Why We’ll Always Pitch Bloggers

Last November, while using CisionPoint to research London-based media outlets for a holiday press push for a Lemelson Foundation and Freeplay Foundation initiative, we noticed that Londonist was listed amongst the outlets in the database (which also included traditional heavyweights like The Observer and The Times). This interested me, personally, because not only were we actually planning on talking to Londonist’s editor about Freeplay’s Lifelight product launch, but also because (as a matter of disclosure) I edit, in my spare time, one of Londonist’s sister sites on the Gothamist network, Phillyist.

You see, it’s through Phillyist that I first began to receive press releases, media alerts, and pitches. Phillyist was my entrée into public relations and by the time I started working in the field myself, I had very strong opinions on how I liked to be pitched as a blogger, and therefore I had very strong opinions on how I should reach out to bloggers once I came to ELISE and became the one doing the pitching.

Londonist was one of the first blogs we researched on Cision, but it was not the last. And each blog we research on the service comes with this statement: “The fundamentals of working with bloggers are the same as with traditional journalists at traditional media outlets: respect their schedules; take time to read their material to learn their interests; and only contact them if/when they want to be contacted.” And treating them as anything less than journalists isn’t just a sign that you’re behind-the-times; it can also be a public relations nightmare. (Take it from Target—your rejection of bloggers can land you in the New York Times, and not in a positive way.)

As such, here are a few things you’ll never, ever, hear us say here at ELISE communications HQ, even though, as a blogger, I know that the sentiments exist elsewhere:

• “Online-only press will not be permitted at this event.” (Just saying that opens you up to a world of speculation in the blogosphere, all of which will be negative.  Just because bloggers aren’t invited to your event doesn’t mean they won’t write about it.  Think of it as Sleeping Beauty—nobody likes being un-invited to a party, and it could come back to haunt you.)
• “We’re going to hold off on pitching to bloggers while we wait to see if any of the big papers bite.” (Bloggers have the potential to reach a much wider and more engaged audience than traditional media does, and blogs aren’t limited to word counts or column widths, meaning your story is much less likely to get bumped and much more likely to run promptly.)
• “They’re only bloggers; we can pitch them last-minute.” (We understand that bloggers have lives, too. Just because they have the potential for instant publishing doesn’t mean that they don’t need advance notice about an event or press conference.)
• “We don’t need to research bloggers as thoroughly as we need to research traditional journalists.” (In fact, bloggers require more research—most bloggers write about what interests them, and pitching off-topic or out of their areas of interest can put them off your story, and worse, can put them off any future pitches you may have for them. And unlike with traditional media, there’s often not a senior assignment editor to run to when you’re being ignored.)

Bottom line: Respect the medium and respect the writer. And if you do those things, they might say some really nice things about your clients. Still not sure? Just check out our results:

• Geekadelphia Tours the Chemical Heritage Foundation (Geekadelphia)
• Supporting Tomorrow’s Green Ideas with the NCIIA and Lemelson Foundation (The Discovery Channel’s Planet Green)
• A House Built from Bottles (PopSci.com)
• Chemical Substance (PhillySkyLine)