The PR Companies
My point is that it is never easy to get connected to someone you do not know randomly even if you have that person's phone number or email and less say to get them to do something. That brings me to the importance of having a GOOD Public Relations (PR) Company.
A little background for those who are not in the industry or have little knowledge of how the system work. Sometimes when you have a story or in some cases product to share to the public, you get in touch with magazines, journalist, news site, bloggers and try to get their help to get the news out. As often as we think that news just goes onto our blog, news or papers it doesn't. There will always be people to bridge this and the PR guys are the hero behind everything.
Their jobs of course not only includes bridging people, it includes a lot more like selecting, profiling make sure your stories go to the right place, having the right news angle , writing the release and ya da ya da.
I am no master in the field to tell you which is the best but I can you what is not a bad PR pitch for
sure. Like those that will never turn my head.
Smith The Diva
Being a blogger and putting our email addresses online can means opening a door to endless opportunities but also endless bull shit at times. I always try my best to reply all my emails even if I am not interested in the project, I always believe in rejecting people rather than leave them hanging.
I hate to sound like a diva sometimes but other times I just get really pissed when people send me ridiculous requests or some requests that seems like abusing us. Blogging is a hobby to me, not a business but I don't see how cool it is to abuse us for our time simply because "there are no cost involved" anyway. Hello, time is money please.
Money and time aside, I always feel the importance of being responsible to my readers. Can you believe if I actually start to write anything really useful and makes your own toilet visit reading hobby way too serious? No way!
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This is you reading my blog. Source. |
Bad PR Pitch
There are a lot of things that pisses off different bloggers or journalist, I've seen a lot myself but this is one I have to share. No better way to share than to just share.
Email from XXX:
Hi Smith,
My name is XXXX. I am working in the marketing team for XXXX (formerly YYYYY). (Which btw, he got YYYYY wrong, I used to work with that company closely and he got his own company's name WRONG!)
Not sure if you have heard about our ZZZZZ which is an ongoing campaign over at our XXXX
Brief Introduction of ZZZZZZ:
NOT IMPORTANT BODY WHICH I SHALL NOT DISCLOSE
What we need from you:
blah blah blah, nondisclosure material blah blah blah: we hope that you would blog about us on your social media portals; mostly of the attention to be shed on blogs.
It will be great if you can share me on the following statistics:
- Fan Base
- Click throughs
- Content shared
- Credential level (certifications or awards/testimonials)
- Interaction level
- Engaged what kind of audiences
Hope to hear from you soon. Thank you.
------------------------ END OF EMAIL-------------------
Being someone with marketing background as well as digital marketing, I feel very sad for this company/person. I've worked with many different bloggers over the years of my working experience, I've never asked nor got asked before about such stats.
- Fan base? Not readership, not twitter follower but fan base?
- Click Throughs? Not my daily unique clicks but click through? Do I look like a banner to him? Does he even know what is click through?
- Content shared? Type or what?
- Credential level? Do I need to show my bank account or get a witness to make sure I'm credible? Blogging certificate?
- Interaction level? I think he mean engagement rate if on facebook. I don't even know how to answer him.
- Engaged what kind of audiences? This is the best. Like what? What kind. Demographic lah deh!
Game Of Troll
I mean of course I did not just let it go or just ignore the email. I mean what he was actually sharing with me was actually pretty cool. It is something that worth up to $2,500. $2,500 vs a chance to troll? I'm sure you know which one I chose.
Answer by Smith
Hey XXXX,
NOT IMPORTANT BODY WHICH I SHALL NOT DISCLOSE
Anyway here are some of the things you are looking for. Not too sure if these are the stats you are looking for because the terms you using here is a little different from how we usually do it, let me know if I got it wrong. Sorry in advance if it's too much trouble.
- Fan Base (I wouldn't call them my fans but if you are looking for some numbers, Twitter - 2,240. Facebook Likes - 1,574. Facebook Friends - 1,631, Instagram Followers - 1,417, G+ - 644)
- Click throughs ( Im not sure what it my Click through from other links, i guess if you mean page views for my blog it's avg 30,000 per month with peak was 80k for 1 month)
- Content shared ( you really need to help me with this. Type of content? Number of content? Which platform? I really don't see what you mean here? like 5 blog post a month? 30 tweets a day? We hardly keep track of these numbers cause it doesnt reflects on our KPI)
- Credential level (certifications or awards/testimonials) Besides the numbers as credential i think calling it credential number is a little interesting, Singapore blog awards finalist for 3 yrs, 2 yrs in best WTH Blog, 1 yr in Best Lifestyle and also 2 yrs in best twitter account. Won 2014 Best LifeStyle Blog. Also part of the committee member who did Twestival for 2 yrs, Social Media Festival 1 yr, Food Revolution under Jamie Oliver 1 yr, featured on UWeekly, ST, Today, MyPaper etc.
- Interaction level ( mid? low? high? which platform? My readers for my blog hardly leaves comment but my readers on FB and Twitter is pretty active. If you talking about Engagement Rate, I don't have those stats because we hardly measure the number of post over the number of fans and how many reply but I would say they are pretty interactive.)
- Engaged what kind of audiences (Humans mainly but if you are asking about demographic I would say mostly people in the Media and Blogging industry. Age btw 25-35, 70% Female and 30% Male)
I hope these stats helps. And btw, do you guys use any digital/social media agency you are working with? I happen to have some friends in the industry always looking for business, let me know if they can come in and support you guys.
------------------------ END OF EMAIL-------------------
For those reading, I am sorry if you feel like I am a cyber bully, troll, diva or simply rude and pain in the ass. The truth is there are somethings that are very important to me and that is work ethnic. No doubt, a job is a just a job but if you are paid to do something, do it right. If you are not going to make an effort to be good and what you are supposed to, you will learn it and in his case learn it the hard way. I did not write this post to name and shame him but instead my point here is simple, put your heart and soul to what you are supposed to do and do it well. We have google and we have agency out there for a reason. #SorryNotSorry
Obviously I did not get a reply from this person at all and I blew my $2,500 worth of sponsorship away and did I regret it? No. I believe my principles in life worth more than that.
Will I scare other PR companies or potential client away because of this post? Maybe I would but I guess it never harm to show that you care and if anyone is being scared away by this post, I can only say this post works as a very good screen.
If you are not scared or in fact like my working style, please feel free to contact me Smithleong@gmail.com for any projects. Trust me, I always give value and I've credential from other agencies that kept returning projects after projects.
Rude
Signing off with my current ear worm.
Why you gotta be so rude?
Don't you know I'm human too?
Why you gotta be so rude?
I'm gonna blog about it anyway
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