By sinha on 28, May, 2008 | Channel: Social Media in India

How should PR firms approach Bloggers?

Very recently a PR firm asked my opinion on the said topic, i.e. How should PR firms approach bloggers.

Unlike media, bloggers are choosy and good bloggers do maintain a niche – so here are a few advice to PR firms:

  • Be a little personal and informal- Instead of “Dear wellwisher”, how about “hey <>”? – I receive 3-4 PR emails a day and tend to overlook the ones who label me a wellwisher!
  • Contextual – Am I interested in fashion related news? That doesn’t suit the pluggd.in context, but I still receive such PR mails.
  • “That thing” – Smart companies figure out who smart bloggers are – and they do provide “that” piece of news to them, much before releasing in media. Though PR companies can’t have the liberty to do so, PR professionals in the company can be a little more intelligent (and influence PR cos. to identify the “A” list)
  • No Lame News – This is more to do with PR-Client relationship, but if companies can avoid lame news, it will be good on their pockets as well as blogger’s schedule. Adding data/numbers adds a lot of credibility to a PR news and that can potentially interest bloggers to cover the story.

In essence, it’s really important for PR firms to understand blogger’s niche and target them appropriately.

What else?

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    • comment(s) on How should PR firms approach Bloggers?

    6 Responses to How should PR firms approach Bloggers?

    1. Prashant says:
      May 28, 2008 at 12:21 PM

      :) . this is just tip of iceberg you haven’t seen what PR actually do to bloggers .read this
      http://jaiarjun.blogspot.com/2005/06/anti-pr-rant-71-excessive-politeness.html
      and this
      http://www.contentsutra.com/entry/419-note-for-pr-agencies/

      its a small price to pay for being famous .Enjoy

      Reply
    2. Ashish says:
      May 28, 2008 at 1:07 PM

      hey prashant – my post was a very toned down version of what I actually go thru :)

      I get PR stuff from agencies that doesn’t even spells pluggdin properly!

      and I get PR news of cos like infy as well – completely offtrack!

      Reply
    3. Vijay says:
      May 28, 2008 at 1:31 PM

      I think the entire post can be summarized as “Be personal” – which is also not sustainable by a PR agency which handles a whole lot of strange customers from startups, SMEs to Corporates to MNCs and at times even individuals – And Most PR firms are not focused.

      Perhaps there is an opportunity for something like a News Wire for Bloggers. Bloggers love to uncover news first, and mainstream media is not spontaneous – everybody’s gotta wait till their airtime timeslot or when the print issue comes out the next day. Perhaps a specialized wire would get bloggers to engage more pro-actively. That way its also half way in between as the news would probably get the blogger readers, and the bloggers dont get spammed by irrelevant stuff.

      Reply
    4. Ashish says:
      May 28, 2008 at 1:47 PM

      Thats an interesting startup idea!
      Yeah, there is a gap in the market right now – but couple of smart cos have good strategy and they are able to figure out the “A” list bloggers (in their niche)

      Reply
    5. Tania says:
      May 28, 2008 at 2:30 PM

      ya. these pr professionals tend to be too sweet. specially in my case since they want to target women!

      Reply

    6. Pingback: How should PR firm approach Bloggers – Part 2 |Technology and Business Startups in India