When is it a Good Idea to Include Bloggers in Your Media Outreach?

There are plenty of posts dedicated to how to pitch bloggers.

I give Darren Rowse the gold for starting his commentary with the suggestion that you'd want to comment first and become a genuine and active member of that blog's community before pitching. Lee Odden assembled a great reading list at TopRank blog a couple of years ago - be relevant is what resonates to me most about his list.

Jeff Pulver stated that PR is not an industry for lazy people. It isn't indeed. Adam Singer broached the topic most recently and I must say that his final word of advice on doing your research first is solid advice. We are way, way past using a standard press release for bloggers' outreach.

I get my fair share of press releases every day - at the tune of 4-5 per day, in fact. The best word I can use to describe them by and large is unimpressive. "I think you're fabulous" may seem like a good idea for a subject line, but if you cannot tell me why, as in what about my work makes you say that, you're out. 

That means you not only miss the mark on what I like to write about, you show lack of interest. It is clear I'm on a hit list, but there is no effort towards understanding why. The why is the reason your press release or pitch is going nowhere. Get that, and you will begin to have some success with bloggers' outreach.

The best pitch is no pitch at all. The best pitch is in fact a conversation. One in which the writer can find a unique story to tell. One based on an ongoing relationship with someone who writes about a specific subject matter. If journalists and editors need to think about their readers, so do bloggers.

Some of you at this point may start thinking about how great content can be compelling - it is only if we can add value to it for our readers and community. It's the same question Jeff Jarvis posed to journalists last week. It could be summed up with one quote by Warren Buffet: “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”

Given the diminishing number of publications, especially for trade, which is where B2B companies  traditionally got coverage, PR agencies need to become more creative in the pitches they make. In some cases, given the media fragmentation beyond trade, it may take some work to research, discover, and reach new avenues.

I suppose if you're a start up and have no PR funds, or if you are in the business of servicing social media and pitch bloggers, you are somewhat in the environment you should be in. However, do you ask yourself a fundamental question about public relations - am I reaching the people I'd want to act upon the information I'm sharing?

In that light, all coverage is not created equal. It needs to pass the "so what" test. There is another confusing component in all this - going to bloggers in many cases means going direct to your public, without much of a filter. In this sense, it is unclear yet what PR’s role is in this new environment, which is probably one of the reasons public relations firms are ill equipped to deal with blogs as part of their media outreach program.

When is it a good idea to include bloggers in your media outreach?

1. If you can pass the straight face test - this matters to their readers
2. You have an integrated approach - part of the story fits the new media landscape like a glove and you have something unique to offer for that one media property
3. Their traffic is your audience - chances are a blogger's traffic is much more targeted than a magazine's
4. You intend to dedicate time and resources to being authentic - cutting-edge, leader, authority in whatever it is you do tend to sound fake to someone who writes for passion
5. You're open to a two-way dialogue and accept that ideas may come back to you as a result of the conversation

One final piece of advice - words matter. Choose them carefully, be wise and considerate, and you will receive responses in kind.

[image from Australia Post campaign]

Comments

[Bruce Christensen]

Valeria,
What do you do when the blog you want to connect with is on-target with your message, but you feel uncomfortable fitting into the regular conversation of the posts?
For example: If the market research points to strong female engagement for the product, but you are a male.
What if you want to start a conversation with a Mommy Blogger and all the conversations are about teething?
Do you hurt your chances if you just inject yourself into the conversation?
Sometimes trying not to be what Chris Brogan calls "That Guy" keeps us from stepping into these spaces.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Bruce:

I do a lot of outreach off line - by email, helping connect people to other like-minded professionals as well as resources. This may be one of those cases. It's hard for me to imagine that you would find it difficult to engage with someone - you're a good listener. Start there. Ask for help from the community, be honest and transparent, and see what happens.

[Bruce Christensen]

Thank you,
I will be bold and start a conversation, then see what happens.

[Len Kendall]

100% Transparency. Extremely valuable content for the niche. And something that the blogger believes in. If they don't, it will show.

[Sommer @greenmom]

I love this:

"The best pitch is no pitch at all. The best pitch is in fact a conversation."

As a blogger who gets way to many pitches everyday I love this! I run blog tours for companies and it's helpful to the company because when I go to the blogger I have a relationship with them. Most pitches are like throwing mud at the wall and hoping it sticks.

One client of mine told me their PR firm quoted them 12 bloggers to write about their product in 6 months but when this client and I started conversing, like you suggest, the numbers were out of this world. We were just talking, relating, interacting and being real. That goes a long ways.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Bruce - good for you! Let me know how it goes.

@Len - as you know, those are all things your figure out when you are engaged yourself in reading and listening. I'd say that extremely valuable content can win you over in the absence of a relationship the first time out. But you've got to be really good at how you present it to break through the clutter.

@Sommer - there's a lot to be said for human contact and a desire to connect. Relationships are important, the ability to engage in new ones are equally critical for long term success. Things are changing to rapidly nowadays. Glad the post was useful.