I read a post by beauty blogger Krizia on Problogger today who feels that PR people are getting pushier with bloggers due to the recession. The post left me with two questions: 1) Are PR people really getting pushier? and 2) Is it really the recession that could be causing this?
To address the first question, what are PR people’s expectations, and are we as bloggers meeting them? The factors I see here are:
- Do bloggers review products in a timely manner? The beauty blogger said she tests products for 2-3 weeks before reviewing them. In my experience, publicists send me follow up emails only days after I’ve received the book, asking when the review will be up. As a blogger, I need more time to read the book (because, you know, I actually do read it before recommending it). Are these timelines acceptable to PR professionals? Do they compare to traditional media timelines?
- Do bloggers say the right things in the review? Do PR professionals expect to see a review no matter what, even if the review is lukewarm or bad?
- What success indicators do PR professionals want to see? Comments, page views, social media mentions? Are we as bloggers communicating this information back to PR professionals?
For the second question, my intuition is that the “pushiness” is not due to the recession at all. Here are some other reasons PR professionals might come across as pushy:
- Bloggers don’t respond like traditional media - I’ve written before about the reasons that traditional media outreach is vastly different from blogger outreach. The main gist is that bloggers often have different goals than traditional media, so the incentives are different.
- Bloggers are getting greedy – It seems like every blogger wants a sponsorship deal these days. Whatever happened to blogging about things you like, as opposed to blogging about things so you can make money from them? The world of blogging sponsorships is about as fragmented as you can get, so it’s hard for companies to discern 1) who should get sponsorships and 2) what those bloggers should be paid.
- Bloggers are not a sure thing – I know many bloggers who say, “Send me a sample, if I like it I will write about it.” This partly due to the idea of disclosure, and it’s partly due to the idea of trust, and it’s partly due to the fact that bloggers have limited time and resources compared to traditional media. But if a company isn’t even going to get a mention from a blogger, why should they send the products? It’s a business, not a charity.
- Bloggers can’t deliver on ROI – PR people are extremely pressured to show return on investment these days. Even sending a book to review costs at least $5 – from an author’s perspective then, the blogger must be able to sell at least 5 books to see an acceptable ROI.
- Bloggers are numerous – It’s too easy to start a blog these days. While it’s not easy to build a community, it’s certainly not as hard as say, building a newspaper or a magazine. This means there are a lot of bloggers out there with a couple thousand subscribers who could get traction for a product. A company has to eventually ask, “If I keep giving my product away to anyone with a blog, who will actually buy it?”
What do you think?
- PR professionals, are bloggers meeting your expectations? Are bloggers producing the results you need to get the job done on behalf of your clients?
- Bloggers, are PR people getting pushier in your experience?
- How can we improve relationships between PR professionals and bloggers?
Monica O'Brien is the Director of Digital at Fizz and author of the book Social Pollination, which helps businesses leverage social media for crazy growth!
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
There's a new world of PR opportunity, and it isn't governed by the same motive (to earn a profit) that unified old world media's approach. PR can push a product using a television show and rest assured that all the shows want to have high ratings and returning advertisers. Blogs don't work like that–not all of them–there is no universal motive for authoring a blog. Adjust to the new world or continue to be frustrated because it's not the old world. This happens over and over again–it's how life is.
Well, I think there's a threshold. I don't promote products unless I tried them for at least 6 months. When I promote them I usually ask for an exclusive deal to my blog. I receive a fair amount of requests for reviewing other products (mainly related to productivity, that seems to be my perceived niche) but I'm happy to turn them down if I don't like them.
I think bloggers are the new real media. Journalism is slowly fading away and there's only one reason to that: authenticity. As a journalist you can't really be authentic about something, because if you say you don't like it, you may lose your job. As a blogger, you can say you don't like it (or even better, chose a diplomatic approach and remain silent) and in the worst case you're only losing one of your potential sponsors. But you have access to many others.
Anytime I get a PR request, I send an e-mail back stating stipulations. They company is MORE than welcome to send me something, but I let them know up front I absolutely don't guarantee a review. Even if I do review, I point out that I'll be 100% honest (not always a good thing for them).
If they pass those two hurdles and still really want to get it to me I know they are really serious. Or rather that they think I will really like it. I still get sent books and PR follow-up request, but the demand is a lot lower, the quality on average is higher and everyone's expectations are set.
Lately, while backpacking overseas, I've been sending the PR people a message saying they can send it out to someone on my EMAIL list. Not even me. I've had multiple book publishers actually take me up on this, too. So I know publishers are willing to be flexible. (at least for books).
Who is to blame? I don't know. Frankly, I don't care. I suggest setting yourself up in a system that doesn't require you to review a constant stream of crappy products to turn a few bucks. Sure, there's a great place for genuine affiliate relationships. 99% of the time though, these PR companies aren't looking for that!
Great post!
You know, that's interesting I actually just received (another) unsolicited items to review in the mail. I get about 5 or so a week from people via my contact form
So far I haven't seen too much pressure to get a review up quickly, people do tend to follow up sooner than I would like though – and sometimes send me product far too close to launch. Like you, I need at least a week to work reading a new information product into my schedule, but I've had people email me as late as one day before launch – and then follow up the next day with “Where's my review?”
I'm seeing a shift as well though, as more bloggers are contacting me to review their products – ebooks, software, web applications, etc. Bloggers that contact me tend to be more patient and provide me with free review copies with less expectations – perhaps because they can relate to my situation =)
I do agree that PR is evolving. I think the key point that you touch on is “there is no universal motive for authoring a blog.” From the PR person's perspective, that means it takes a lot of customization to reach out to each blogger. Bloggers are fragmented – they each have different procedures and preferences, creating a ton of work for the PR professional.
Given the extra work, it seems like the ROI may not be very high for blogger outreach. This is a huge problem for PR professionals, and it affects bloggers as they lose review requests and potential sponsorship partnerships. The question is, how do we overcome that?
Dragos, “threshold” is a great word to describe this concept. I find it really interesting that you spend 6 months trying products. Is that because of the product itself or because you want to maintain your credibility within your community? It makes sense to me that several products require a great deal of time to try – for example, beauty products like aging cream would take at least 6 weeks I would think.
Why do you ask for exclusivity? I haven't heard of that before, but I'm really interested in your reasoning for that.
Adam, I like the idea of sending out the opportunity to your email list. I'm curious what you think PR companies ARE looking for. Is it just a quick mention so they can say they got X number of blogs to write about the product?
As I get into doing PR for companies, my biggest focus is still results. I'm curious what the industry uses as metrics, and why.
I'm glad you wrote about this. In the last couple of months, I've seen a significant increase in the number of emails I get from PR people, offering books, “story ideas” that are really thinly-disguised press releases, etc. I tell them all no and ask to be removed from their distribution list, and yet the flood is increasing, not decreasing.
The only ones that don't annoy me — and that's a very small percentage of them — are the ones that actually seem to have read my blog and get what I do. The others seem little different from spam to me, and they're becoming just as irritating.
Sid, I think bloggers reaching out to you to promote their products probably do it vastly differently than PR professionals. Most bloggers that have reached out to me offer affiliate options. They understand the incentives of bloggers. PR professionals approach me with traditional media pitches still.
I agree that a one week minimum is probably a threshold. I would go as far as to say I need almost a month to complete the process of
1) deciding if I'm willing to review
2) receiving the product
3) reviewing the product
4) writing the review down as a blog post
5) setting everything up to match the contact's goals – a big launch on a certain day, a big push to various networks, etc.
Seems like a long time to wait, but this stuff takes work!
I promote productivity software or gear and that takes time to understand, apply and evaluate. As for the customized deal, i do this because I usually provide some extra content. For instance, when promoting my MacJournal deal, I also wrote a couple of posts on how you can use MacJournal as a GTD setup for blogging, or how to use it to write an ebook. These extra points puts me in a better position for negotiation. But it also limits the number of products I can have for review.
I have to say that Krizia's post rubbed me the wrong way. Yes, PR folks want to know about who a blogger is and who that blogger can reach. But when I was working primarily in print and I was trying to get a review copy of something for a brand new publication, the PR people I approached routinely asked for similar information. Because most of them do have a limited budget, I can understand why they don't want to send out a review sample to every blogger that comes along.
The real difference is that more PR people have realized that they NEED to be working with bloggers. Those pushy PR people? A lot of them are trying to bring clients and management on board for social media and are trying to come up with numbers to do so. If I can help them do so by putting together an informational packet about my site, I'm comfortable with it.
All that said, I take my time for reviews and am willing to publish negative reviews — I've had follow up contacts that about drove me up the wall both when writing for print and for web. I'm more than willing to tell a PR person that I won't be writing the review until I've actually finished reading the book (or checking through whatever product that I'm reviewing).
Interesting post! I always wonder what PR people think. When I get something free, I'm clear that I won't promise to write about it. Not because I'm trying to get free stuff (please, that $5 bottle of lotion isn't worth the hassle) but because the product isn't spectacular.
I'm the same way. I accepted one book for review recently – it was called Upstarts!: How GenY Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business.
I can't think of how much better targeted this book could be to my readers. I wish EVERY person who pitched me tried this hard to be relevant.
Thanks for the comment!
Thursday,
The post rubbed me the wrong way too. I think she has some good points but the post was also self-entitled. At the end of the day the relationship between PR professionals and bloggers needs to be a two-way street where everyone wins. If that means both parties need to pull back or ask more questions, then so be it.
Thanks for the comment and the unique perspective, having worked in traditional media.
Christine,
I'm the same way – I think it's far better to not write about a product than to write a boring review. It's better for my readers, my credibility, and the company who sent me the product. Thanks for the comment!
Ahh, I see. The exclusivity deal makes sense if you are doing multiple posts over a longer period of time. Thanks for sharing! It's always interesting to learn new ways to negotiate these deals!
This is an interesting debate.
In my case, if it is clear that the PR request is just a generic form email than I will ignore it. Recently I have gotten several emails from people acting like they are my biggest fans but who have never commented or contacted me in the past. That is just spam in my opinion.
I think PR people are a little desperate now, because their jobs are probably disappearing. Social media is redefining marketing and publicity. It is important for individuals and companies to have authentic conversations with bloggers and build those relations over time. I don't think that can be outsourced to PR people just looking to push product down blogger's throats.
John,
I use the same guidelines – it's clear to bloggers who are their real biggest fans and who are just trying to get PR.
There's certainly a place for PR people in the future, but the biggest problem they face is they must establish relationships with individuals in addition to contacts with the (much smaller) journalism community. The PR professionals who are succeeding now are the ones who build relationships online.
Thanks for the comment!
I have to say that so far we have done no product reviews on our blog. I feel that my first responsibility is to deliver content to our readers that is really valuable to them. Product reviews are not at the top of the list.
Thank you for your thought provoking questions and a great post. My experiences with PR have mostly been positive, and there are several that are wonderful to work with. I have definitely noticed an increase in press releases – I am receiving about five of these a day. I will accommodate those that I have worked with before, but for those that only send press releases, I have to turn them down. It is frustrating and time consuming. Yes, in my opinion, the pitches which offer no product have increased.
I think this is a great point. I don't do product reviews often unless someone in PR sends me something really targeted. I don't often think about how valuable the information is to my readers, but it's something I will think about in the future. Thanks for the comment!
You mentioned pitches with no offer: I actually had a pitch like that for a book today. The pitch didn't include a review copy, just a non-exclusive article that I could reprint on my blog. I thought it was a little strange. As an author, I understand that you may not want to send out a million review copies – but I also think it's crazy to not send ANYTHING of value. To me, a non-exclusive article not really targeted at my site is essentially an ad.
Needless to say, I ignored the press release all together – those don't warrant responses. I accepted another one today from someone offering the book and an interview.
Thank you for sharing your experience!
I am a blogger and a PR person (Edelman) and I understand why bloggers get frustrated with pitches that are off-topic – I write about food and I've been pitched for shoe polish.
There are some PR folks who want to work with bloggers because their clients ask them to so they do things like email blasts, pitch bloggers without reading them and I think it's so wrong. Bloggers aren't journalists who get paid to sort through hundreds of pitches. For many, it's a labor of love and they don't get why people would suddenly send them weird emails in corporate-speak.
I do think bloggers need to understand that PR people are trying to do their jobs and yes, might eventually make a mistake, but PR people need to understand that working with bloggers is different than print journalists. It's about the people, it's about building relationships and working in tandem.
I don't think PR jobs are disappearing. I think they're changing and people are realizing that things are way different than they were 5, even 2 years ago. Working with bloggers is not working with media. Bloggers are a new to publicists and people are still learning the ropes, some faster than others.
I agree about authenticity – blogger relations is about being a human, being yourself and developing those relationships because you want to, not because it's your job to push send on an email.
I got one just like that too! It was a cookbook that hasn't been released yet. I get that they're trying to build buzz around it before it launches but if there is no benefit to me and my readers, I just don't see the purpose.
The only review blog I have ever seriously followed is silentpcreview, and they do write about everything they receive, even if that means a bad review. If this means low ROI to the PR people, then it’s the PR people who need to understand that good reviews for bad products is worse than bad reviews for bad products.
You'd be amazed over how many bloggers do take those and print them. I'm not one of them.
I see this from both perspective because I'm a target blogger for some companies but I'm also managing digital strategies in a PR agency.
Question no. 1 for most PR people & clients are : How do I guarantee a blog coverage? And the answer is… there is NO guarantee. But there are definitely ways to increase that chance. The feedback that I get from many follow bloggers are that the PR professionals reach out to them only when they are needed for something on an ad-hoc basis. There is really no fostering of relationships. And many PR professionals (except those already active on social media) have no idea how to foster these relationships online appropriately.
I find there is still a communication gap between the two. None of them are at fault. Both have valid points of concern but each lack understanding in each other. Again, PR professionals probably need bloggers more than the other way round. Although content is always precious, especially exclusive ones.
I would rather think of it as a fault-line in the relationship that needs some gluing together. PR professionals need to put their ego aside and get into the digital circle, foster a sincere and real relationship with bloggers before bloggers will be willing to listen. Then again, I hate to use the word bloggers. Online influencer today definitely spreads beyond the blogsphere. Relationships take time and tact to build. More haste less speed. Problems like “duration required for reviews”, “likelihood of a blog coverage” etc can be easily resolved if both parties have a deeper understanding of each other's intentions and objectives.
In this way, PR professionals can also better prep clients in what to expect when reaching out to influencers online. These expectations need to be more realistic and less idealistic.
Nice post Monica. My view is that the result will generally only be as good as the research… Sure, blogs provide a wealth of opportunity for PR's, but it's too easy to spray rather than figure out what's going to be most effective. The dark/flip side of the choice that trad PR really craves…