With all the info available about journalist preferences and best practices (and really, just good PR) out there, it’s hard to believe that people would still send the same pitch over and over, but it seems to be the case… What’s the quickest way to annoy a journalist? Tell them they’re just a checkbox on your pitch list… One publicist found this out the hard way, and sadly, it doesn’t look like he’s planning on changing his ways anytime soon.
In his recent article, “Book Pitch Gone Bad: How to Piss Off Those You Most Want to Befriend,” Jonathan Fields shows a book publicist his true feelings about the right way to pitch these days – which is not sending an email blast to every reporter imaginable.
The “spamming” approach makes it clear that you don’t really value the reporter or blogger’s work. As Fields offers, “Show at least a modicum of interest in what I do and what I write about. Show me you’ve read at least a single post. Build at least a smidge of rapport before you ask me or any other blogger to do you a favor.”
Fields suggests utilizing the social media outlets, because “if you do it right, you’ll need to cultivate real relationships with far fewer people,” as if they “like what you’re selling, and they like you, they’ll pass it on. Not just to one person, but to tens or hundreds of thousands.”
For the full story, including the entire e-mail exchange between Fields and the publicist, click here.
Tags: best practices, PR dos and don'ts, PR spam, pr tips
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