3SmartGirlz, LLC

Open Letter to Our PR Colleagues Who Have Spinach In Their Teeth

Open Letter to PR Pitching Pros:

Kudos on getting your client mentioned in the Sunburn Prevention spot this morning.  Don’t worry about the way Kathie Lee said the product smelled like rotten fruit. That’s just Kathie Lee being Kathie Lee. Nice work!

But, hey, I’m writing because you know how you always said a good friend would tell you when you had spinach on your teeth before you go into a board room to pitch, right?  Well, here goes.

With bloggers? You are doing it wrong.

Here’s the thing: smart clients want to tap into the vast influence of bloggers, of course they do.  So they hire you to run a social media outreach for their product launch, new bells-and-whistles dancing-coupon website, virtual meet-up with a celeb endorser, eco-hook story.  Whatever.

They want you to help them benefit from bloggers’ platforms in the same way that they try to score mentions in newspapers and magazines:  by sending a press release or PR email to the publisher. They want the exposure that print gave them.  Eyeballs. But they want more:  measurable  interaction, robust traffic, SEO juice, endorsement from mega influences.  They want things they don’t even know how to explain, like the deep equity that is built from having their brand come to life in the context of real consumers.

They want you to get that by offering the blogger the same exchange (a relatively easy story via press release/pitch) that your old college lecturer offered print publishers back when he was actually pitching, circa Mad Men.

Square peg, meet round hole. 

You don’t have to travel far in the blogosphere to see complaint after complaint about bad PR pitches from companies and firms asking bloggers for earned media.  The thing is, there are many ways to blog, but most bloggers of influence are NOT like newspaper features editors who have pages and pages to fill every day and who might benefit from a canned story or new product mention.  Some blogs do function that way (though appearing in blogs like that is akin to appearing in a Pennysaver classified ad, not really valuable unless you are marketing a used birdcage.)  The places your clients need to be?  Those bloggers are selective, with distinctive voices and hard-earned platforms. 

So, my dear PR colleagues: STOP THE PITCH MACHINE.  If you are sending(or having your PR interns send) a standard “here’s my client’s story and some high resolution pix!” pitch to a blogger who doesn’t need graphs to fill space, you are spamming. Ditto on the bogus reviews and giveaways. That may have worked last year, but the jig is up.

Purge your lists.  Maintain AT LEAST two lists: “Bloggers Who Like Filler Stories” and  “Influencers to Build Relationships With When I Can Offer Campaign Exchanges Worthy of Their Attention.” 

New media requires new ways.  You need to learn a new way of thinking about marketing and PR, of crafting outreach strategies, of buying and earning media, and of working with influencers.  Learn it, or, just like your clients, buy assistance from insiders, or broker help from colleagues who know the ropes–or your clients will be going elsewhere.

I know it’s a drag to reposition budget, but it’s worth it, and you have to be able to explain budget shifts required by social media to your clients. They got used to the costs of nightclub menus and plants to decorate booths at trade shows, they can adapt to marketing/PR hybrid campaigns with bloggers where you actually have something to show for the expenditure. Dude, let me know how we can hook you up with the right kind of help and access.

The alternative is simply not effective, like using an ornate Victorian key to try to start your Prius.  Nothing’s gonna move, and you just look silly.

You would want a friend to tell ya, right?

3SG