The blacklisting of PR agencies by respected media contacts like WIRED’s Chris Anderson and Lifehacker’s Gina Trapani has yet to “wake up” the industry.
Oh, we wring our hands. And those of us who bother to listen in the first place react with varying degrees of regret or rancor. Yet the fact remains that this tug-of-war is almost 100 years old and at the end of the day, we all have a job to do.
Could we get better at it? Absolutely. Will we stop trying to peddle stories on behalf of clients? No way – nor should we.
I think Rick Calvert at BlogWorldExpo put it best:
“If you are a professional journalist, or editor covering a particular industry or topic then part of your job is fielding PR pitches for products in that industry.
“Think of it like a buyer working for a major department store. Let’s say they buy men’s clothing. That person’s job is to buy things from people they know, and people they don’t know. In fact a good buyer is actively searching for, and appreciatively receiving unsolicited (contact) from people they have never met who are trying to sell them some new line of clothing they have never heard of. Why? That new line of clothing just might be the Next Big Thing.
“It is that buyer’s job to diligently review that line and listen to that sales pitch to decide if buying that line would give his company a competitive advantage. A buyer who only buys from his friends and buys lines he already knows about is lazy and should be fired for not doing his job.
“In Journalism and PR it is the same thing… Will you occasionally get pitched something that is irrelevant to you or that is personally uninteresting to you? Of course. Too bad… Now if the same PR firm keeps sending you irrelevant information it is entirely appropriate to contact them and politely ask them to knock it off…”
Okay, so take it as a given that newsmakers won’t stop making news – and that they’ll want to find efficient ways to get the word out. Assume further that reporters and bloggers won’t stop writing. And lastly, swallow your indignation and acknowledge that the 100–year-old PR industry can serve both newsmakers and content-creators by improving. That leaves this:
“WHAT CAN WE DO to all get along better?” This was the question I heard from a handful of budding PR pros finishing up their college coursework. “It seems like PR can’t win for trying,” they told me. “Are there some simple rules for Media Relations that will help us avoid these challenges?”
Answer: Yes. And, no. Because everyone gets hit with the craphammer at some point, regardless of good intentions and training and oversight.
Still, I think we can boil down the essentials, for all PR pros.
My attempt at a simplified PR Credo, in the form of “7 Promises,” is below (and tightly edited in PDF form, offered to you without copyright restrictions). You can have it sit alongside the Blogger Relations Bookmark:
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The PR pro promises to read several weeks’ worth of previous blog posts and/or articles to ascertain whether their story would be a good fit for the blog/publication.
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If the PR pro ascertains that there is NOT a good fit, they will not pitch the blogger/reporter, and promise to push back on unreasonable client or management demands to do so.
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Before pitching the blogger/reporter, the PR pro promises to double-check their method of outreach. They will not only check externally-developed media resources like Cision but will also review any guidelines made publicly available by the blogger or publication.
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The PR pro promises to never send a press release without being able to demonstrate its concrete relevance to the blogger/reporter … and will never, ever send an attachment unless it’s been requested.
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As much as is possible, the PR pro will participate actively and transparently within the communities of-interest to their clients. The PR pro acknowledges that a “cold call” (in any form) – while sometimes unavoidable – is considerably less effective than reaching out as a known community member.
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The PR pro promises that any correspondence – whether the initial contact or follow-up – should contain a message customized to the blogger/reporter’s needs and should offer value. For example, “just checking to see if you got the press release” is not welcome or appropriate.
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The PR pro acknowledges that being ignored by the blogger/reporter is not to be considered license for harassment. It’s more likely the pitch was not of-interest, so any further outreach should be mindful that the story idea has likely been quietly rejected. If the PR pro must try again, they promise to do so by offering a different, more creative and valuable approach to their original pitch.
Following these 7 Promises of the PR Pro will not make the world a better place. Following these 7 Promises will not eliminate mistakes and misunderstandings.
But it’s a start.
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As a new PR pro, thank you for this post. I already said I am printing out the bookmark and taping to my desk, this will go along side it.
I particularly like point 7– I know I’ve been told to be persistent in the past, and I always felt uncomfortable,as though I would bother the journalist. Trying to rework my original pitch and finding a more creative angle will help alleviate this pattern of repetitive, unwanted pitches. Not only will it do that, but it help me grow more familiar with my client’s service or product.
I look forward to utilizing these steps as I begin my new career.
Take care,
Meg
Meg, you just made my night. Thank you.
“#2 If the PR pro ascertains that there is NOT a good fit, they will not pitch the blogger/reporter, and promise to push back on unreasonable client or management demands to do so.”
IMHO, this promise holds the biggest potential for changing the current media relations landscape. Often, agency management encourages carpet-bombing publications/sites/outlets without regard to the fit of a story with a specific reporter. The Account Executive is usually just doing what they’ve been told to do.
In no way am I defending the practice; merely trying to put the problem in context. When Directors and VPs hear, understand and accept that the story must in some way fit the proposed target publication and the reporter, then there will be progress. But not until then.
Todd I think your point about how we all have a job to do is important. I’ve been working in the industry for 6 years now and sometimes, no matter how much you hope your clients will listen to your expertise, you are put in the position where you have to send out an announcement to folks you would prefer to avoid. I think it’s evolving to the point where we can push back more and we have better tools to explain the importance of blogger relations. I wish these bloggers would remember that we all have to go to work and answer to someone. The art of PR is doing it with some creativity and forethought but it can’t be a perfect science 100 per cent of the time.
I really believe that most PR pros follow — or at least try to follow — your 7 points. Still, they are a good reminder to all of us that professionalism and integrity matter in this business. At the same time, it’s true that some in PR really don’t get it and that is a problem.
I also agree with the comment posted by Cortland Coleman. Sometimes the best advice we can give to our clients and employers is to say no. And I recognize just how difficult that is. But most of us know when a story doesn’t have a chance to make it into print, online or anywhere else. And I’ll add that I believe it is unprofessional to pass those dead-in-the-water stories on to more junior associates so they can take a shot at it. Just say no.
Personally, I find the need for a list like this to be a little sad. Don’t get me wrong, I agree on all points and appreciate the time you took to put it together, but I wonder why as PR pros, our #1 credo can’t just be “use common sense.”
Everything on this list could easily be filed under: have common courtesy, and put some real effort into the job.
I also totally agree with Cortland Coleman’s comments so I am linking this to my own top five blogs of the week.
I love your seven promises Todd and in a perfect world I would follow them, but like Cortland says, ‘The Account Executive is usually just doing what they’ve been told to do’ and I couldn’t have said it better myself.
I agree with Laurel that it’s sad that a list like this is necessary. In addition to her suggestion that we just exercise common sense, I’d like to say that it’s not fair to expect something for nothing. You aren’t giving the blogger the glorious gift of content when you send them a press release; they found plenty of content before you came along. Recognize that you are trying to reach their audience and that there is real world value to this. Also, recognize that paying them for this would lower their integrity and thus the value of their blog as a trustworthy source.
What you need to offer the blogger is the type of things listed in Kevin Kelly’s article “Better Than Free”. Offer bloggers a way to get the news from you before anyone else has it, or offer them the opportunity ask questions and get real answers.
I love Promise 2: push back on unreasonable client or management demands. Junior members on a PR team shouldn’t be afraid to speak up on issues such as these. It shows that they are thinking critically and strategically and that they don’t just roll over and do what you’re told when they know it isn’t in the best interest of the client. I would hope that the powers that be at any agency would value and encourage those qualities in a PR professional.
Todd, I like your creation of the 7 Rules. While many of them seem like common sense, many of our colleagues are lacking in this area. Elisha’s comment about staff input should be reinforced from the top as well as the bottom. If the Millennials are teaching us something, it’s that they have opinions of their own and aren’t afraid to share them - regardless of title or seniority. Often upper management either doesn’t listen to these voices or doesn’t foster an atmosphere of openness that would provide more listening ears. Agencies would be be served and in turn, better serve the media, if they would provide more education for their teams.
This does keep coming around - and following the seven principles looks like one heck of a lot of work. I’ve seen some evidence that the work pays off though.
One (bad) reaction to principle like this is: “But my gosh! If I follow all these rules, I’ll only be able to send out about 4 releases a week. The rest of the time I’ll be researching who to pitch…”
Which is reasonable enough, IF you think the key to PR success is to hit up as many bloggers and reporters as possible.
The temptation to do that is strong: there are a lot of them out there - and the thought must be that if you only hit a small percentage of them, then you’ll only get a small percentage of the possible coverage.
But there must be a fallacy in that thinking somewhere. If you look at this PR person’s “Triple P” strategy [http://tinyurl.com/58y49d], I think it shows that carpet-bombing is not as effective as one might intuit.
She only made two phone calls and got exactly the quality coverage her client needed.
Jo’s final PR top five
Well, I am moving on to pastures new and this is my last Top Five for Strive PR, I hope you like it!
1. I couldn’t agree more with these seven PR promises (especially numbers six and seven) and the comments from Cortland Coleman and Rob Jewell th…
Todd,
I saw your original tweet about this on Sunday morning and checked out Rick Calvert’s post.
As others have noted, its not unlike the issue in traditional media when clients push for a media release when there’s really no news - it’s simply to satisfy their own egos. If the release reaches a news desk, it’ll be tossed (to the detriment of the organization).
I agree with #3 that bloggers in particular would be wise to post something on their site about their policy on pitches, and how they would like to be pitched.
I enjoy reading PR-squared.
Hi Todd,
All of those are good points, but I wish that more publications would make information available on who covers what beats, what their interests are, etc. It would take a few minutes for them to write that up and put it on the web, and the time that it would save them would be tremendous and would solve so many of the problems with irrelevant pitches. We all want to be more targeted, but it’s often a challenge.
I often find, especially as you get down to the more niche publications, there often is little to no information on what the journalists write about. Sometimes even, no online access to articles. From a practical standpoint, sometimes you’ll have to pitch a news story from a client to a publication you’re not familiar with (say a customer announcement that is in a different space that you haven’t focused on before), and with strict deadlines you might have to reach out to that publication without much knowledge of who writes what and what the content is.
Another problem I’ve found when pitching is, where is the line for what constitutes what isn’t a good fit? Does that include everything that might be a fit (i.e. a journalist has written about a topic but not recently, or a journalist has written about the general subject but from a slightly different perspective)? We can agree that if everything is unrelated it’s not a good fit, but it the case of it maybe being a good fit, do we err on the side of trying to get our clients a wider variety of coverage by contacting the “maybes” or do we only contact the “definites” to be more targeted?
This is perfect, especially the part about push-back! I work as an independent consultant now (after years with small agencies) and these days I have to discuss with clients who want me to become a one-hit-mass-blogger-pitching machine in order to increase site traffic. At the end of the day it’s my name on the email so I stand behind my approach: if it’s not highly relevant and the relationship is non-existent, then I don’t pitch it. As PR people we need to educate our clients going in and even make the choice to pass on the big bucks if we cannot agree on the appropriate approach, goals and processes.
@James You’re spot-on that publications and blogs could make our jobs easier and their lives less “spammy” if they’d take more time to set easy to find, clear guidelines!