The Myth of Not Cultivating Bloggers

In a post titled The Myth of "Cultivating Bloggers," Ben McConnell at Church of the Customer says: "Save your client some money: stop pitching bloggers you don't know. ..."Cultivating bloggers like traditional media" is an old-school view of people as message receptacles."

His advice, "Appeal to the people who already love your client and foster those relationships."

Yes, and no.

The role of PR is to influence opinion. And tell stories. For a lot of companies, concentrating only on those who love them would net a pretty small clipping report.

The bottom line is that nothing you say matters if your product sucks. But assuming it doesn't, intelligent PR can still make new friends.

McConnell's taking the "bloggers aren't journalists" side of the endless argument over who, exactly, we are. I say we're a new breed of journalists and you pitch us the same way you pitch any other journalist:

- read what we write
- get our goddamn names right (stop calling me Mr. Ochman, for example)
- contact us when you have something relevant
- keep your pitch to a couple of grafs at most. If we are interested, we'll ask you for more information.
- don't say "because your Alexa ranking is amazing" I think you'll want to cover this (I'm not making that up. It was in an email pitch last week.)
- read what we write

PR people are forced to pitch the whole world by their agency employers and their clients, who mistakenly believe that everything about their clients is interesting. So they deal with the Catch 22 issue of needing to show results and having clients and bosses who know zilch about the Internet and media relations. But hey, that's just one of many reasons I don't spend my days making press calls.

Links to my previous posts on how to pitch bloggers through this post.

Bonus link:
Mack Collier on Your Company Blog Sucks. Now What?. Great advice.

Additional points of view: Transparency Schmansparency: It's Not the Business of PR

Good points, BL. One thing to note is that blogger outreach tactics depend on the end result you are looking to achieve. Are you just looking for coverage or a link? Well, then traditional press pitches shoudl work fine. However, if you're looking to cultivate a relationship and develop brand advocates, wouldn't a less conventional canned approach be more effective? I picked up on the COTC post today as well and had some thoughts on it in a post over at Socially Adept.

The quote that caught my attention in your blog is that "bloggers aren't journalists".

Couldn’t agree more.

Vendors need to realise that they need to treat every group in their own specific way. It took years to educate companies that they shouldn’t lump analysts into the same bucket as the press - and now it appears that we are back to square one again but this time with bloggers.

My post backs this point up.

I'm with you BL. Almost none of the bloggers I have placed stories with ever heard of me or my client until I contacted them. If you have a story that is right for their blog they will take a look. That is the only thing that matters.

One other tip, if a blogger is good enough to write about your client, hype their link. Everyone likes recognition.

I agree also-- if it's truly a "church of the customer," don't tell the vendors they can't preach. In one way they are different from MSM, you need to take a different approach for a different medium. In another way, it's much the same-- we need to be changing our approaches, often from outlet to outlet. It's all about relationships, and yes, conversations. Nothing wrong with being the one to initiate them,

Fine words all round: my clients are often PR firms.

BUT don't you notice that people see the world through their own personal lens? The church of the customer is about one thing... getting customers to do the selling / marketing / PR for you. That's their story. Every story is interpreted through that lens. Nothing wrong with this (I loved their first book enough to give it to several clients).

I found the same thing when working for Don Peppers and Martha Rogers at 1to1.com They thought 1to1 marketing or CRM was the solution to every business issue. It isn't.

Realising that the all-round picture is probably different is what a holistic, experienced business adviser or business manager can bring to the situation. And, as Doug says above, it's horses for courses and good relationships smooth a lot of paths.

Rebecca Caroe