I first remember PR people being publicly flogged when Josh McHugh, Dan Roth, and Scott Woolley (later joined by Caroline Waxler) started The Buzz Saw in 1999. Similar observations about the quality and frequency of PR pitches have been made in newsrooms and on bar stools since long before my time.
Twitter has become today’s Buzz Saw. It’s not just a back channel for people to bitch about SXSW and Gnomedex - it’s frequented by frustrated journalists, analysts, and bloggers. If you work in PR, these Tweets should disturb you:
- “and the JavaOne PR takes its toll: if i don’t answer a morning voicemail, that doesn’t mean “please call me four more times”"
- “PR People… if I didn’t reply to your email, what makes you think I will reply to you on Facebook?”
- “this PR freak who spammed me on facebook won’t leave me alone now. he keeps msging me. had to block him. any wonder why i’m so down on PR?”
- “Bloggers keep putting pitching guidelines on their blog, & keep getting bad pitches cause mst PR firms pitching never read blog”
- “NOTE TO PR PEOPLE AND ENTREPRENEURS: I am far less likely to talk about you or do what you want if you DM me than if you just beg in public.”
Why the hate? One reason is that too many - WAY too many - PR people are looking at social media as the ultimate shotgun approach. If an email or a phone call goes unreturned it’s tempting to message someone on Facebook, dm them on Twitter, send an IM or two, call and email them again, etc. Saying that you exhausted all those options might placate a boss or client for a little while, but in all likelihood you’re seriously hurting your chances for future dialogue with the person you’re trying to reach.
In the PR industry’s rush to show how social media-savvy it’s become, too many people are focusing on distribution rather than consumption. Hitting someone on every number, address, and social media account they have isn’t “reaching out” to them. It’s annoying them. The proof is in the links above.
Social media has changed many of the rules for PR, but not the most important rule: You can’t effectively pitch someone unless you’re reading what they’re writing. What leading influencers are writing isn’t limited to news, opinions, and trends. Often they’re telling us exactly how and where they do and don’t want to be pitched. This is the kind of information that’s never going to be found in Cision or MediaMap:
- Robert Scoble: “I hate Facebook and Twitter direct messages. I can’t answer those, so don’t even try.”
- Sarah Lacy: “facebook is for friends, not press releases”
- Rafe Needleman: “Twitter pitch? Ok, but direct only, and provide link and reply email in the Tweet.”
- Rafe Needleman: “A pitch on IM? Ugh. A least make sure I want to hear it before you start. Better yet: EMail”
- Stowe Boyd: “I am shifting permanently to twitpitching as the sole medium for companies to pitch me.”
- Stephen Baker: “Our common love of the Rolling Stones does not a relationship make.” [OK, that's a paraphrase I took some liberties with.]
Similar sentiments can be found from practically every blogger I’ve pitched in the past six months. These folks are generous in providing PR rules of engagement, and it’s just silly not to be aware of them. Even sillier not to follow them.
Following a blogger’s rules of engagement is no guarantee that you’ll get their attention. However, when paired with awareness of what they’re following and participation in the discussions they’re driving, it’s an important way to build a relationship.
Bombarding people with a social media shotgun is the quickest way to make sure a relationship never develops.
