RT @tdefren PR-Squared’s Social Media Tactics Series: Blogger Relations « PR-Squared [link to post]

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But this isn’t enough. Even cautious and respectful practices are not going to stop some people from seeing red when they get an unsolicited email from someone about a company, product, or service.

Personally I am really struggling with this. Our experience (over many programs) has been that 20-25% of the people actually respond positively (pretty impressive response rate for email). But 2-3% of the people respond negatively — and the majority (over 70%) we don’t hear from. So we don’t know if they are negative, indifferent, or if our emails were lost in the spam filters (or intentionally caught by the spam filters…)

I’d love to hear more thoughts from people on this emerging practice of contacting bloggers — success stories, failures, ideas for how to serve bloggers as much as we serve companies…

We WILL get better at this stuff. The commitment is there. I haven’t met anyone yet who *wants* to screw up, after all.

As a PR college student getting ready to take the leap into the chaos of this field, I realize I have so many things left to learn. And only first-hand experience is going to teach these lessons to me. You mention how even the “good agencies” make mistakes, but that these are the people who will learn from them and change their practices. I’m sure once I get out there in the thick of things, being young, eager and aggressive may get the best of me once or twice. I now know to take a step back and realize mistakes happen. And as added incentive to do so, I know that my e-mail address may be blacklisted if I don’t learn and quickly!

I applaud you for taking the situation with a grain of sand and making the best of it. The best practices bookmark provides basics that any PR professional needs to know. Let’s just say I’ll have it laminated and in my portfolio at all times.

As usual, you deliver useful stuff when the rest of us just moan about it.

Thanks!

You hit the nail on the head: be part of the community, read the blogger’s blog, don’t bullshit–bloggers (full disclosure, I’m one myself, a local blogger in Chicago) can smell baloney, not to mention an impersonal, e-blasted “news release”, from a mile away.

The worst for me, email calling me “Mr.” Doyle. Those releases go straight into the trash. If you don’t know the blogosphere runs on a first-name basis, you really haven’t done your homework.

I love the Social Media Press Release template, myself. It jibes with my biggest suggestion to those I work with: for God’s sake, have an Internet presence (i.e. be a blogger) yourself. If I can’t link to you and you’re not writing regularly updated web content about whatever it is you’re pitching me, there’s just no relevance–my readers will have nowhere to go for more information.

Nice work with the bookmark! (If you’re interested, CMW has the best practices I worked up on their site, freely available to do with as you please or not, at http://www.newstips.org/interior.php?section=PR+Tips&main_id=686 )

PR people don’t suck. Spam sucks.

You don’t suck for example. You helped me to make my work better. And you introduced me to your clients who I have written about. Thank you.

However, PR people who practice the art of spamming most definitely do suck.

A few minutes ago I got yet another spam email from a PR person. I replied with a link to my most recent post.
http://www.webinknow.com/2007/10/most-pr-people-.html

That got the PR person’s attention and I got an email apology back immediately.

Cheers, David