No Comments? You’re Such a Journalist!

Are you in bitter angst over never receiving a single comment on your latest blog post, good or bad? Thinking like a journalist might have something to do with it.

Observe the blogs that generate 210 comments on a post. TechCrunch comes to mind in one of its recent posts about Twitter being a news source. I was riveted by Arrington’s comments within the post and I resonated with it. But rather than bury myself among those 210 commenters, I’ll revel in the glory of it here by offering some valuable information.

Blog content should be original, not regurgitated unless it’s a HUGE topic. The best kinds of bloggers are ones who think like “publishers” not journalists—something I learned from social media guru David Meerman Scott. Journalists are entirely known to regurgitate. All we ever read in newspapers anymore is the same mumbo jumbo that Joe Schmo covered the night before--- or even weeks earlier!

To better say it, think like a salesperson and how you can offer the highest quality product. In this case, and in every social media case, it’s content. Comments are the sales and indicate whether or not people buy what you are saying.

ATTN Journalists: I Feel Your Pain

In the PR Industry, we often hear about PR flacks sending out mass emails to reporters hoping that a few people will pick up on their boring pitch. I have always tried to avoid spamming reporters with untargeted pitches, but I've never truly been able to empathize with them until now.

What happened?

A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to start up my own website. I purchased a domain, but then soon realized I would need some HTML and CSS help. I decided to put up a short and specific ad on Craigslist with what I wanted: HTML design help and a flat rate of $50 for the work put in.

What did I receive?

To date, I've had over 50 responses to the brief ad...and most of them are entirely irrelevant to what I posted. As they came pouring in I was left wondering "Didn't these people read my ad? Why are 90% of these emails copy & paste jobs?"

Most responses:
I would estimate that about 90% of the respondents saw that I was looking for web design help didn't read the rest of the ad. They copy and pasted their pitch and sent it on over to me. Most of them charge anywhere from $300 to $3000 per web page built. Does that sound like something I would be interested in? Also, a few of these people who sent me bad pitches followed up with again after I didn't respond to them. If I was interested in a $1500 web page, believe me I would have responded.

Another 5% sent me an email that was literally spam or completely irrelevant. Only 5% of the emails I received were actually genuine people who read my ad and responded sincerely.

The moral of this story should be obvious to all PR people: don't spam journalists. Keep crying wolf by sending journalists untargeted pitches and by the time you have a solid pitch for them, you will probably be on the black list.


Take this advice from Peter Shankman, which he gives before you join his HARO list:
Next: This is really the only thing I ask: By joining this list, just promise me and yourself that you'll ask yourself before you send a response: Is this response really on target? Is this response really going to help the journalist, or is this just a BS way for me to get my client in front of the reporter? If you have to think for more than three seconds, chances are, you shouldn't send the response.

In the end, we could probably all stand to do this a bit more, huh?

Ditch the One Size Fits all Pitch

You must be completely naive to continue in the graces that is bad media relations, not PR, but bad media relations. Online spells transparency and as the frequency of bad flacks outweighs the good, you’re even more likely nowadays to end up on the Bad Pitch blog—or something a lot worse… the subjective of a forum flame war where you have to play defense.

Our Pitch-Perfect session last week featured the mastermind behind Axiom Marketing, an integrated communications business developed during prep days at Kellogg School of Management. Mr. Mike Reiber discussed the new frontier of new media and the passing of traditional tactics still in use by the many today.

Among the many topics discussed with Mike, one really hit home for me: Journalists have more to do now and less time to do it. I was informed of this earlier on as our team ventured off to meet with a Star Tribune reporter, herself reiterating the importance of learning Web so she and many others wouldn’t lose their job.

What this also means is you better have the pitch right the first time sent out. With all the e-mail clutter, all those microbloggers updating their Tweets to appeal to the news masses following, it’s time for a Cadillac to park in their garage.

If you’re a Ford lover, shame on you.

Your Online Democracy

Democracy is happening online, because every time a comment is made—change is imminent or entirely avoided. Today’s marketing is customer service and though this isn’t new to the digital PR attendees of the world, it still sends the majority.

A person’s comment is now so much more powerful than what a marketing research team gathers from a paid-for focus group. Yes, those TV ads do say these people weren’t paid for the ad, but who wouldn’t love having their mug on TV? I raise my hand in embarrassment.

The new integrated strategy that should be part of every campaign (starting with research) is comment moderation. The tactic-- subscribing to the RSS feed comments pertaining to your client, your client’s product or service, and topic of interest for your targeted media contacts. Boy would that save you time and energy in place of your exhaustive search on Google’s front page.

Consider scrolling below those USA Today or New York Times articles, those blogs tied to top 50 publications and reading the 21 or so complaints from customers who have really experienced the journalist’s cutting jest about a service or this-just-in bad news. It may come as a shock to hear that your customers don’t want flare; they want simple. In immediate response, you change those key messages and give your product, service or simple PSA announcement (are those still happening?) a makeover.

It’s time to listen to your customers online. Remember they are your audience and can turn to or away from you—if you don’t hear them.