How PR pros still screw up pitching to bloggers

Keep in mind that I’m not talking about a “one hit wonder” placement, where you manage to get that superb client mention in exactly the right blog post. Instead, I want to know what you did after that to start an ongoing dialogue with the blogger?

How did you extend a series or emails or tweets or blog comments into a meaningful professional friendship?

This shouldn’t be so difficult. Classic media relations activities require using almost all of the same “muscles,” including doing the proper research and analysis, providing useful and appropriate information, and ensuring your content is forward thinking.

But we’re not making that connection as a profession. Why not? Maybe it still feels foreign to us, maybe we think we can get it by using tools like Technorati or Alltop or BuzzStream, or perhaps we just don’t think there are enough hours in the day.