July 18, 2003
Publicly Relating to Blogs
Recently, Anil Dash found a MediaMap "briefing book" covering blogs, hidden on some PR pro's website. (In case the thing gets removed, which will most likely happen soon, I snagged it, cleaned it up and samed it as a .txt file for you.
The find has rankled some bloggers, as they realize what it means: PR people are now aware of weblogs, and a deluge of useless press releases is on the way. Theoretically.
I'm not so sure. Of course some bloggers will see this happen, but the vast majority won't. And this briefing book isn't going to be the reason. It contains just 141 listings, and is idiosycratic at best in its coverage. There's thorough coverage of Corante's blog stable and, oddly, those of the Spokane Statesman-Review, but far more prominent blogs are ignored. Anil Dash and Megnut are listed, but not kottke.org or Zeldman, both of whom have written about being pitched by PR.
And as Gene Smith pointed out, most of the entries lack any sort of detailed information about the blog in question, just a list of general topics covered. The entries are each padded with an identical description of what a weblog is and some general tips on how to pitch them:
A blog (or Weblog) is a frequently-updated Web diary, including commentary, hyperlinks, and personal observations. Most blogs have links to other blogs, creating a community of information and the sharing of ideas. Many have no editors or publishers; the blogs are entirely the responsibility of the journalist (or blogger) writing them. Blogs can be broad in scope or they can be tailored to specific topics. Bloggers often post breaking news and information to their Weblog and offer unique perspectives on current events. MediaMap covers blogs compiled by
journalists. Blogs are quickly becoming a popular way to exchange information among media professionals, particularly journalists. Reporters use blogs to cover interesting stories that their primary outlets (mainstream magazines, newspapers, etc.) may pass up. Blogs are also used to broadcast opinions, offering reporters an alternative to traditional journalistic objectivity.
Tips on how PR professionals should use blogs:
- Monitor industry blogs on a daily or weekly basis. This may provide insight on areas of interest to particular journalists and/or help manage messaging when necessary.
- Know the focus of the blog before contacting a blogger. Many blogs are targeted to a specific topic and only cover information that relates to that topic.
- Do not send press releases to bloggers. MediaMap generally covers these journalists at their primary media outlets; send press releases to these contacts only as it relates to their outlets. Instead of sending press releases and press kits to bloggers, send tips, news, and samples of products.
- Press releases have a purpose, but they should not be viewed as means to building relationships with journalists. The fundamentals of working with journalist bloggers are the same as with journalists at traditional media outlets: respect their time (or lack thereof), take the time to read their material and understand what topics they are interested in, and only then contact them with a newsworthy story in the way they want.
- Keep in mind: if news doesn't fit into a print publication or Web site's format or coverage, a journalist may cover it in his/her blog.
- E-mail is the best way to send information, as bloggers use the Internet and computer technology to create their blogs.
Indeed, stripping this out of each entry and reformatting them to eliminate other redundancies (such as duplicated contact info) took a 150+ page document down to 40-something.
Although there are a lot of "clueless PR flacks" out there, most won't get involved in weblogs for years -- the PR firm I worked at before my current employ didn't have email until 1998, and apparently hadn't gotten a fax machine until a client demanded it. How quickly do you think they'll pick up on the blog phenomenon? And at least MediaMap is getting it right: They advise email contact only, which reduces the likelihood of bloggers getting pestered over the phone and allows them to completely ignore news releases if they want -- after all, we do so with spam already.
Besides, the majority of the bloggers listed in this briefing book -- and the majority of those that PR pros would be interested in talking to -- are journalists, who are already getting the deluge. The high-profile non-journalist bloggers are already getting used to it, so a bit more won't be all that big of a deal. And while the briefing book isn't all that great, it will only get better as weblogs become more familiar and more time is devoted to researching them.
Smith's admonition that PR pros need to be familiar with blogs before they can pitch them is very true, and it'll happen, however I disagree with him that PR pros need to join the weblog community in order to familiarize themselves with the medium. You don't have to work for a newspaper or magazine to understand them and know how to pitch to them, and you certainly don't have to write a blog to be familiar with them. You do need to read them, and read them enough to understand what kinds of products or services will fit in a blog and which won't (i.e., pitch the new Prince CD to Anil, don't pitch wireless baby monitors to Dan Gillmor). But that's a principle one should use in any media outlet.
Posted by Andrew Huff at July 18, 2003 12:47 PMYou don't have to work for a newspaper or magazine to understand [blogs] and know how to pitch to them, and you certainly don't have to write a blog to be familiar with them. You do need to read them, and read them enough to understand what kinds of products or services will fit in a blog and which won't
I basically agree with that. I didn't mean to suggest that all PR pros should blog, just that they should have enough experience with them to understand how the form works. Just like knowing how a reporter works helps when you're doing media relations.
However, I specifically excluded journalist bloggers (either those that blog on the side, or as part of their regular gig, like Mickey Kaus) in my comments because I get the impression that they're never "off the clock." Much of the rest of blogosphere, though, is made up of amateurs--creative, temperamental individuals forming a loosely coupled community who can write whatever they want and feel no professional responsibility to hear a pitch. And some of them like to flame.
Which is why I disagree with you about the MediaMap briefing book. It treats bloggers like second-class journalists (as Tom Murphy noted), when they're another breed entirely. Moreover, it sucks. There are so many relevant omissions in the profiles of the blogs I read that I couldn't trust its information on the blogs I don't. I don't think anyone who reads blogs would use it (I mean, would you use it?).
You're right that the MediaMap book isn't the whole problem. Still, the PR industry suffers from poor image as it is, and I'd rather see us march into blogdom with good intelligence rather than bad. Some combination of Technorati, Blogdex and Google would provide more accurate, on-the-fly intelligence than MediaMap.
Posted by: Gene at July 21, 2003 01:38 PMMediaMap didn't appear to treat non-journalist bloggers any differently than journalist-bloggers in the briefing book; they simply didn't have much information to report. At least for the journalist-bloggers MediaMap had their journalist profiles to base the entries on.
It sucks because it's obvious very little time was spent on it, and it was probably done custom for a specific industry -- most of the blogs were at least partly tech oriented, and the mylermedia is based in the SF area (based on the 415 area code), so I'm guessing the firm got the list for a tech client.
What we've gotten a glimpse at is a rough draft. With more time invested, and possibly through a cross-referencing via Technorati/Blogdex/Google as you suggested, the briefs will be much better. That said, I agree with you that it's not going to be nearly as much of a help as our own detailed notes, based on individual experience.
Posted by: Andrew at July 21, 2003 03:59 PMI dunno, I'd kind of be creeped out by a PR person who knew me well enough to cater to my musical tastes, I think. But your observations and suggestions are dead on.
Posted by: Anil at July 24, 2003 11:35 AM