Great Tips on Pitching Bloggers

Bulldog Reporter sends out a free email newsletter called Journalists Speak Out that's full of useful PR tips (you can register at their site). In the issue that just hit my inbox, my good friend Brian Pittman interviews John Biggs, editor in chief of Crunch Gear, a leading tech gadget blog. Here are John's excellent tips for pitching bloggers [I've bolded a couple that I think are especially key]:

Blog Wars and More: Crunch Gear Insider Dishes Tips for Pitching Competitive Blogs

By Brian Pittman

"It's important for PR departments to have people watching blogs," says John Biggs, editor in chief at Crunch Gear. "If you don't have someone doing this, you need to budget for it. It gives you a quick way to see what's being said about you online. For example, I know MWW is hiring people as bloggers' counterparts—basically, people doing only blogger relations," he says.

"That's a good idea, because people who don't understand the differences between blogs and, say, magazines can really cause headaches," Biggs explains. "For example, we'll get press releases without images—even though blogs want multimedia. Also, our lead times are more like 35 seconds. A magazine's can be three months. So, there's a real disconnect in terms of response time between PR people who get what blogs are about and those who don't."

Similarly, "People who don't get it make us chase down all the elements for a posting, instead of putting everything we need right in the email pitch. If you make it easy for us, we'll just plug what you send right in," he assures. For example, "Put the images right in the body of the release. Provide links to things like the press release or even a walk-through of your interface if you're in technology. Just getting a text email may have been fine when people were worried about attachments—but you've now got to lay it all right out for us. Otherwise, we're going to move on to the next thing," cautions Biggs. His additional blog-relations tips and techniques:

1. Keep subject lines punchy—just the facts will suffice. "All we want to see in a subject line is the item you're pitching. Keep it to five or six words so we don't have to open the actual email if it's not relevant," Biggs says. "This also makes it more searchable for us later. For example, the subject line 'New Sony handycam' is perfect. People who send personalized subject lines with my name in it or who think they need to sell me on the idea in the subject line just don't get it," he adds. "Tech blogs like ours don't care about that. We want the product name and that's it."

2. Recognize competitive pressure to post quickly—seed NDAs appropriately. "We do 40 posts a day, so we're constantly moving," says Biggs. "It's post or perish. So when I send an email for follow-up facts or images, I've already lost the first-mover advantage. Realize that other blogs like Engadget and Gizmodo may get your image in advance using NDAs. We'll abide by non-disclosures, too—unless someone else breaks them," he says. "But the real point is we are all about getting out there first. Try to be fair and not give out information selectively to competitors. Make sure [we all] get it at the same time. That's a big deal," stresses Biggs.

"At Gizmodo, I honored NDAs—often to my detriment," he elaborates. "That's because some blog in Australia or somewhere would post before me and I'd be screwed. So part of the tip for PR people is to make sure you're sending embargoed information and materials only to credible blogs—and make sure that the time and date requirement is very clear and fair, taking into consideration things like time zones and so on."

Biggs points to Apple's pending iPhone launch as an example: "There are not many pictures of the iPhone out there right now because Apple is keeping them under wraps—but that's the kind of thing that could be a big deal to some blogs if they don't get images at the same time. That's a big story and we all want to have our posts out at the same time."

3. Know the big players in your market—provide product accordingly. "Blogs like ours live and die by reviewing products," says Biggs. "So we definitely want product on hand. However, I'm working from home—so I've basically got 50 boxes of 50 printers sitting around here now. I'm trying to do reviews and get these all back out the door."

His advice: "Use your best judgment in sending out product—know who you must send to in terms of who the most popular or credible blogs are, and then check with the blogger regarding preferences for receiving product." In addition, "Anybody and their dog can create a gadget blog," Biggs cautions. "Say a smaller blog gets an iPhone to review and some bigger ones are overlooked. You can create ill will if you don't know who the major figures are."

Start here: "Look to blogrolls and their links to see who the most credible blogs are," Biggs advises. "Get an intern to go to the RSS files at major sites and download those so you can see who everybody else is referencing. You'll know which blogs are most important that way because traffic is usually based on number of updates." In addition, "You could go to Technorati and search by influence within any key market area, like technology. Another good resource for seeing who is getting the most hits is TechMeme, which is an automated system that grabs the biggest stories. It watches who links to them. Bookmark the site.

Brian Pittman is the director of content for Bulldog Reporter and PR University; he can be reached at bpittman@bulldogreporter.com.