Great perspective. I’ll just add that the other thing PR people have to be OK with is if a blogger just isn’t interested – bloggers aren’t de facto going to cover something either just because you spend time with them. I have gotten multiple emails from the same PR person asking me why I haven’t written a blog post on their software when they spent an hour to brief me. Had they stated before the briefing that they were expecting that outcome I would have cleared things up right away and told them up front that I likely wouldn’t blog about them… and they could have guessed that if they read my blog regularly.

In that kind of situation, I definitely start to think ‘well, what’s in it for me’ because it’s not in line with what I normally cover… so I can see how bloggers – even if they do understand the role of PR – push back with a pay-for-play type of negotiation.

Rachel

The bigger issue is what PR people are pitching – or doing outreach for – than being PR people. They don’t really understand what they are doing.

Recently, I was approached by a PR firm to fix a campaign that was put together by a social media guru (self-proclaimed) that wasn’t really to clear on many PR or, well, SM concepts.

The program revolved around a widget – yes, this guy loves buzzwords – and I had to tell the client and agency that widgets really don’t work. I get enough emails and calls from various bloggers venting about PR firms that come and ask them to post a widget.

That’s an ad, not a PR campaign. That’s asking a blogger to give up their own valuable real estate for free.

It’s stupid campaigns like that that hurt PR and have bloggers saying pay up or shut up to pitches.

I could not agree with you more. There is no good reason for most bloggers to understand advertising or public relations, with exception of those who are attempting to secure sponsors from advertising or some sort of citizen journalist status. Most aren’t interested in either.

Best,
Rich