Chris Anderson's latest blog, "Sorry PR people: you're blocked," was needed. It was blunt and a tad harsh, but is a great wake-up call for all PR professionals. It can be easy to e-mail a press release to the first address one sees, but as Chris "lightly" puts, "Lazy flacks send press releases to the Editor in Chief of Wired because they can't be bothered to find out who on my staff, if anyone, might actually be interested in what they're pitching." Long story short? Take a moment and send to the right person.
As a PR professional in training, I learned at my summer internship to ALWAYS look up the targeted person for the media advisory and/or news release. If all else fails, pick up the phone and ask. At the time, it never occurred to me that if I sent to the wrong person I may be blocked, and/or humiliated on a blog, but now I'll be even more careful.
Having said all this, it is true that many professionals buy media lists to send their news to. I would suggest looking over any purchased list carefully before putting it to use. Or, have an intern work on researching and compiling a general list. That's what interns are there for, right? Well, that and coffee runs.
1 comment:
Hi Jessica - Welcome to the wonderful world of Biz Blogs. Although bloggers are not journalists, many have similar experiences of pitches that make no sense for the blog, wrong names, obviously never read the blog. I could go on .. With the new generation of PR pros (you!) participating in social media I would expect that less than that will occur.
Very best to you in your career.
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