Thank you Nick.
You’ve made me complete.
My Mother will be so proud.
Technorati Tags: blogebrity, /blogging
Monthly Archive for October, 2005
From Hugh:
Reduced to the most basic level, the main reason English Cut is currently growing as a busines is simply because people like telling the story to other people. Because they like telling it, that’s what they do. Ergo, the story spreads.
So ask yourself this question: Do people like telling your story? Seriously, when people talk about what you do for a living, do their eyes light up?
If not, you’ve got a bit of a marketing problem.
There’s the key.
You either have a story or you don’t.
You either talk in a human voice or use buzzwords like “paradigm.”
Technorati Tags: pr, /public relations
So maybe I blogged too quickly. Maybe I was a bit harsh.
After driving home, having dinner and putting my kids to sleep, I’ve had some time to think about it.
And I’m still annoyed.
For a couple of reasons.
First of all, this pitch was several pages long when I printed it out. It included a lengthy interview with the client that had no relevance to what I blog about – it was mainly about ‘innovation’ and other buzzwords we put to rest in 2000. So I wouldn’t have sent it to a journalist, let alone a blogger.
Here’s a tip folks. All of this discussion on pitching bloggers vs. pitching journalists misses on key point. The way most PR people pitch journalists is wrong and counterproductive and only serves to piss off the journalist.
Don’t write pitch letters. Write letters! Make phone calls. Find out what the journalist or blogger is interested in and if you think they might be interested in your client, drop them a friendly email. I know this is beyond the imagination and ability of the average PR account manager, but maybe that’s why so many journalists hate dealing with PR people.
Second of all, since this pitch obviously went over like a lead balloon in the blog world, the agency will probably figure ‘oh well, so much for pitching bloggers.’ No chance at all that they might take a good hard look at how they go about approaching bloggers.
There, now I’ve made myself very happy I don’t work in an agency anymore.
Technorati Tags: blogging, /pr, /public relations
OK… the beat up on the pitch letter meme has pretty much run it’s course.
Or so I thought until I just got a little missive from an account executive at one of the larger, more well known PR agencies. I’ll spare you the several pages of blah blah blahbitty blah.. but this part just stuck out like a sore thumb…
I think that the information found on name deleted to protect the guilty would also prove to be a valuable resource for visitors to your site who are looking to get a jump on their competition, grow their business, and provide value for customers and stakeholders.
If you have been reading my blog you would have realized that most visitors come here for snarky comments from an agency burnout.
And if my referal logs are to be believed, the person who sent me the email is on this site right now. In other words, they sent out the pitch and now they are sitting in their cubicle anxiously hitting the refresh button.
One other thing. Requesting a ’sidebar mention’ is fine if you are dealing with a magazine editor. Bloggers put ads on their sidebars.
Best response yet… from Blogebrity.
Come on guys, aren’t I at least a C-lister??
Technorati Tags: bacons, /public relations, /blogebrity
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