Five Wrong Ways to Pitch RWW and One Great Way
Here at ReadWriteWeb we get piles and piles of pitches for coverage from companies all day long and they almost always come in by email. You'll notice that only a tiny percentage of those pitches result in write-ups here. How can you increase your chances of getting written about here or on other tech blogs? In this post we'll discuss five ways that companies often try and fail to get our attention and one way that almost always works.
That rarest of methods, maddeningly, is actually the best way by far. We hope that readers interested in getting written about will take these thoughts into consideration. We want to write about companies and projects, we really do. We'll start this discussion, though, with what doesn't work well for us.
Wrong: Email the wrong email address
Richard MacManus started this blog on April 20, 2003 - that means this weekend will be the site's 5th birthday! Richard has worked very hard to grow the blog to now include a staff of writers (hold your applause, please!) but he's worked so hard that you really ought not impose the extra work on him of forwarding your tips to tips@readwriteweb.com. That's where you should send email in the first place, if you're going to at all. Don't send general pitches to him, to me, to Josh or to Sarah. Send them to tips@readwriteweb.com. That's right, if you send your email to tips@readwriteweb.com then we'll all see it. We'll all appreciate you for it too, because all to often that's not how people do it, despite our many pleas.
We get a lot of email, though, and I know I'm usually scanning the inbox looking for direct, personal communication with subject lines like "here's the money I owe you" or "this is your Mother, why haven't you called all week?" We do try to at least scan all your pitch emails, but really - that's not enough.
Embargoed news should still come in three or four days in advance ideally - by email, to tips@readwriteweb.com, but you can communicate far more with us as described below.
Wrong: Phone Calls
Some of us get a lot of phone calls, especially from PR agents. Some of us (Richard) live in New Zealand and don't have to deal with that. I personally don't mind an occasional phone call if it's about something really interesting or from someone I know to have good taste in tips. Sarah hates the telephone and does not want you to call her on it. Josh says phone calls have been driving him "batty" - especially in this week leading up to the Web 2.0 Expo.
We get a fair amount of phone calls from people pitching products that do not fit our readers' interests or that just aren't that interesting. You think your news is interesting (or, more likely, your client does) but unless we consider it interesting ourselves - a phone call could really backfire on our disposition towards you and your client for future coverage.
Wrong: Twitter, Especially DM
Sending a Direct Message from Twitter just ends up being another email. I tell myself, "I'll look at that later." How about a public Tweet that says "I've got news about a new ad platform targeting seniors on mobile browsers! DM me if you want it under embargo." We'll jump on that, because that's the kind of thing we eat up over here.
If you're pitching people on Twitter, you'd better have a whole lot of other interesting things to say between pitches. At the same time, when I visit the Twitter page of someone who is working for an interesting company, much less representing them on Twitter, I get disappointed (personally) if there is nothing about their work being said.
Wrong: Facebook
For most of us here at RWW at least, Facebook is a place for personal communication if anything at all. For me, it's like the email inbox I never check. What could be worse than that? If we knew each other in college, then by all means let's communicate by Facebook. I did once ruthlessly and publicly make fun of a certain PR person for pitching me cold on Facebook and after the ensuing kerfluffle we've become buds and I read every pitch she sends.
Personal connections are the best PR (isn't that what PR agents are hired to provide, in part - well developed relationships with press?) and everybody knows that being Facebook friends doesn't mean the same thing as being real friends.
Wrong: IM
Can you imagine having PR people IM you about their clients' events (and non-events, all too often)? That's the kind of thing that full time tech bloggers have to deal with! (Have I mentioned that the seat of my jeans are threadbare too? Oh, the suffering! Lol.)
Different members of our team have different feelings about IM pitches but I'm the only one that will tolerate them much. If we develop a personal relationship and I tell you we can IM, then we can IM. As of right now, though, I'm going to stop taking IMs from PR and startup people I haven't said I wanted to communicate that way with or that I don't do so with already.
If you as a PR or startup person can make yourself available by IM to answer questions when we're writing, that's better than great - it's fantastic. IM pitches, unless they are from people we know and they consist of nothing more than "Hey, company offering RSS feeds to mobile devices for 'low-supply of pet food in the pantry' alerts, about to launch - do you want info?" That's fine.
A Great Way to Do It: By RSS
One of the first things we all do every morning here is open up our RSS readers. We've got a folder for feeds from companies we're tracking and we scan through every new entry there. Sometimes we do it twice. It's fun - a hell of a lot more fun that mucking through email pitches.
PR people, please send us the RSS feeds of your clients' blogs and news releases.
The information that comes through these feeds is obviously public and there's no embargo - but if we didn't see something interesting in an embargoed email then we'll see it in RSS. Likewise, many companies blog about things that they might not consider cause for a press release but that we definitely want to write about.
The full fire-hose of company news and updates for us to pick out what's interesting, someplace outside of our email inboxes, free of dreadful press release rhetoric (skip to the second paragraph where details usually are, then skip past any executive quotes and hope there are readable details somewhere) - that sounds like a dream come true. I know that's where I get most of the stories I write about, not from email pitches. Send both, but company feeds are likely to be looked at more closely.
Most PR companies have changing client rosters, though, and OPML files are static files that don't update themselves. Here's what could be the best-case solution.
Voce Communications' Justin Kistner sent me a great OPML file in response to my asking on Twitter why so few PR people have sent my their clients' feeds. Here's the file Justin put together and here's what it contains:
- The feed for Voce's company blog, Voce Nation
- A feed for press releases, which he said was empty right now but will deliver the goods when there are items available
- A combined feed of all the Voce peoples' messages on Twitter, built using the attractive service Tweetpeek - something I hadn't seen before. I'm going to delete this feed from my reader just because I already converse with two thousand people on Twitter and I don't need more of those messages in my RSS reader. Better safe than sorry, though - an OPML file can be like a menu for subscribers to select from.
- The highlight of the file is a feed from Yahoo Pipes that splices together the blogs of all of Voce's PR clients. It's something that Justin can edit behind the scenes and I'll never know the difference - I'll just get posts from the feeds of new clients as he ads their feeds to the master feed I've subscribed to. It's a great solution to the problem.
Hopefully he won't remove the feeds of companies that leave Voce, but maybe he should. That's his call, I probably won't notice the difference if I suddenly stop seeing one of hundreds of company feeds I'm subscribed to.
PR people, would you all please send us something like what Justin Kistner of Voce sent us? Please? The increased familiarity alone on our part with your clients would make it worth your time. If we're already reading your clients' blogs, we're also more likely to pay attention to your emails because we have some previous relationship with the companies you're reading about. If Yahoo Pipes is scary (it scared me for a long time, but now I can tell you it's easy) then check out these tutorials.
It's not that hard to do and our feed readers is where online journalists go to find new stories. Don't you want to meet us where we're at? It's also a great way to learn about the kinds of technologies that are in play - instead of just using old methods to pitch types of technology that you don't actually use or participate in.
ShareRelated Entries
1 TrackBacks
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.readwriteweb.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/3787
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts
Great post Marshall, we've been brainstorming internally regarding this in the past, this is a very helpful data point for us.
Now a question back - let's assume you had this happening from ALL PR firms - how would you filter the noise (again)? Wouldn't it get to be just as bad as email eventually?
Jeremy, I at least am much more comfortable scanning my RSS reader - that's what I go there for. I can't imagine that bothering me as much as it does in email. If it did, I might do something like filter for the word "announce" or read just the "greatest hits" using AideRSS. Thanks for asking though! And I might be wrong, I know that I've said in the past for example that Twitter was a "more the merrier" thing but these days I am having a hard time relating to it as my intake gets bigger and bigger.
It should NOT matter WHAT tactics people use to pitch something to you.
You both need each other to survive - so stop patronizing others when you yourselves are no less imperfect.
The ultimate goal should be to get the creme de la creme REGARDLESS of how it is brought to your attention.
One great piece could mean a Digg homepage or even many backlinks from other blogs
The real goal should be doing whatever it takes to get the gems - if you have to work extremely hard - SO WHAT!!
That is the difference between a blog that is near the top of the Techorati top 100 rankings and one that is near the bottom
Do whatever it takes to continuously get the best info for your thousands of readers!
If you were in the shoes of the people you are criticizing, you could not guarantee you would not be doing those same things
Thanks, Marshall - overall I think this is very helpful and we get it, we totally get the email overload, etc. and I know we get a bad wrap ALL THE TIME, but honestly we really want to have good relationships with media, we do want to be resources, not annoyances. Now I just need a bit of time to digest this a bit because I feel like the human touch disappears and the only time I might get to talk to you is when you see the RSS and ask for a briefing ... do I then just become a receptionist and schedule briefings? Alot to think about and definitely some homework for this PR girl. I give you credit for taking the time to give us concrete tips - so it's only fair that we take the time to give it a shot!
I'll add something regarding email pitches.
One of the reasons why they can be very unhelpful or inefficient is the lack of meaningful subject lines. The subject field in an email is what will be "scanned" when there are hundreds or thousands. Make it descriptive and to the point (as you might do with a blog post headline). Not generic titles like "news" or announcement etc.
Read Write What? Let me ask you this. If it takes so much to get noticed, why would I waste my precious time, money, effort, and brain cells developing a new RIA? Why would I invest, for example, 6 months of my time to develop an application that is not clear what kind of demand it will have and people may not want to pay for and possibly it won´t even get noticed? Sure, a lot of research and planning would go a long way, but even this step can be frustrating when it is very hard to pass the gatekeepers to reach the appropriate crowd.
Recommendation - unless you have the right contacts, funding, and a surefire concept (hint: know the demand in advance) you do not waste your valuable resources (and that includes your own time). Of course, temptation is hard to resist when the devil dangles a carrot filled with empty promises of potential millions and the freedom that comes with it. Do´t be fooled though. I urge you to resist such temptations - you will save yourself some time and I am sure ReadWriteWeb will appreciate your sparing them the huge hardship of screening posts.
Funny, Stowe Boyd had just written about how he *is* using Twitter to receive pitches.
One more recommendation. Given that it gets so hard to get notice in this blurry ultra-competitive field, give yourself a favor and stop reading ReadWriteWeb altogether.
If a worthy app comes along, you will know when it is worth having. Trust me, it will go early enough in print and other sources. Clearly the promise of investisting sweat capital and other resources in exchange for a shot at fame and fortune is not going to work.
Do the right thing - enjoy your personal time.
Hey Mark and Search Engines, I'm sorry if this came across as arrogant and condescending - I just wrote it to tell it like it is in the day to day life of bloggers right now and our preferences for learning about new things at RWW.
I sounds as if you want everyone else to do your information management. It's true everyone is overloaded with information these days and finds it hard to cope.
But you shouldn't *ever* take it out on the people who are contacting you.
That is sloppy and shows zero understanding of what is really happening out there.
People will pitch you in variety of ways, whether it's e-mail, facebook, IM, Twitter it doesn't matter.
They will choose what feels comfortable for them.
Telling everyone to build a relationship with you with RSS is rather stupid.
You'll just have information overload in your RSS soon enough and have the same problem.
So what you need to do is set up a information management system - obviously.
If anyone contacts you, tell them the procedures you have set up.
What you really need to do, if set up a submission web-page. Then if anyone contacts you in ways you don't prefer, you simply direct them to your submission page.
The submission page then goes to a database which you filter and manage however you like.
That's the way to do it.
So please set up a information management system rather than talk nonsense about your personal preferences, it won't make a blind bit of difference how people approach you. You should be wide open in any approach.
It's 2008 after all, time to grow up and stop moaning.
Great post, Marshall. I'll take it back to my clients and use it as additional ammo to show why they should get an RSS feed or start blogging.
I'm glad that OPML file worked, Marshall!
Tweetpeek is nice for aggregating Twitter accounts because it's super simple (compared to Pipes). And, I can update it from my end without you having to update the OPML file now on your computer, just like a Pipe.
I put together a Yahoo! Pipes tutorial as well that has annotated screen caps of the app. It may be helpful to PR firms wanting to pull together a Pipe for their clients.
Thanks Marshall! I am ex-PR agency and if only then I had this sort of detailed info for each of the people: bloggers and press, I would have saved them and myself lots of time. Everyone has their preferences...
What will you do when you need someone? :)
Man, look how mad people are! Who could have known?
First, I don't understand what people's objections are to RSS as a communication source? I also don't understand why PR professionals are objecting to doing super simple work that makes it easier for target media contacts to consume it.
Fascinating anger here. I imagine similar talks took place when email first hit the scene. "What?! Email?!!? The PR industry is going down the drain! Reporters need to get off of their high horse and answer the damn phone."
PR people should be overjoyed that a publication has decided to make public their pitching preferences. This removes much of the guesswork which so often makes pitching an uncomfortable situation for everyone. Who has time anyway to figure out whether they like their news raw, rare, medium or extra crispy? More publications/bloggers/journalists should follow RWW's example.
Thanks for taking the time to write this and provide valuable insights (some of which we know, but sometimes forget to remember!)
Here here, Andrew
Much better advice than the "prefers email" type guidance that the media databases provide. Amazing that people will complain about your preferences.
If I may say so this post is very arrogant and condescending. I like to read your little blog every now and then but come on it's not as if you are CNN or anything.
After reading your post id be surprised if anyone took the time and effort to pitch their idea/product to you. To me it looks as if you will not even read it.
There are too many self important bloggers around these days.. it's getting rather boring,
Sorry but it had to be said.
Marshall - I am confused - if you take a rss feed as your pitch, wouldn't you be getting the news out after the intended time?
I wrote up what I'd like in an email pitch last week:
http://www.centernetworks.com/title-not-important
I had so many calls yesterday, it was a bit much. I think I will writeup a post about the best way to handle a phone pitch.
I prefer email more than any other form currently.
Allen, I probably should have framed this discussion differently - basically I just want the damn feeds sent to me. Plus email for embargoed stuff. Not being CNN :) our literary quality control around here is pretty intermittent.
Just out of curiosity, how do you feel about pitches via good ol' snail mail?
We sent Sarah a slightly peculiar package (it looked like this: http://tinyurl.com/5s2ygc) recently, and it's something we've had a positive response from in the past.
Of course, if everybody does it, you'll just end up with stacks and stacks of mail.
Darren, anything *you* sent in any format is going to get read by me at least - because you're an active and good faith contributor to the whole conversation.
yea marshall - add an update else you might never get newsy type stuff again :)
course that would help me ha
I will give you my view from someone who launched a project.
I initially used twitter as the method of letting people know because crowdstatus creates groups for twitter users.
It didn't have great pickup because I had like 50 followers and its hard to get the message across on twitter.
I submitted it to emilychang because she posts this sort app and then went to bed. I woke up to it blowing up all over the place. Its had some great reviews and has spread across twitter nicely. However not one of the top tech blogs covered it and you know what it didn't matter. The next couple of days of twitter apps were getting covered all over the place and I came to the conclusion if these blogs are not first to post about it then they just don't cover you.
so the point is, startups with budgets for a PR company should be doing this but for guys like me this is good advice :p
Darren, eHub is a great place to submit apps.
This is a very interesting article, considering this is what I've been working on doing for the last couple of weeks.
The problem is, I'm not a consultant or PR firm. I actually work for the company I'm trying to tell people about and trying to get noticed seems harder than before.
I can't imagine ReadWriteWeb would be interested in a RSS feed just for Palo Alto Software or Email Center Pro, so in some ways, this type of approach really wouldn't work for us at all. Unless you've all been sitting around pining for a feed all about email management and business planning. In which case...Have I got a deal for you!
Chelle, send those feeds on over!
Marshall,
Working on it!! ;)
Well said, Marshall.
From what I read above, and my experience as a pitch man and a blogger... there's two ways to pitch any popular blogger with long term success:
1. Develop a relationship with them that is two way and is focussed on helping the blogger.
2. Publish your way in, like David Meerman Scott, recommends. Be remarkable, like Seth Godin recommends. Bloggers will then notice.
The impatient salesmen in me has trouble not using email once in awhile, though.
I think there is value in exploring why PR firms and other agencies might be hesitant to provide an OPML File, aggregate feed list etc, and why the same-old-same-old practices are recurring.
First, the automation of the task implies the automation of jobs. It is the job of a PR professional to add value & spin to the event being announced. It is a person's job to have the contacts, to be able to get them on the phone, to have the relationships, and then to generate enthusiasm given the unique perspective/spin. Therefore, given that we're talking about jobs, careers, families and perhaps passions, the idea of automation will never be well received by pitchpersons.
Also, an OPML file and aggregate feed list represents a competitive asset. It is a list of CLIENTS, which is rarely openly shared. Sure, the journalist will most likely be ethical and not share it, but digital files are portable, computers get hacked/stolen other "what-ifs" that make PR reluctant to hand over its strategically important list of clients. What company do you know, let alone an agency, that will openly disclose its full client list and risk losing the client to another aggressive agency?
I am not a high-profile journalist, and therefore I am not fully aware of the work load and overall burdens under which each might operate. Some are more knowledgeable, technically astute and creative than others I expect, which also causes a variability in their ability to "get it" and to frame a company and its technology, value proposition, applications and prospects in a way that is inline with the company's interests and intent. Such things are not easily communicated via text, and it is in fact the fiduciary duty of the agency to do much more than transcribe it all into a static document that can be left open to interpretation.
I expect we are only talking about getting attention that then leads to phone calls and meetings and other agency value-add, so perhaps I am (typically) over thinking the issue. However, that is not made clear, and it might not matter in gaining compliance anyway, for unless the PR person can somehow *control* the flow of information, its content, and its usage, then he/she risks that the feed post text will be taken for a ride by the journalist sans any dialogue. That is a big risk that might also be contributing to an overall hesitation to automate the process.
Three cheers for Voce!
We're on their client list. To hear that RWW is monitoring our feeds because of the efforts of a flack who is not even on "Team Strutta" is proof positive that we chose the right firm to represent us.
Kudos, Justin.
Sending the OPML file with a portfolio of relevant feeds=genius idea.
Someone should put together an uber OPML file that contains links to every company's OPML files.
sean
Great feedback and tips as usual, Marshall. I'll make sure our folks use the tips@readwriteweb.com as the first point of contact. Keep up the great work!
Marshall - check out what we just did for our client feed: http://www.stagetwoconsulting.com/how-to-offering-client-news-feeds-82/
Good job Andrew!!
Great post Marshall. I'd like to address some of the feedback that we're arrogant and condescending to try and tell startups and PR companies how to pitch us. Believe me I can see the other side of the coin on this, that startups in particular want to get the word out about their product and it's highly frustrating when bloggers don't pick up on it, despite their many emails etc.
It distresses me every day that I can't personally respond to many email pitches that I would like to a) find the time to check out, and b) give feedback to, and maybe even c) cover on RWW if there is a suitable story angle (and let's not forget the importance of that - this blog isn't about providing PR, we analyze web tech products and trends).
What I'm trying to say is it's certainly not that we don't want to check out all these great new apps out there, *particularly* if other tech blogs haven't covered them yet, but the reality is we drown in email every day. That's just the nature of this industry, I'm not complaining about it.
Anyway I (and I'm sure the rest of the RWW writers) do see the situation from the other side: that it's frustrating for startups and PR to get our attention. We do both need each other, and in this new media ecosystem it is much more personal than it used to be. Hence all the noise in the ecosystem. But this is why Marshall wrote this post, to suggest ways for startups and PR people to get through the noise and get us to check out your products, which is after all what we *both* want to do ;-)
So, question. What if we have been previously covered by RWW and already have a previous relationship with one of the writers. Can we send in an email to tips@ and them just IM to let them know we did?
Jason you sound like the guys at work who will call you to tell you they just sent a mail. Or a fax.
If you have a real relationship, your name will be the attraction or the name of your company. Otherwise you do not have a relation.
My main takeaway here is active vs. passive communication.
Active communication is annoying unless you're willing to receive it. It's like if you were at dinner with some friends, and random people were coming up talking to you. No fun.
Passive communication can be read whenever the receiver feels the urge. RSS & email are the big winners here, though because email can become a firehose I think that's why the author is leaning toward RSS.
Personally I agree - passive comms are almost always the better choice. Nothing kills a day like nonstop interruption, and this holds true whether you're a blogger or not!
How about a proposal hand written on parchment, tenderly rolled up and tucked, of so gently, in a basket full of home made chocolate chip cookies, with a big red, violet, and green bow tied into a flirty, but still playful bow on the outside?
I appreciate this post. It had never occurred to me to set up RSS for my press releases. As a publicist in a non-tech field, I find it shocking that people would pitch you on IM/Twitter/Facebook.
In response to all those defensive, pissed-off PR hacks: Boo-hoo. I'm sure you wouldn't appreciate it if journalists were spamming you on FaceBook and IM. When I get such things on myspace, its the spam or delete box, without hesitation. And your relationship isn't reciprocal. Journalists were writing articles long before "marketing" was a career field. We may be helpful but we are certainly not indespensible.
Shelley, that's a bit over the top. Ordinary paper will do instead of parchment.
Great post - I would then ask, it is possible to share _your_ opml file to know at least who you guys are watching and looking at.
That way, we really don't even need to pitch anything actively.
It will also make us use our Blog entries more efficiently. We already use Twitter for microblogging as opposed to 2003/2004 when we all used blogs as a microblogging tool.
Richard, forgoing the parchment would be tantamount to tossing a few Oreos into a plastic "Hello Kitty" bag, and then tying the whole with a chartreuse glow stick. I think we can safely say that Marshall's list would quickly become six, rather than five, items when faced with with Oreos, Hello Kitty, and neon chartreuse.
Now, this might work at Techcrunch...
would LOVE to hear see a similar post about how best blogs should pitch to other blogs. It's similar, but def. different than traditional PR pitches.
Interesting post and debate!
We were just thinking how to get RWW's attention to write about our small but meaningful and unique project - HappyTutors.com - A free Web 2.0 service for tutors, students & Parents.
So this post will defintely give us a clue on how to pitch RWW. Thanks for the tips!
HappyTutors.com
~ Connect Tutors with Students & Parents
Hmm. The point that everyone is missing, where can I download RWW's OPML file? ;-)
James Dellow,
Don´t mess around (I am giving you some healthy advice actually). Get funded pay your way in, trust me everyone has a price in this world. Not funded? See #6 and #8.
What about pitching in the comments? :)
1 2 Next