Note to Communicators: Join, don't pitch

Lately, I have been hit by a bevy of bad PR pitches.  They have about the same effect n me as eating bad clams. I am a recovering publicist, so I try to be gentle and encouraging to PR folk, even though I rarely write about a pitched company or topic. But this week, I know I got grumpy. Enough is enough.

So many of my favorite bloggers are PR folk. There are probably too many to mention. But Phil Gomes, Mike Manuel, Kami Huyse, Joe Thornley, Shel Holtz, David Parmet, Josh Hallett, and Chris Heuer are the first to come to mind.  There are others, but I'm feeling link-lazy.

Many started blogging before or at about the same time as I did and, as far as I can tell, few of them reached prominence in their field before they became so immersed in blogging and social media. They figured out that the fundamentals of PR had shifted. Instead of pitching influencers, they could be influencers.  They realized that while a hit in the times or at Scobleizer was nice, a hit in their own posts could have its impact as well.

Each of these players gave me hope that enough PR practitioners would understand and embrace the fundamental change in the PR practice.  That their was greater PR impact in talking with client customers than sending them messages through traditional tactics.

But the taper off seems to be sharpening.  My experience is that an increasing number of PR folk are trying to treat bloggers as media. They want to find the 3-5 highest ranked topical bloggers and get hits that can be converted to clips.

They've learned smarmy little tricks like telling bloggers that they consider the blogger influential.  It takes little time for a blogger to realize the pitcher has never read the blog they are pitching.

Here's the real trick. Don't pitch the conversational network.  Join it.  start your own blog. Get into the social networks like Facebook. Send your own tweets.  Be part of the conversation so that we bloggers can see who you are and what yo do and what you have to say.

Then when you say something that is useful or interesting to my readers, chances are I will link to you. If I write something, and you can add value to the conversation--new insight, new data, a different perspective, I will scurry to your blog and read you for a while. Kami Huyse did this to me a while back and I became a fan of her blog and recommend it to all sorts of people. When Kami & Josh launched Sea World's Roller Coaster blog, they didn't have to pitch me. I saw they had news that was relevant and I wrote about it because my audience would be interested. Any of the other bloggers listed above also have sufficient transparency and authenticity. If they wrote about a client, I would not need a pitch from them to be motivated to find a post that would be relevant to my readers.

In the end, that is where my loyalty rests.  I write for the people who come here. 

My point is this. PR fiolk have a huge new opportunity.  They can now have actual relationships with the public.  They can bring back what they learn i conversations to clients. That's the real value in blogger relations.  The conversation means a great deal, the blogger rankings, in most cases, means very little.

Comments

[Todd Defren]

Well, even though you got link-lazy *just before* thinking to include Yours Truly in your list of rockstars, I'm still gonna comment. ;)

You make good points, especially the fact that many PR pros are looking to influence a top-tier of bloggers just as they would "typical" media contacts, for the sake of The Clip.

However, in fairness, there's a point of diminishing returns, I'd think: do we even want the THOUSANDS of PR people in the industry participating as bloggers, tweeters, etc.? And, could we expect a PR blogger to have influence (or exposure) in every potential industry in which their clients operate?

No, I think, at best, what we can and must do is "train for authenticity." Make sure that they read, lurk, comment, that they "get it," before they're let off the leash.

Once we start thinking of The New PR as "community relations" vs. "media relations" I think the industry will undergo the sea change it needs to thrive in this new era.

p.s. Did you ever find a coat in Boston? It's freeeeeezing here today, eh?!

[Kami Huyse]

Shel, As always I am humbled by your kind words. It is so important to remember that this is all about relationships. You are much more than a data point or even a measurement result ;-) You are person that I respect and love to read. What I am impressed about is that you have greatly expanded your list of PR types that "get it" since I've known you. Maybe there is hope after all?

[JJ Ciempa]

Shel, you have summed it up wonderfully…Joining in on the conversation is much more important than getting a client’s key messages positioned neatly into a generic news release. When will the world of PR figure this out? How many more Chris Anderson incidents do we need to have before the industry wakes up?

Unfortunately, I think part of the problem is that many agencies push their publicists to pitch to influentials rather than contribute to the conversation. In a strict business sense it is viewed as a more cost effective way to disseminate information because it can reach a wider range of “influencials.”

That same release that was sent to you, most likely went to other bloggers with a similar beat. The tactic of pitching only requires a publicist to draft a generic news release that can then be sent to hundreds of editors, journalists, bloggers and key influencers with the hopes that at least 30% of the recipients run with the information.

What you are asking is for the publicist to join in many different conversations. This would require many tailored bits of information and a higher level of involvement that is not as cost effective. Imagine the amount of time that it would take to write 100 different releases of information, tailored to specific conversations of that day’s post.

I will ask my first question: What has a better return on investment when attempting to get a client into the blogosphere? Pitching a generic news release or building relationship by joining in on the conversation?

As summed up by Katie Paine in her new book “Measuring Public Relationships” (http://kdpaine.blogs.com/bookblog/) many of us tend to forget that the “R” in “PR” stands for relations. Thus, many publicists do not focus on building relationships with the influencials that they rely on. Instead, they solicit them with news release emails, phone calls and negative attitude if the release is not picked up in the media outlet.

I will ask a second question: What's more valuable? Generating a many hits with a generic news release or building dialogue with bloggers?

Focusing on generating blog hits through shotgun pitching strategies is not a good way to show any client ROI. If successful all you accomplish is getting it through the gatekeeper at that moment in time, but eventually the backlash will be that the blogger you keep pitching too feels abused and eventually blacklists you severing the relationship building opportunities that could have blossomed by joining in on the conversation.

My third question is how do you make blogging more cost effective? As for solving the problem of how to join in many conversations, a publicist should not be the only person blogging for a client. They should build a blog list and offer higher level strategy and best practices advice to the client on how to appropriately blog. They should also encourage the client to get employees engaged in all blogging efforts. There is no one who can talk more about the company than its employees.

Finally, does pitching have a place in PR? For much of traditional media, pitching will never go away. For example, the only way to get into the Wall Street Journal print edition is to pitch your story to a key reporter or buy advertising. However, I agree with you and many other bloggers (myself being new to the game) that a publicist should not try to infuse old communication techniques, such as pitching a story, to new media outlets, such as blogs.

Bloggers start blogs to create a forum for open discussion on a topic of interest that the blogger enjoys facilitating and is knowledgeable about. People go to blogs to participate in conversation and share ideas and opinions, while they go to traditional news outlets to consume vetted information.

As a side note, I want to point out that I am not affiliated with Katie Paine or her new book. Rather, I’m in the process of reading the first pages and felt compelled to share some thoughts from reading her book in my comment. I also recommend it to anyone looking for solid information about measuring their public relations.

Cheers,

JJ Ciempa

[Phil Gomes]

Great post... When I first came to Edelman in August 2005, my boss asked me to write the "rules" I follow (such as they are) about online community participation.

Rule #1: "Don't pitch, participate."

The funny thing is, I started blogging because 1) i wanted to update my site in such a way that I could get around the firewall, and 2) i saw it as the best MEDIA RELATIONS tool ever. (Journalists rightly complain that PRs don't read their work. Here was proof-positive that I did *and* have something to say.)

Now, I had been online since about 1985, but gaining a *true* appreciation of the value of online engagement didn't *really* happen for me until folks like Tom Murphy, Kevin Dugan, and Elizabeth Albrycht started to show up online. It wasn't until *that* happened that the whole start-of-something-big sense started to take hold. (Dan Gillmor was also very instrumental in helping me form my early thoughts on this topic.)

"New media" principles will never eclipse or replace good PR practice, but they need to *melt* into those practices (as opposed to being an inelegant bolt-on) if the profession is to remain relevant.

For my part, if it weren't for new media, I probably would've gotten out of this business in 2001.

[shel israel]

Phil,
Your closing comment hit a nerve for me. If I had known that social media was coming, I may not have gotten out of the business back in 2000.

[Betsy Yates]

JJ's observation about agencies pushing publicists resonated with me. My boss encourages me to monitor and learn about social media, a luxury she feels comfy affording me since practicing it directly for a hospital seems like a future reality, considering patient privacy concerns. As a former newspaper reporter working in p.r. for the last 5 years, I've noticed that the heavy-handed, controlling cliche of this industry often begins with the one who signs the practitioner's paycheck. Astute observation, I know... :)