On Message: Note To PR People: Don't Pitch Bloggers

It may be extreme, but my advice to PR people who want to pitch bloggers is: Don't.

At this point in the game, it's simply too risky. Here's why:

1) Though blogging is a relatively new pheneomenom -- and some of the best bloggers have only been at it a year or two -- many have tremendous egos about who they are and what they do.

And because they developed independent of PR involvement, they strongly resent any intrusion into their world.

In fact, in their view, PR represents everything that is wrong with the traditional communications process. They don't want any part of it.

2) Most PR agencies are still built on the old model of "throwing mud on the wall" to see what sticks.

Investing the time to analyze individual bloggers to try and predict their reaction to a pitch is counter to the way most firms operate.

But even in an ideal world ...

Even if PR agencies were properly focused for today's world, pitching bloggers is still a dangerous crap shoot. Check out how Russell Buckley of MobHappy describes his blog's focus this morning:

"Anything that people send me should be concerned with what I write about, which is primarily mobile phones, but can include a fairly eclectic mix of other tech areas."

Got that? A fairly eclectic mix of other tech areas. So now you know.

Bloggers will say "just read my blog and you'll know what I cover." That's what journalists have been saying for years, and it's still impossible to predict what some reporters will find interesting.

How many PR people have pitched a story, been shot down, then seen that story appear in the same publication a couple of months later featuring a competitor's product? Thought so.

Trying to find the sweet spot

It's even tougher trying to parse bloggers' interests, since they typically generate a large amount of copy on a wide range of topics.

I'm not picking on Russell when I point to his blog's content description ... bloggers write about what they're interested in, which is often varied, and many, many pitches fall into a gray area.

But if you miss, well ... you're likely to take one on the chin, publicly. And it won't be pretty.

Morning after advice? Stay away

There's a lot of good conversation this morning about the role of PR in the blogosphere, prompted by the brush-up I wrote about here.

The "morning after" focus is on how PR people should work with bloggers. What's the best approach, what's the right style to use, and so on.

My advice is to stay away all together. I'll share my thoughts on what you SHOULD do in a follow-up.