How do you Pitch to a Blogger?

Categories: Social Media, Voice of the CustomerPosted on August 30th, 2006

How do you Pitch to a Blogger?

It’s pretty simple, you don’t.

I get pitched to blog about products via email, comments, and in person. People send me free products (I even got a nice bag of alcohol) and some companies treat me like a web industry analyst.

“Pitching” is a horrible term to use for communicating with someone that you’re trying to build a relationship with. It means you ‘throw’ something at them, and you hope they catch it.

So rather than pitching, Instead, build a real relationship with bloggers, be their advocate, listen to them, talk to them, build a community. Once you achieve this level of trust you can have real and trusted conversations. Customers and bloggers are important –they are in control. The savvy companies will learn to be let go, and embrace the open conversation on the web.

As a Community Manager, I promise to be a customer advocate. I will listen, dialogue, then listen again, I think small (Edit: My thoughts about thinking small). I wrote about this very topic a few months ago –it still holds true.

Share This Post:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 30th, 2006 at 4:17 am and is filed under Social Media, Voice of the Customer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Good post, Jeremiah. (I just read the previous one too…) I’m sure there are PR agencies and practitioners who are taking these words to heart. I suspect that many agencies don’t yet know how to build this kind of relationship building into their profit models. Aside from tech and maybe a few other sectors, clients still want the traditional media coverage that requires old school pitching.

Posted by Keith Kamisugi on August 30th, 2006 at 1:05 pm

Hi Jeremiah,

I think it depends on what was being “pitched”. For example, a company might send you a book and ask you to read/review it. In my case, I would accept the book if:

a) it was relevant to my field
b) it was relevant to my readers
c) I was allowed to give an honest review

P.S. I assume you kept the alcohol;-)

Posted by Damon Billian on August 30th, 2006 at 2:12 pm

Thanks guys, good thoughts

Some of my customers read my blog, let’s hear what they have to say about my performance as a community manager. I wonder if they think I practice what I preach!

jko

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on August 30th, 2006 at 3:23 pm

So now that we all acknowledge that “pitching” goes on all the time doesn’t PayPerPost make that much more sense? Why should advertisers keep lobbing books, booze or anything else at bloggers just to try to get them to review a product or service with limited success?

Why wouldn’t an advertiser want to spend money only on the people who actually take the time to talk about the product or service, either positive or negative?

Posted by Ted Murphy on August 31st, 2006 at 3:41 pm

I see a few ways to approach this Ted:

1) The way I mentioned it above, which suggests that companies build a real, trusting, long term relationship with customers.

2) Companies can ‘pitch’ to bloggers by sending them information. This can be very inefficient, could backfire and may not result in a meaningful long term relationship

3) A paid method where bloggers become professional reviewers of products they’ve used. They will disclose they are getting paid. (Yelp is one example of consumer reviews)

4) A paid method where bloggers become professional reviewers of products they may or may not have used and they may or not disclose they are being paid.

Which method is PayPerPost?

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on August 31st, 2006 at 4:50 pm

I believe that there is a 5th approach:

5) A paid method that allows bloggers to choose which products or services they are interested in and blog only about those products. This method could actually serve as the inception of a relationship that otherwise would not exist. By providing choice and volume we create a more efficient method of review and exposure for both advertisers and bloggers.

Posted by Ted Murphy on August 31st, 2006 at 5:04 pm

If someone is to truthfully and accurately review a product, then they need to have used it. Does PayPerPost provide products to blogger reviewers that have not used the product?

Again, as I’ve blogged and spoken to you in person about, disclosure is key. Is this in the model?

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on August 31st, 2006 at 5:18 pm

how do we find the time to have so many conversations, sure the web speeds it all up, but there are still limits..

Posted by ming on September 3rd, 2006 at 4:18 am

How Do You Get Bloggers to Write about Your Product?…

How Do You Get Bloggers to Write about Your Product? Basically, you don’t. And here is an explanation why……

Posted by elsua: The Knowledge Management Blog on September 4th, 2006 at 6:02 am

[...] Surprising, he didn’t like my approach on ‘building a relationship’ vs just a pitch. Sorry Anil, I’m not going to change, more on that to come in the future (edit: I still stand by my thoughts on ‘How to pitch to a blogger‘) [...]

Posted by Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Anil comes to Hitachi Data Systems, Blogger Relations in Real life. on September 14th, 2006 at 7:36 am

[...] How to pitch to a blogger [...]

Posted by Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Pitching to a Blogger on December 9th, 2006 at 9:10 am

[...] 3) Know your bloggers and know them well. I’m echoing Michael here, as you should really spend time reading a blogger in your industry before making contact, and especially before pitching to one. How do you pitch to a blogger? You don’t. , it’s a very different approach. I get pitched several times a week, it’s easy to spot who reads me and who doesn’t, guess who gets the welcome. [...]

Posted by Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Lessons in Blogger Relations on December 26th, 2006 at 4:02 pm