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February 15, 2006
Bad Pitch Blogging: Good or Bad?
It would be an understatement to say the blogoshpere has changed the way PR people work with the media. One aspect of this change - the fear of posting "bad pitches". Posting of bad pitches presents a new challenge and opportunity for PR pros. For those newer to the career, it brings a level of fear and shakiness to emailing reporters right when they're trying to build their confidence and knowledge. That initial fear of picking up the phone that most PR pros have early on has morphed to fear of sending an email. What will this mean for media who ask to be pitched in email first? What will this mean for PR pros learning the ropes?
Not being in the media, I can only guess at the volume of bad pitch spam that reaches an email inbox. I know it must be frustrating. One thing to keep in mind though; some of PR is learned through trial and error - that's just the way it goes with any career. Certainly there are people who have a natural knack or talent for PR and can grasp what a reporter wants. But here's the deal - people make mistakes - all of us do. Hopefully, when we lose, we don't lose the lesson. Bad pitch blogging will certainly create a catalyst for learning from these mistakes more quickly. But will bad pitch blogging kill a person's interest in this career? Will it weed out the weak and make the strong stronger? Probably a little of both.
Posting bad pitches will likely create some opportunities for PR pros as well. It will get PR professionals to use the phone more often. This is ideal because a conversation spurs ideas that an email simply can't, no matter how targeted the email. The reporter might be surprised at finding a good story idea coming out of a conversation when they might have hit the delete button if it were in email. Also, the media will get what they want - more targeted, interesting pitches.
The rush of picking up the phone and having a solid and interesting conversation with a reporter, one where you can offer good ideas and become a solid library of information and creativity for a reporter is a conversation that I wish for all of my colleagues. It's what we strive for in PR. If bad pitch blogging inspires PR pros to pick up the phone and have this conversation more often- then blogging bad pitches might be a good thing. But the media better be prepared to start answering the phone more - because we're going to be calling.
Posted by tara at February 15, 2006 11:14 AM | Bookmark This
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