An Open Dialogue with Kevin Dugan, of The Bad Pitch Blog
April 1st, 2009Author: Allison Blass
I have been reading The Bad Pitch Blog since former OTD bloggers, Tom Biro and Chris Thilk, introduced it to me many moons ago. The commentary on BPB is always spot on and some of the pitches they’ve received are so outrageous you wonder how the press releases ever got approved. There are definitely some choice examples of what not to do. Kevin Dugan, co-mastermind of The Bad Pitch Blog along with The Bad Pitch Blog along with Richard Laermer, agreed to answer a few questions on blogger outreach best practices, his online stomping grounds, and some wise words for the PR graduates of the Class of 2009. – AB
DM: Social media campaigns and blogger outreach are sometimes assigned to PR professionals who have only worked with traditional media. What are some similarities and differences between traditional media and social media that PR professionals should keep in mind?
KD: The biggest similarity is the need for customization. Online or offline, the stories worth reporting on in a big way require a custom approach. Sure there are exceptions to the rule–smaller news items, like a personnel announcement, might be sent out using a more generic approach. But if you don’t make it clear why your news applies to a blog or a news outlet you risk not landing the story.
The biggest difference between bloggers and media is their motivation. While journalists start their career due to a passion for their work, they’re getting paid to do it. It’s a means to an end. Bloggers work out of passion. Their blog is the beginning, middle and end. Some have monetized their blogs, but keep in mind that their topic of focus is more than a beat assignment to them.
So if you do not take the time to read a reporter’s last few articles and figure out their preferred mode of communication it’s annoying. But if you do not take the time to visit a blogger’s site and your pitch shows this, it’s not only a waste of their time, they can take it personally.
One piece of advice that is often recommended is “be personal in pitches.” Do you think there should be any differences in that approach between pitching bloggers and pitching journalists? If so, how?
One of our biggest challenges is using the raft of online technology available to us to do better, more informed pitching instead of simply doing more pitches. We need to beware of the temptation to take one pitch and blast it out to the results of a keyword search.
More people to pitch to does not mean more potential ink for your client. Pitching fewer can actually get you better results if you spend time customizing each pitch for each outlet.
Client relationships are not typically set up like this, we want to show a lot of activity to our client so they see they are getting their money’s worth. We need to change this approach.
What are some of the classic “Bad Pitch” moves that you’ve seen come across your inbox?
By far the most common Bad Pitch move is the off-target pitch. We have pitches that might not be all that bad. But they’re completely irrelevant. The ones that are the most fun are the ones that are in poor taste, but for the most part it’s laziness and not poor judgment that kills a pitch.
What’s one of your favorite case studies of a brand utilizing social media?
Any brand experimenting with it is interesting to me. But lately I have enjoyed seeing State Farm connect with teen drivers online and offline. Compare State Farm against Progressive. Which one would win in a cool competition? But State Farm is doing a great job connecting with teen drivers using music and TV ads to push kids online. State Farm’s online presence extends from its microsite across YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. If you consider the brand you might not think it’s possible. But by talking to their target audience where their target audience lives it’s successful — which is the secret to any effective communications.
Charmin is also surprising me with their Sit or Squat program. Sit or Squat allows you to see restroom rankings against a map using the web, iPhone or Blackberry. It’s branded utility and they’re engaging the site users by asking them to participate as well. It’s very smart.
Spring is approaching and there are hundreds of new PR professionals about to launch their career – what is one lesson or piece of advice that Professor Dugan would like to impart about working in public relations?
Show your passion. If you have passion, you can be taught anything on the job.
Experiment and learn from your mistakes. This applies to your entire job, but consider it for social media too. Sign up for a few sites that are of interest to you and use them so you have an informed opinion about what they can do and how they might, or might not, fit into a communications plan.
Never stop learning. I’ve learned more in the last few years of my career than in the first few years. And if I decided at some point that I knew it all, I would have been wrong.
A lot of people get completely overwhelmed when it comes to social media and how to get involved. How did you get started in social media?
I started in 2002 when I created Strategic Public Relations to keep up with technology and keep my writing chops honed. It worked. I think people need to stop thinking about social media as a whole and just get involved with a site they like. Better to use one site thoroughly vs being signed up for every site and not really using any of them.
What are the top 3 blogs that you think every traditional PR professional should add to their RSS feed and why?
1) PRNewser – PRNewser provides industry insight and more.
2) The Bad Pitch Blog – A shocker, right? But we are really trying to help PR people improve their game through media relations tips and bigger picture stuff too.
3) Mashable – If you are trying to keep up with a lot of social media topics, Mashable does a good job of serving tips and how-to articles.
4) Best Kept Secret Site – This is a site like CoolHunter. It gathers up the newest and coolest and helps people identify trends in its areas of coverage. It’s up to you to find this site. But once you have it, you’ll dole out information and links it provides to other sources and won’t want to send people to the actual site.
