Chris Pirillo » pr

Public Relations (PR) and the Blogosphere

Chris Pirillo — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 08:31:03 +0000

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I don’t mind PR agents, really. There are some – and their approaches – that I DO mind. There’s a fine line that a lot of PR people don’t realize is there. I’m now being asked by a journalist to give my thoughts about PR and their direct role within the Blogging the community. The question, specifically is “Is it reasonable for PRs to target the Blogging community?”.

A blog in itself isn’t a “community”. There are subsets of types of blogs and genres. They themselves are communities. The bottom line is that I am not a journalist. I’m a columnist, yes. I’m a blogger. I’m a video caster. I help other people blog. I don’t know how you’d classify me. The one thing I am is that I”m not a media agency. I’m just someone who enjoys Technology.

I think it’s reasonable for PR people to contact bloggers, yes… with these five things in mind.

Be transparent, and expect transparency in return. Don’t email us pretending you’re someone you’re not. Be up front, and honest about what you’re after. You’ll have a much better shot at getting us on your side or promoting your product(s) and services.
Don’t ask for links. It’s rude to just ask us to give you a link. If I’m interested, I’ll talk about it, and link to it. But for you to just send me a message and ask me to “embed this link”… is just not cool.
Be proactive with review links or products. The only way to really get me to talk about your item(s) is to put something in my hand. Give me something to review. Send me coupons or savings I can pass along to my community.
Know who they are, and why they matter. Don’t just send out some generic email. Make sure you put something into your approach that shows you really DO read my blog, don’t just state it.
Keep it short and sweet. No. Press. Releases. Scan… delete. Software, if you don’t offer me a review code, then it’s deleted. If it’s hardware without a review sample… delete. Maybe you should post your press releases on Twitter.

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PR Pitches and Marketing Glitches

Chris Pirillo — Thu, 17 May 2007 07:57:23 +0000

I have an open mind – especially for new stuff. Here’s the latest pitch that hit my inbox:

PitchWire is an online community for influencers (journalists, bloggers and analysts) and publicists that promotes responsible pitching and transparency. The results are more successful “hits” and a better relationship between influencers and publicists.

Okay. I’m listening.

Leveraging PitchWire’s patent-pending technology, you can create a personalized PitchWire page, your first line of communication (or defense in some cases) with the PR community. You can also find sources and content for an upcoming story and manage your pitches, sources and contacts in a CRM-like database (think of it as a MySpace.com, eHarmony.com and Salesforce.com all rolled into one).

Well, the Patent Pending part doesn’t impress me much – but I’ll be interested in seeing what kind of pitches roll my way now that I’ve set up a profile. Of course, I could’ve been a bit more specific with my interests, but I’m not really expecting much to come through. Besides, it’s free for “influencers” (quote emphasis mine).

What is the Future of PR and Marketing?

Chris Pirillo — Thu, 03 May 2007 17:02:09 +0000

Are all PR and marketing agents clueless? Maybe not. There are a few things that PR and marketing agencies might do to make bloggers respect them more, with these suggestions and discussion points coming directly from the Gnomedex audience:

Demonstrate you’ve read the person’s blog
For boggers: Don’t blast every bad pitch
People want to talk to real people
Spin really doesn’t cut it
Open up a dialogue
Product images, permalinks, people, passion
Less press releases
Don’t send a Word DOC
Having passionate users of product
Get them to stand up and talk about it
People have built-in B.S. detectors

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Steve Rubel is a senior marketing strategist with over 15 years experience. He currently serves as senior vice president in Edelman’s me2revolution practice. Edelman is the largest independent global PR firm. He is charged with helping Edelman identify, test, incubate and champion new forms of communication. He also explores this on his well-read Micro Persuasion weblog and in a bi-weekly column for AdAge Digital.

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Think Small

Chris Pirillo — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 06:01:49 +0000

Citizen Agency, LLC is an Internet consultancy that specializes in developing community-centric strategies around product research, design, development and marketing. A few notes from Chris Messina and Tara Hunt’s session were taken by Gnomedexer Alberto (Lopez):

Non zero-sum means is a WIN-WIN for everyone
Do it for Love
Do it for Fun
bunches of camps have sprung up all over the place
They run BarCamp
They are looking to build out the Infrastructure for the kind of future we (the Blogosphere) want for ourselve
Alaska Air snet Tara an email, with everything about her trip, incld. waether, stuff to do, etc. They “get it”.
You can succeed with out a giagantic liquidity event
Bootstrapping can be done

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