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A whirlwind of thoughtsArchive for blogs
PR Practioners: Get Your Heads Out of the Pitch.. Personalize.
As a student studying PR, I am constantly studying the newest sources and mediums that are being used by PR practitioners to reach their publics. Low and behold, social media is continually shooting to the top of the list of contenders.
When researching how people in PR should “Pitch” to influential bloggers, the tip that seemed most prominent amongst bloggers themselves is: Don’t pitch, Personalize. As stated in an article I found while researching, it was one of the key tips I found for pitching to bloggers.
For people who are not sure exactly what is meant by “Personalize,” Wikipedia has the most socially current definition.
“Personalization involves using technology to accommodate the difference between individuals.”
What this means people of PR: Do not send bloggers template pitch messages. As a person looking to start a career in PR and currently a blogger, it is understandable that a blogger would not want to receive hundreds of pitches from PR professionals that do not care enough about the blogger to at least include their name let alone show that they are interested in the blog itself.
This sets me up for the next topic tip, when you are ready to sit down and personalize a message instead of spamming up an innocent bloggers inbox with pitches, do some research! I found when reading about pitching to bloggers that research, although grueling and time-consuming, will be beneficial for a number of reasons.
- Quality over Quantity: Research will help you target bloggers that are related to your rhyme of reason. You want to send fewer messages to bloggers that will actually be able to use your pitch, than to a lot of bloggers who find your message meaningless.
- Eye Catching vs. Garbage Fetching: Research and find your niche that will fit the bloggers niche. Get creative with your message. Find things in common and show that you are a dedicated subscriber to his or her blog. In a sea of pitches, make sure yours is the “whale” of them all!
- Relate Don’t Delegate: When you research, you will notice the style of the blogger. You may stumble upon an idea on how to converge your pitch with their blog. Do not tell the blogger what their readers would be interested in reading. Let them decide themselves after your message if they are able to make the connection between the both of you and their readers.
Ideally, create a relationship with the blogger. As said in The Bad Pitch Blog, a bad pitch has a real bad impact. Their mission is to shed light on the mistakes of the PR pitches around the world. The reason they made this their mission and the reason I am sitting here now flooding your mind with my two-cents is primarily to save PR.
“Because coverage, reputation and ultimately business is at stake.“
To blog or not to blog? That is the million dollar question for PR practitioners.
Photo via Kaushik.net
A public relations practitioner may stop and ask themselves, “Why should I blog and what is the point?
Well, aside from the ENORMOUS craze currently going on over social media, there are lucrative benefits for businesses to also participate.In a blog post I read written by the good the bad the and spin, it stated three reasons why it is smart for people with a career in PR start up a blog. The reasons are:
1. Blogs publish information in real time-Blogs offer a mechanism to respond quickly and affirmatively.
2. Blogs place information on public record- Blogs are one place to put information with a personal touch, rather than sending out a blast news release. Blogs, similar to direct email, are a tactic to target certain publics.
3. Blogs are cost effective- If used correctly, blogs can equate with the search engine ranking power of mass media outlets.
I think these are convincingly concrete answers for why people in the field of PR should blog. It cuts out the people in-between that filters and alters the information a PR practitioner wants to make available to the public. An article online written by James L. Horton best summed up the advantages of blogs in PR by saying, “Think of a blog as a low-cost and fast publishing tool that can provide an important dimension to an individual and/or organization in terms of getting news out quickly.”
Other than playing the role of a vehicle for fast and free publishing, it allows PR professionals to bring into play their most important factor, and that is the human factor. Mashable.com posted a blog entry about the emphasis of relationships between PR professionals and bloggers. The article focused that despite the changing medium for press releases, by directly reaching out to key media and influencers with whom we maintain relationships, we’re able to ensure their timely awareness of the news.
I feel that in the business it is extremely important to keep up with technology and communication trends because if you are not, someone else is. If a PR practitioner is not taking the time to promote their clients and tie them with their publics, then they are not doing their jobs. Blogs allow for this exact interaction to happen!
Now remember, if a person in PR is blogging it does need to be professional and beneficial to their career. Frequently people use blogs as personal journals, and I think PR professionals need to keep in mind that they represent other people and not themselves.
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