Reach out and pitch bloggers—but wisely

A scatter-shot approach dooms your PR campaign to scorn—or simply silence

Blogger outreach seems simple. Find a blogger, make a pitch. You’re done.

Wrong. Following the old “Reach out and touch someone” slogan will get you nowhere, if you do it indiscriminately. In some cases, it will even gain you notoriety in the blogosphere.

Take it from Shel Holtz, who writes the popular A Shel of Myself blog. Holtz, who spoke at Ragan’s Corporate Communications in a Web 2.0 World, said he gets about 20 story pitches per day, many unrelated to his coverage area.

For “A-List” bloggers, those who write and manage the most read blogs on the Web, the problem of unsolicited and irrelevant pitches is even worse. Many are turning the tables on their tormentors, using Wikis and blog posts to castigate the offenders.

A survey by the Council of PR Firms found that 42 percent of bloggers get at least one pitch per day from a PR professional, and 57 percent of those surveyed said they “rarely” or “never” write based on pitches.