How To Not Contact Bloggers

Blogging has hit the mainstream when it comes to making PR pitches.  Most of the PR professionals we have worked with or talked to, always have a strategy for hitting the blogs. Publications like TechCrunch can make or break a startup, or at least get them a lot of initial traction.  A lot of people have asked us, “So how should I pitch bloggers?” So here is a list of tips and hints, along with a few good must read articles related to the subject.

1.  Familiarize Yourself With The Blog-  Find out who the main staff is, what they do, and possibly what they may have done in the past.  Most Gawker blogs list this on the left.  Get a feel for what they write about and certain hot points.  Every blogger has certain companies or technologies they find to be interesting.  For Example, I love enterprise 2.0.  Much more likely to get me to write about Enterprise 2.0 versus An MP3 player.  
2. Don’t Boilerplate and Mess It Up-  Do you know how many times a blogger has gotten an invite to review a product, but the name and contact info is for another blogger?  Many bloggers are used to boilerplate press releases, but at least have some dignity with it.  Try to avoid boilerplate and standardized emails if you can.
3.  Be Relevant- Please please have a clue about what the blog is.  Do not pitch a gadget review to an Enterprise 2.0 blog or vice versa.  Check editorial calendars if the blog has it.  This is more likely to happen on larger blogs like CNET.  Also see what stories they’re running, or try to read posts for what they might be looking for.  For example, Read/Write/Web asked for Facebook collaboration tools.  
4.  Offering a Product Trial Does Not= A Positive Review- Guess what?  Free stuff doesn’t buy good coverage.  In some cases, it might even backfire on you.  Remember the Acer/Vista/Ferrari laptop scandal from last year?  .  Also be sure to answer any technical questions they may have.  You don’t want to be slammed just because of simple miscommunication.
5.  Have a takeaway- Be short and to the point.  Let them know next steps, how they can contact you, and anything else that is relevant.  This applies to all emails in business, but especially with PR.  If you leave things too open ended, they will be ignored.
6.  Provide attached background info (not too large)-  Attach or link to media files, supplemental materials, and more.  Don’t make the email too large, as it becomes overwhelming.  You’re one of 100 on a good day for some blogs.  Get the good vibes going, not the “this sucks” vibes.
7.  Send to the right person- Chris Anderson made this very clear with his PR “Blacklist”.  Tons of PR pros were sending emails to the editor, instead of the right contact at Wired.  Certain bloggers cover certain topics on blogs.  Don’t end up on a blog blacklist, it’s not a pretty place to be.

Some Additional Posts to Read : 

Blogger Relations 201

 Elevator Pitch on PR and Blogging  Bad Pitch Blog PR Wiki-  Tips on Pitching Bloggers Blogger Relations 101