As a regular and long standing blogger in the social, mobile, advertising, tech and digital marketing spaces, I regularly receive approaches from PR companies hoping to promote a client’s release. I receive between 1 and 5 per week depending what is going on in the market.
To save my time, and the poor PR’s time, I thought I would put together some quick tips to help PRs approach bloggers more professionally and efficiently.
Tip #1 Do you actually read my blog? Prove it
Instead of “I thought you might find this interesting” which seems to be the default for most PRs I receive emails from, why not something along the lines of
Dear Andrew, I have been reading some recent posts on London Calling about xxx and xxx and thought that my client’s new widget would also be a good fit for your readers …
Bloggers are not on a deadline and generally are not paid. It is a hobby and we own the blog (unlike a journo) so we want to make sure the content reflects the image we want to project.
We also generally have a “real job” so sometimes it can take a while to get your news onto the blog if we are at work and need to get to a place and space to do some serious blogging, and consider your release.
Tip #2 Make your release blog friendly.
No more 11MB PDF files please! Journos need high-res press-ready files, but we don’t.
We like images, so send us small files – both in file size and dimensions. If you truly do read my blog then you will know I use small images (like the one above) not normally larger than 300 x 200 to illustrate a point. The copy can be in word format – we will cut and paste it anyway to get it onto the blog.
If you do send that 11MB PDF file, and we have to grab the text, screenshot and resize an image, then we might just find it all a bit too time consuming and just not bother.
Tip #3 Do you have a social media footprint?
Show you do in your email footer with your Twitter and LinkedIn profiles– as an example here is my signature below – click for a larger view.
We bloggers are a picky bunch and we will do our homework on you as a PR to see how blogger friendly you really are from previous tweets. If we can’t find you easily on social networks we will quickly understand you don’t get social media and so perhaps treat your client’s news as a lower priority.
Tip #4 Grab a coffee with me. I won’t bite and I may be able to help connect you.
My “real job” for the last 10 years or so has been in senior management, business development and strategy roles. I have also been the company spokesperson for the last 12 years in a wide range of roles, and speak at conferences on a regular basis.
So… this means that I really like meeting new people on a daily basis, and I am also very PR friendly as I have employed PR firms in the past and had PR facing roles.
I really do understand the difficult parts your job and I can also make it a lot easier. I also like to know the person behind the release, and it means that it is more likely I will promote your release if we have actually met at some stage and shared a coffee.
Also perhaps I can help connect you to other companies, bloggers etc. I have over 6,500 LinkedIn connections, and twice this number of outlook contacts across multiple countries and industries, so far from just being a “blogger”, I also like connecting people.
If you are based in London or come here on a regular basis, why not buy me decaf venti cappuccino with 2 shots at a nearby Starbucks!
I hope this helps. I really do welcome PR’s contacting me via my contact page, and if you follow these simple tips above, then there is a higher chance that I will post your release, even verbatim if is relevant for my readers and blog friendly!