Working with PR and Bloggers

I hate to say this but I have a huge issue of late. I have seen post after post whether publicly or on a private forums about how horrible some PR reps are. Here’s my thought if you want to being a professional and you want PR reps to treat you professionally that respect has to go both ways. This also extends to your fellow bloggers.

Dealing with Fellow Bloggers

• BEING PAID: I understand that many people want to be paid for the job they are doing. I am not saying I am not working my rear off for that Little Debbie cupcake but it was my choice. I’m not asking you to post for me on your site. 99% of the time I don’t even ask for you to come comment on my site. Just because you feel that an opportunity does not fit you because you are no getting a monetary value out of it does not mean you should make me feel less because I am taking the opportunity. The company I am working with may be a huge corporation and they may not be paying me to post for them but it may be that I have other reasons to work with them. I may be posting for company XYZ but that PR rep may also be working for ABC and I would love to work with them for ABC. A foot in the door is a foot in the door. Please stop belittling those people that are supporting you by commenting/visiting your site because you feel they made a bad choice. This has happened several times on a private forum recently and has made me feel uncomfortable commenting. You may feel that I am getting nothing out of this exchange but I may be getting much more like the knowledge in writing a post or just a visit or two that might lead to something else.
• COMMENTING/REPLIES: Support your fellow bloggers. I visit as many blogs I possibly can, I retweet, I comment, I Digg, I stumble and I facebook because I want to help you and support you as a friend and fellow colleague. Do they same. If you comment here I always visit your site. You may not see a comment but I always do one of the other things. If I don’t comment its because I feel I don’t have something to add to the conversation. I try my hardest to reply to comments here (other than ones on giveaways). With those replies you will get an email from me saying someone replied. I realize that your life is just as frantic as mine and therefore you probably aren’t going to come back and see if I left a reply. If you feel getting this email is spamming you please let me know. I will make an excel list and I will not reply to your comments. I personally think this is the best way to open a conversation up.

Dealing with PR Reps

• BE PROFESSIONAL: If you’re unhappy with the way a PR rep is dealing/has dealt with you, talk with him/her. Our blogs are a powerful source of information but would you want the PR reps to discuss you in a bad light publicly? I think not. I have seen this several times over the past year. Not only on blogs but also in public forums (conferences/meetings). We cannot expect PR reps to treat as professionals and pay us if we can’t treat them the same way. You cannot stand in a room full of bloggers yell at a company owner/PR rep and then expect him/her to pay you or treat you respectfully. Think about the reverse. If this PR rep had called you on the phone and said You know I’ve sent you a product, you’ve written a post for me but now I want you to post a banner across your header with a link and host three more links on your front page. You would be peeved right? You would tell them no way right? So why aren’t we showing them the same respect.
• BLIND PITCHES: If you don’t like blind pitches, delete them and move on. I hate to tell you this but you signed on for it when you started reviewing products and working with PR. I get several blind pitches a day. Some of them I just delete and move on, some I ask permission to post to a forum where other bloggers might find them interesting and others I reply back. A simple This is not a good fit for me works with 99% of companies. In replying back and saying this isn’t a good fit for me, you very well may open a door to another product they do work with. I may not be gungho for your maternity wear (There will be no more babies coming from this house.) BUT that same rep may also work for a boutique children’s clothing store that I would love to work with. If you are like me and you have one company that constantly emails you asking to review something that you will not/cannot review (and that’s the only item they are a rep for) set up a filter in your email program to send it to the trash can. You’ll never even see the email. For the record I have one of these set up because I have one company rep that emails 4-5 a week asking me to review an iPhone App. I don’t own an iPhone and can’t help her. I let her know respectfully the first 20 or so emails. (If you’re reading this do have an iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch app that you want me to review and will send along the appropriate hardware, please feel free to contact me.)
• BE HONEST: If you can’t get a review done on time let them know. Every rep I have ever worked with has worked with me on when something is done. If you’re realistic with them upfront and honest with them, they’re going to work with you. If the product sucked let them know ahead of time. A simple Hey this didn’t work the way I expected to will work wonders. Don’t blindside them with a I hate this product review and not give them the chance to work with you.

For PR Reps

Hopefully we can all be professional. Realize that this is my part time job (for others its a full-time job) and yes it is a lot of work to write a review, run a giveaway and otherwise promote your product. So yes many of us do want a monetary value and yes you will find some that will work for free. Remember that we are not just the numbers we are the passion behind what is written. We are what many moms these days are looking to for product information. I may be small but my reach is great. I may only have a few thousand hits a month to my site but after those 2 thousand people saw this, there was another 1800 people that saw your company name in my tweet and another 300 people that saw your product review on Facebook and thats only if not a single person that saw something I tweeted/facebooked/stumbled and so on sent it to someone else. We all have to start somewhere so take a chance on the little guys too. Ask us questions to know more about us. Why are my stats lower than someone else’s? Why do I really want to work with you? If I sent you a pitch it’s probably short and sweet because I don’t want to take up your time. (There are a few that I’ve really wanted to work with and have pitched hard.) But for me its not about the cupcake I get to eat, its not about the companies that might work with me because I worked with you first, It is about working with you, promoting a company that I will stand behind and a product that I think my readers will also love.

I’ve said my peace and this will probably go completely unnoticed and that’s okay but at least I will stand behind what I say. And by and by, this post was not sponsored by Little Debbie, I have never had the pleasure of working with them although I did pitch them for a completely nonblog related project and I never heard a word back. I do still buy my Little Debbie cupcakes cause thems some good eats. It also was not sponsored but Apple in any way. Again if you want to send along an i______ (insert appropriate hardware for your software product) so I can review for you just let me know when it will arrive.  (As things can be taken out of context here on the world wide web, please now my disclosure was completely tongue in cheek.)

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