I receive bad pitches every day here at The Future Buzz. And while I do not out them publicly, many of these PR pros and agencies do succeed in leaving a bad taste in my mouth about the brand.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not that I mind receiving pitches. But I don\u2019t like my time being wasted, and this is why the \u201cspray and pray\u201d approach to PR needs to stop. It only succeeds in making these PR agencies, professionals and brands look bad.<\/p>\n
So with that here are 5 ways your PR firm is making you look bad from my perspective as a blogger:<\/p>\n
1. Pitching a blogger to write up a competing brand of their employer<\/strong><\/p>\n This one is so consistently terrible it amazes me. I\u2019m surprised I need to write this but here goes. Dear PR pros: most bloggers (ready for the shocker?) work for a company by day!<\/p>\n If it was just a PR pro asking me to write up a competitor in a positive light or share their news this wouldn\u2019t be so bad. But many actually take the time to go a step further and ask me to badmouth my current employer. Obviously that\u2019s not going to happen, and it\u2019s clear most of these PR pros don\u2019t even take the time to look for who employs a given blogger (hint: it\u2019s posted on every blogger\u2019s about page).<\/p>\n 2. Clueless as to what we cover<\/strong><\/p>\n This is a marketing and technology blog. So, if you have a new start-up, that\u2019s wonderful. But if it isn\u2019t relevant to communications professionals it\u2019s not relevant to us. So asking us to cover your new social game (merely because it is social) is not going to fly. Go after the right bloggers in the right category.<\/p>\n 3. Thinking we\u2019ll re-post your lame-o-graphic or \u201cviral\u201d video<\/strong><\/p>\n We do on occasion\u00a0share infographics, videos and other creative content here. But they have to be relevant, interesting and ideally you\u2019re sharing with us first. If it\u2019s already been posted all over the web, this actually decreases the chances we\u2019ll cover it (I\u2019m still not sure why PR people keep highlight that as a selling point).<\/p>\n 4. Offering up case studies that show KPI improvements (but not outcomes)<\/strong><\/p>\n Case studies are actually fine \u2026but if you\u2019re going to pitch them, have a completely fleshed out case study. By fleshed out, be ready to show investment dollars\u00a0as well as outcomes\u00a0(read: conversions, revenue) not fans \/ followers gained for social case studies. If I\u2019m going to run a case study I didn\u2019t organically find \/ think is cool on my own, you have to sell it by sharing the full story of data.<\/p>\n 5. Salesy or spammy guest posts<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve already written up\u00a0my frustration\u00a0with guest bloggers here. But PR pros should know better. My other issue actually goes beyond quality to the formatting of content: how does every PR pro not understand to do things like submit a bio with a guest blog post, add H1s to longer content, etc? Should be common knowledge, but it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n The solution to all this?<\/strong><\/p>\n Vet your PR firm or consultant carefully.<\/p>\n Do things like ask to see your their pitches to specific bloggers in a matrix, showing they have done their homework. Seriously, your reputation is on the line here, as a client-side marketer or entreprenuer you should be in the know for how your agency is representing your brand. It\u2019s all too easy to be outed in public for any of the above things (or more). You would have to really trust your PR team to not require this, and perhaps with the right agency this makes sense (or can be built over time). Just be sure you can.<\/p>\n In a connected society, PR is too important to leave it to someone who will make you look bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I receive bad pitches every day here at The Future Buzz. And while I do not out them publicly, many … <\/p>\n