Will someone please turn off the spigot gushing out naive, formulaic emails fin the name of 'Blogger Outreach?" They come from junior PR folk eager to generate some buzz from anyone who leaves some Technorati tracks. I get these from time to time, especially when it's close to a conference I have attended or plan to cover, and very often it's not even in my realm of interest. Imagine what a full-time writer or journalist has to put up with!
OK, so it's not gonna happen anytime soon.
The backlash against poorly targeted Blogger Outreach has been brewing for some time. Some, like Weber Shandwick, have been posting guidelines. Others have been incensed, to say the least.
That's why it is refreshing to see Ogilvy PRs 360 Digital Influence blog, come up with a Blogger Outreach Code of Ethics. It's appropriately called Take 1. Remember Ogilvy PR comprises both sides of the equation -PR people who pitch stories to bloggers, and prolific, influential bloggers like Rohit Bhargava. Which is what makes this list more attractive to me. I urge you to read the whole list. Among them are:
- Before we email you, we will check out your blog's About, Contact and Advertising page in an effort to see if you have blatantly said you would not like to be contacted by PR/Marketing companies. If so, we'll leave you alone.
- If you are initially interested in the campaign, but don't respond to one of our emails, we will follow up with you no more than once. If you don't respond to us at all, we'll leave you alone.
- You are entitled to blog on information or products we give you in any way you see fit. (Yes, you can even say you hate it.)
They invite comments from readers, plan to take the best and in two weeks post an 'evolved' version. Probably Take 2.
A very good start to a problem that could otherwise pollute perfectly good, well meaning PR.
There's another issue that came up based on comments to the post -the eroding wall between promotion and advertising. I will take this up in my next post. Stay tuned.
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