Feed: Comments for Five Wrong Ways to Pitch RWW and One Great Way - AggScore: 58.1

Great post Marshall, we've been brainstorming internally regarding this in the past, this is a very helpful data point for us.

Now a question back - let's assume you had this happening from ALL PR firms - how would you filter the noise (again)? Wouldn't it get to be just as bad as email eventually?

Jeremy, I at least am much more comfortable scanning my RSS reader - that's what I go there for. I can't imagine that bothering me as much as it does in email. If it did, I might do something like filter for the word "announce" or read just the "greatest hits" using AideRSS. Thanks for asking though! And I might be wrong, I know that I've said in the past for example that Twitter was a "more the merrier" thing but these days I am having a hard time relating to it as my intake gets bigger and bigger.

It should NOT matter WHAT tactics people use to pitch something to you.

You both need each other to survive - so stop patronizing others when you yourselves are no less imperfect.

The ultimate goal should be to get the creme de la creme REGARDLESS of how it is brought to your attention.

One great piece could mean a Digg homepage or even many backlinks from other blogs

The real goal should be doing whatever it takes to get the gems - if you have to work extremely hard - SO WHAT!!

That is the difference between a blog that is near the top of the Techorati top 100 rankings and one that is near the bottom

Do whatever it takes to continuously get the best info for your thousands of readers!

If you were in the shoes of the people you are criticizing, you could not guarantee you would not be doing those same things

Thanks, Marshall - overall I think this is very helpful and we get it, we totally get the email overload, etc. and I know we get a bad wrap ALL THE TIME, but honestly we really want to have good relationships with media, we do want to be resources, not annoyances. Now I just need a bit of time to digest this a bit because I feel like the human touch disappears and the only time I might get to talk to you is when you see the RSS and ask for a briefing ... do I then just become a receptionist and schedule briefings? Alot to think about and definitely some homework for this PR girl. I give you credit for taking the time to give us concrete tips - so it's only fair that we take the time to give it a shot!

I'll add something regarding email pitches.

One of the reasons why they can be very unhelpful or inefficient is the lack of meaningful subject lines. The subject field in an email is what will be "scanned" when there are hundreds or thousands. Make it descriptive and to the point (as you might do with a blog post headline). Not generic titles like "news" or announcement etc.

Read Write What? Let me ask you this. If it takes so much to get noticed, why would I waste my precious time, money, effort, and brain cells developing a new RIA? Why would I invest, for example, 6 months of my time to develop an application that is not clear what kind of demand it will have and people may not want to pay for and possibly it won´t even get noticed? Sure, a lot of research and planning would go a long way, but even this step can be frustrating when it is very hard to pass the gatekeepers to reach the appropriate crowd.

Recommendation - unless you have the right contacts, funding, and a surefire concept (hint: know the demand in advance) you do not waste your valuable resources (and that includes your own time). Of course, temptation is hard to resist when the devil dangles a carrot filled with empty promises of potential millions and the freedom that comes with it. Do´t be fooled though. I urge you to resist such temptations - you will save yourself some time and I am sure ReadWriteWeb will appreciate your sparing them the huge hardship of screening posts.

Funny, Stowe Boyd had just written about how he *is* using Twitter to receive pitches.

One more recommendation. Given that it gets so hard to get notice in this blurry ultra-competitive field, give yourself a favor and stop reading ReadWriteWeb altogether.

If a worthy app comes along, you will know when it is worth having. Trust me, it will go early enough in print and other sources. Clearly the promise of investisting sweat capital and other resources in exchange for a shot at fame and fortune is not going to work.

Do the right thing - enjoy your personal time.

Hey Mark and Search Engines, I'm sorry if this came across as arrogant and condescending - I just wrote it to tell it like it is in the day to day life of bloggers right now and our preferences for learning about new things at RWW.

I sounds as if you want everyone else to do your information management. It's true everyone is overloaded with information these days and finds it hard to cope.
But you shouldn't *ever* take it out on the people who are contacting you.
That is sloppy and shows zero understanding of what is really happening out there.
People will pitch you in variety of ways, whether it's e-mail, facebook, IM, Twitter it doesn't matter.
They will choose what feels comfortable for them.
Telling everyone to build a relationship with you with RSS is rather stupid.
You'll just have information overload in your RSS soon enough and have the same problem.
So what you need to do is set up a information management system - obviously.
If anyone contacts you, tell them the procedures you have set up.
What you really need to do, if set up a submission web-page. Then if anyone contacts you in ways you don't prefer, you simply direct them to your submission page.
The submission page then goes to a database which you filter and manage however you like.
That's the way to do it.
So please set up a information management system rather than talk nonsense about your personal preferences, it won't make a blind bit of difference how people approach you. You should be wide open in any approach.
It's 2008 after all, time to grow up and stop moaning.

Great post, Marshall. I'll take it back to my clients and use it as additional ammo to show why they should get an RSS feed or start blogging.

I'm glad that OPML file worked, Marshall!

Tweetpeek is nice for aggregating Twitter accounts because it's super simple (compared to Pipes). And, I can update it from my end without you having to update the OPML file now on your computer, just like a Pipe.

I put together a Yahoo! Pipes tutorial as well that has annotated screen caps of the app. It may be helpful to PR firms wanting to pull together a Pipe for their clients.

Thanks Marshall! I am ex-PR agency and if only then I had this sort of detailed info for each of the people: bloggers and press, I would have saved them and myself lots of time. Everyone has their preferences...

What will you do when you need someone? :)