Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

I am more involved teaching agencies these days how to enter the blogosphere with their clients. There’s a nice checklist for PR people over on Melanie Season’s Fake Plastic Noodles (one of the best names for a blog I’ve ever read) called “Do you know whom you are pitching?” on how to pitch bloggers in 2008.

The nice thing about it is she updates the notions of:

1. Relevant content - PR people should never pitch bloggers who don’t write about the ecosystem their product may live in. I really don’t care much to spend time writing posts about things that don’t interest me, thank you. And my interests change over time. Melanie’s idea of researching not only blogger’s blogs, but their Twitter feeds and Facebook pages is spot on…
2. Relevant context - I’ve seen many bloggers (via their Twitter feeds) definitively state: “Don’t pitch me in email. If you’re going to pitch me, do it in Twitter.” I rather love the notion of paring down the pitch to 140 characters. Can you do it?
3. Current thinking - Melanie suggests you check out blogger’s activities on other’s blogs (by reading their comments) to capture a holistic view of their thoughts. An easy way to do this (thanks Melanie!) is to run a Google search: posted by: janet johnson <their screen or blog name - find it in their own blog’s comment area> to see their interactions around the web. I am fairly consistent in my rants and raves whether on my blog or on others, but you never know when you might be surprised by a potential bloggers’ current thinking on others’ blogs. As an example, Melanie points to this Flickr exchange started by Tom Coates in early 2007. Before you pitch any blogger, I think it might be required reading - just to give you a “heads up” as to attitudes and optics you might find out there.

I’m following @mseasons now, and looking forward to getting to know her, 140 characters at a time.

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