Читать книгу The New Rules of Marketing and PR - David Meerman Scott, Kevin Nalty, Steve Garfield - Страница 22

For nearly a decade, I was a contributing editor at EContent magazine. I occasionally write for the HuffPost, contribute guest articles to many other publications, and maintain a popular blog. As a result, I receive hundreds of broadcast email press releases and pitches per month from well-meaning PR people who want me to write about their products and services. Guess what? In 10 years, I have never written about a company because of a nontargeted broadcast press release or pitch that somebody sent me. Think about that: tens of thousands of press releases and pitches; zero stories.

Discussions I’ve had with journalists in other industries confirm that I’m not the only one who doesn’t use unsolicited press releases. Instead, I think about a subject that I want to write about, and I check out what I can find on blogs, on Twitter, and through search engines. If I find a press release on the subject through Google or a company’s online media room, great! But I don’t wait for press releases to come to me. Rather, I go looking for interesting topics, products, people, and companies. And when I do feel ready to write a story, I might try out a concept on my blog first, to see how it flies. Does anyone comment on it? Do any PR people jump in and email me?

Here’s another amazing figure: In more than 10 years, only a tiny number of PR people have commented on my blog or reached out to me as a result of a blog post or a story I’ve written in a magazine. How difficult can it be to read the blogs and Twitter feeds of the reporters you’re trying to pitch? It teaches you precisely what interests them. Then you can email them with something interesting that they are likely to write about rather than spamming them with unsolicited press releases. When I don’t want to be bothered, I get hundreds of press releases a month. But when I do want feedback and conversation, I get silence.

Something’s very wrong in PR land.

Reporters and editors use the web to seek out interesting stories, people, and companies. Will they find you?