couple of people within a certain organization if they’ve both written about our client or their subject area. We certainly won’t leave messages for 45 people at two publications. 

Caveat: We’re human

I’m not going to pretend we’re perfect. Sometimes we screw up and contact someone who’s completely uninterested in the subject. Anyone who says they don’t is a liar. However, when that happens we apologize and try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Don’t let black sheep make you think we’re all like this person. We’re not.

(Image credit: s-s via sxc.hu)

Posted in: pitching, public relations

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Five Tips For Pitching Me

08.11.04

As time goes on and the number of readers of this site slowly grows, I’m receiving an ever-increasing number of pitches from people hoping that I’ll write about their product, service or news. Very few of them are any good.

Occasionally I receive a good pitch. Sometimes I’ll even write about good blogger outreach. On the other hand, if I receive a bad pitch there’s a chance I may write about that too.

I’m open to people pitching me. If you read my site over time, then you already know me and you probably know how I like to be pitched. However, I know how the communications business works. Unfortunately, if you have a new client or you’re new to an account the chances are fairly high that you won’t have the time (or budget, for that matter) to dig way back in every blogger’s archives to see what they’ve written about pitching.

So, today I’m following in the footsteps of people like Jason Falls and Todd Defren have also done – I’m publishing a set of tips on how to pitch me. When I have a spare second, I’ve also added this to my blog header so it’s available on every page of this site.

I don’t need special treatment (quite frankly I’m astonished that anyone wants me to write about them). In general, if you follow these tips you’ll likely do ok pitching most bloggers. If, on the other hand, you send me what I consider a bad pitch:

  1. I’m not going to read it
  2. You’re wasting your time and/or your client’s money.

Hopefully this will help at least one person to change the way they approach pitching. If you have your own site, you may want to consider doing the same thing yourself. Who knows, it may help to improve the pitches you receive. If not, at least you’ll have a page to point people to when they spam you.

Five (plus one) tips

If you’re about to pitch me, I have five tips for you (plus one for luck):

  1. Know what I write about
  2. Know where I live
  3. Remember my name
  4. Write to me personally
  5. Use the ‘to’ field in your email
  6. Bonus: Get to know me first

#1: Know what I write about

I write about social media, communications and marketing. If your pitch isn’t about one of those topics, you should refine your target list.

#2: Know where I live

I live in Toronto. If your event is in San Francisco and you’re not planning to fly me down there, I’m not likely to be interested. If it’s in Toronto, however, you’re on the mark.

#3: Remember my name

It’s in the URL of the blog and at the top of every page. It’s Dave Fleet. Not “Dear Blogger” or “Dear Sir/Madam.” Thanks!

#4: Write to me personally

I’m a person. I appreciate a personal email that acknowledges why the pitch is relevant to me, breaks the ice and shows that I’m not just another email address on a list. I don’t mind if you copy a press release at the bottom of the email, or provide me with a link. If that’s all you send me, though, I’m not reading past the headline.

#5: Use the ‘to’ field in your email

Simply put, if you ‘bcc’ me on an email it’s game over. Odds are that if you follow the other guidelines above, you won’t do this.

#6: Bonus: Get to know me first

I’m more likely to read your email if I already know you. It doesn’t guarantee that I’ll write about your topic – especially if you don’t follow the other tips here – but the odds go up substantially. I’m not hard to find – try here.

Sound reasonable to you?

Posted in: how to, pitching

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Anatomy of a Bad Pitch

08.09.30

Photo of a pitcher As time goes on and more people start to read my site (welcome!) I’m receiving more and more pitches from firms and other PR agencies. That’s fine with me – I’m in the business and I appreciate why pitching is necessary.

Unfortunately, many (most) of the pitches I receive are the kind of pitches that give our industry a bad name.

I recently received a particularly bad pitch – one bad enough to qualify for Kevin and Richard over at the Bad Pitch Blog. I almost hit “reply” with some pointers for the person pitching, but I thought I’d throw the tips out to everyone instead.

Bear in mind that these tips are based on my perspective. Judge for yourself whether they’re any good or not.

The original pitch

First, here’s the original pitch (with identifying information removed – I’m not into “outing” people):

To:

Subject: How social media saved a company millions…

Hi there.  I’m an avid reader of various outlets that focus on social media and thought you would find this case study interesting.  It shows how social media is more than just a trend, but how it actually translates to dollars and cents if done correctly.  [...], a $2 billion privately owned company and the world’s largest grower, manufacturer and distributer of [...] products recently shifted their entire marketing and distribution model to social media and the results have been incredibly successful.  By leveraging YouTube ([...]) and iTunes ([...]), the company immediately saved $110,000 in distribution in weeks.

As someone in the business of social media it’s always frustrating to hear about its effectiveness and see a lack of tangible of quantitative results. If you want more information including exactly how [...] leveraged social media check out the press release below.  I think you’ll find it interesting.  Thanks for listening.

Where the pitch went wrong

Here are a few of the ways I would improve this pitch. I’ll leave the overall structure and writing alone, as much of that is personal style.

  1. Send the pitch to the blogger. BCC = delete. It screams “mass mailing.”
  2. Sending the pitch to me allows you to also address the message to the blogger, by name (if possible). I like the personal touch.
  3. Show the recipient that you know what they write about. I don’t care that you read “various outlets that focus on social media.” Tell me up-front why I should care. Don’t bury it in the last paragraph.
  4. Make sure it’s news. The company immediately saved $110,000 in weeks? Bizarre grammar aside (immediately/in weeks?), the YouTube channel was launched a year ago. Oh, and I would think that a “YouTube channel that quickly became one of YouTube’s fastest growing [sic]” (from the press release) would have more than 17 subscribers.
  5. Include a call to action. What do you want from me? What are you offering to make it easier?
  6. Fix the typos. There’s just one here (distributer) but others in the release. Bonus point: Remember, MS Word’s spell-checker isn’t enough. “Scraped” (from the release) is a real word, but you meant “scrapped.”
  7. Sign your name. Trolls send anonymous messages. Good PR people don’t.
  8. Build a relationship. If you know a blogger-relations campaign is coming up, see if you can get permission to comment or otherwise get to know the bloggers in that community ahead of time, so the pitch doesn’t come out of the blue. At a minimum, try to read the relevant blogs for a while so you know what makes them tick.

A better approach

Here’s how I might have gone about pitching me (assuming the “news” was actually news):

To: davef [at] davefleet [dot] com

Subject: How social media saved a company millions…

Hi Dave,

I’ve been reading davefleet.com for a while and know that you’re interested in social media measurement and ROI, so I thought you would find this case study interesting. It shows how social media can translate directly to dollars and cents if done correctly, and speaks directly to the post you wrote some time ago about measuring success on YouTube.

In 2007 [...], the world’s largest grower, manufacturer and distributor of [...] products, shifted their entire marketing and distribution model to social media. They’ve just announced that by leveraging YouTube ([...]) and iTunes ([...]), the company saved $110,000 in distribution costs within weeks, and by this point they’ve saved over $[amount].

Please let me know if you would like more information – I’d be happy to arrange an interview with [name, position] for you. In the meantime, I’ve included a press release about the case study below.

Regards,

[Name]

What do you think? How would you have approached this?

(Photo credit: dkg)

Posted in: blogger relations, pitching

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16Comments

Using Social Media To Create Social Media Training

07.11.12

Communications training courses on traditional strategies and tactics just don’t cut it any more. The ever-increasing rate of change on the Internet, and its emerging impact on media consumption, means organizations need to seriously consider offering social media training to their employees.

This environment, along with a few well-documented faux-pas by PR practitioners, has had me thinking about this topic a lot recently.

I got to thinking, "What should a social media 101 course offer?" I work with a lot of people who have no knowledge of social media. If I had one day to teach people a few key basics, what would they be?

Then I thought, "Why not use social media to create that program?" So, I’m trying something different here.

I’ve established the Social Media Training Wiki at http://socialtraining.wetpaint.com and given it some basic structure.

I’m throwing out a challenge to the online PR community: As a community, let’s develop a best-practice social media 101 training program.

Let’s create a one-day, scratch-the-surface program that will help employees who are new to this social media thing to find their feet.

Let’s put it out there for the good of the community.

Let’s encourage people to adapt it and adopt it.

Let’s see if we can raise the bar for social media knowledge in our organizations.

Check out the wiki. Participate. Input. Discuss.

A wider understanding of social media benefits us all.

Posted in: blogger relations, blogging, news release, pitching, pr, public relations, smnr, social media, social networks, training, web 2.0

2Comments

Public Relations Professionals Need To Get The Basics Right

07.11.09

In the wake of the ongoing bad PR pitches storm, I had a *slap forehead* moment this week when I (finally) realized the problem isn’t just about public relations professionals not ‘getting’ blogger relations. It’s not about people upgrading their skills to deal with this new media environment. This is about public relations professionals getting the public relations fundamentals right.

I love Todd’s blogger relations bookmark – it’s a great primer for people getting involved with blogger relations. We should also remember, though, that the people pitching Chris Anderson were pitching him as the Editor In Chief of Wired magazine, not as a blogger.

The principles remain the same, though: Know your market. Research who to pitch. Find out what they write about. Tailor your approach. Don’t spam people. It’s not rocket science!

Terry Fallis and David Jones discussed on Inside PR a little while back that fall into PR rather than choose it. This is by no means unique to PR. Still, I wonder if a lack of training for those who enter PR without a formal education contributes to the problems we hear about hear about daily.

A large part of my job involves managing about 30 training courses in our own internal communications program. We provide a place where government communicators can upgrade their skills or fill the gaps in their knowledge.

Obviously small agencies don’t have the resources to offer a full program like this. How does they go about training new staff?

I wonder: Do PR agencies offer training (whether internally or contracted-out) to their staff or are people expected to just know how to go about it? Are people thrown into the deep end and expected to float?

As we’ve all seen recently, that seems to be a recipe for disaster.

Posted in: blogger relations, pitching, pr, public relations, training

4Comments

PR Squared’s Blogger Relations Bookmark

07.11.01

Todd Defren posted a great Blogger Relations Bookmark on his PR Squared blog today.

The bookmark is, in part, a response to the storm that Chris Anderson kicked-off this week with his "Sorry PR People: You’re Blocked" post, where he named and shamed people he felt had emailed him inappropriately.

I only want two kinds of email: those from people I know, and those from people who have taken the time to find out what I’m interested in and composed a note meant to appeal to that [...] Everything else gets banned on first abuse.

PR-Squared's Blogger Relations BookmarkLots of people have written much more eloquently about this than I could, so I’ll just say that I sympathize with Chris but disagree with his listing of email addresses.

Unfortunately, the resulting discussion seem to have lowered the tone of online discussion between PR pros and journalists to a new low.

I find the vitriolic comments flying back and forth distasteful and saddening. I don’t want to be involved in discussions like those, so I’ve stayed away from commenting on other sites on this issue.

One positive thing that has come out of this is an explosion of posts detailing how to effectively pitch bloggers. None have impressed me more than Todd’s.

Why is Todd’s post useful? First up, it links to a bunch of useful resources on best practices. It also shares Todd’s own best practices in a format that PR pros can print out and refer to when they delve into the blogosphere.

(I just realized I mention Todd’s blog quite frequently. You know why? Because it rocks. If you don’t read it, you should. Seriously. Why are you still here? Go there now)

Posted in: blogger relations, pitching, pr, public relations

1Comments

A Bad Pitch And Some Simple Tips For Getting It Right

07.08.21

A little while back I received my first pitch as a blogger, which was very exciting for a newbie like me.

As a communications professional, I’m perhaps more open to pitches than some other people. I’m open to being pitched. At the same time, I have some idea of what a pitch should look like. You’d better make sure it’s done well. This wasn’t.

To put this in context: I write two blogs. This one and torontorunner.com (about… you guessed it… running in Toronto). This pitch came in via the latter.

Here’s the pitch (I’m sparing the person some embarrasment by not naming her):

Hi Dave,

My name is [xxx] and I am an associate account executive at [xxx]. I have been reading davefleet.com and know of you and your readers’ dedication and passion for running and I wanted to inform you of an event currently taking place in the U.S.

This is a nice enough introduction. Simple and safe, right? Wrong. This paragraph ruined any chance of a good reaction.

My first thought — they hadn’t read my blog. Why think that? Because no-one had read it. At that point I had three posts. How did they know about my “readers’ dedication”? Are they psychic? I had no comments at that time! However, the rep used my feedback form to get in touch with me, so they may have read the blog. That means they didn’t take the time to customize their pitch to the situation. That’s no better. To cap off this wonderful start, their link to my blog (which I’ve removed) didn’t work.

The Blue Planet Run, an around-the-world relay working to solve the global water crisis, is currently offering the opportunity for runners to be pace runners and join the Run along each 10 mile segment. If you and your readers are interested please go to http://blueplanetrun.org/pacerunner for more information.

I’m actually fine with this. It’s relevant to my running blog, it’s an interesting event and they’re open about wanting me to write about it.

This international athletic event, made possible by The Dow Chemical Company, is raising funds to deliver safe drinking water to 1.1 billion people who are currently without access. Dow’s commitment to this event is part of its 2015 sustainability goals, an ambitious program to improve people’s lives.

Transparency – nice. Here’s an idea though – save your spiel about the Dow Chemical Company until you’ve got me. Let the website talk about that. I’m a runner, not an industry journalist – I don’t care about that. Don’t mix your audiences. Mentioning it here just made me cynical about the whole event.

Since the run started at the United Nations in New York City on June 1st, the Blue Planet team has traveled relay-style 24 hours a day from the US to Europe and Asia, reaching as far as China.

If your readers can’t become pace runners, they can still join the Blue Planet Run from anywhere in the world by taking the 10 Mile Challenge.

Best,

That seems fair enough to me. Sounds like a great way to participate. Turns out it costs $85 for the privilege of helping someone else run:

The Blue Planet Runner will set the pace and you will run alongside, helping the runner stay motivated and focused. (from the website)

but that’s more of an event flaw than the pitcher’s fault.

So, not a horrible pitch, but not great either. The first paragraph and one or two other slip-ups ruined any chance of me writing favourably about the event.

To summarize, they got a few things right:

  • They pitched a relevant product
  • They were transparent about the company behind it
  • They let me know up-front what they wanted me to do

However, they got more things wrong. When pitching bloggers, make sure you:

  • Read their blog
  • Tailor your pitch to the person
  • Focus on your target audience
  • Make sure your links work

Update: I contacted the person who made the pitch and offered them the chance to respond to this. No response. Shame; I would have liked to hear their perspective.

Posted in: blogging, pitching, pr, public relations

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