More on PR and Pitching

April 18th, 2008 | Published in Blogging, Email, Personal, RSS, Twitter, social media

Despite Louis’s attempt to start this weekend’s bitchmeme on the topic of blogs and advertising - damn, Louis, you’re getting good at this! - I’m going to refrain from that discussion (as long as I can resist, that is) and write about something else instead.

…And we thought Techmeme was the echo-chamber!….OK, just kidding, guys…I’m actually looking forward to the influx of thoughts on this that are sure to come.

Thoughts on Pitches

However…what I’m interested in is the debate occurring now in the comments of Marshall’s latest post on the topic of how to pitch to Read Write Web: "Five Wrong Ways to Pitch RWW and One Great Way."

His suggestion, in a nutshell, was to let everyone know that the best way to get our attention was not via IMs, phone calls, and the traditional email pitch, but to send us your company’s OPML file or RSS feeds along with your news.

He highlighted a company that had done just that.

As voracious readers of RSS, Marshall explained that the best way for us to not just hear your news, but to stay constantly updated on the latest news from your company, was to provide us with a feed or feeds along with your pitch.

Most comments were positive, thankful for this new insight on how to be heard above the noise, but a few were downright negative, implying the post was "arrogant and condescending."

What?

Everyone, Please Breathe. Chill.

It’s just a suggestion people. Take it or leave it.

Just…doesn’t it make sense that when you’re telling a blogger about a new service/product that you would also encourage them to subscribe to the companies feed(s)?

To me, it clicks. It’s obvious. It’s no different than when a TV ad promotes a company’s phone number and web address…it’s just that the RSS address is the one a blogger wants to see.

Re: Phone Calls, a Personal Note

Also, on a side note, I’d like to point out that the reason I’m not a fan of the phone call is due to the past year I spent in I.T. where my phone just rang off the hook. I grew to despise the phone and its constant interruption of my workflow. I still do.

Unless we’re friends, an unsolicited phone call is met with shifty eyes as I try to determine who it may be (what’s that area code? an unknown number? am I expecting this call?) The exception, of course, is a scheduled call, but I digress…

I also have a personal goal of pushing out 6 posts per day (not including here) - 2 for RWW and 4 for Channel 10 (they don’t necessarily run all 4, but they do get written and uploaded as drafts). Interruptions, like calls, have to be kept to a minimum as I am not the speediest of writers nor the master of HTML.

Another Pitch Idea

I also highly, highly, highly recommend the Twitpitch, something I wrote about today on RWW: "Twitpitch, the Elevator Pitch Hits Twitter."

I have already subscribed to the Twitpitch RSS feed for the hashtag…(oh, thanks again Todd! I swear I am so blonde sometimes.)

I really hope that takes off. I am totally in love with the idea. (do you digg it, too?) Let me know what you think in the comments here, there, FF, Twitter, anywhere.