A Dear John Letter to PR Folks

Dear PR folks,

I get bunches of pitches via email. I never really asked for them, but there they are. I understand. It’s the business you’re in.

They’re press releases, mostly, but sometimes a more personalized attempt at news or an event or a product promotion. Once in a while, I get a pitch that works or gets my attention. But by and large, I’m the wrong target for you.

You see, I don’t write about the kind of stuff you’re pitching. I don’t announce promotions, or analyze them, or talk about them. I don’t evaluate technology or applications. I don’t review products or talk about them much unless there’s a larger, more specific context that I’ve initiated.

If you’ve written to me or put me on your “pitch list” because I happen to be on the AdAge Power 150 or on some other very nice lists of awesome blogs, you’re making a big generalization that’s not helping you much. Just because I have a successful blog doesn’t mean I blog about what you hope I do. If you’ve browsed the posts here at all, you’ve probably gleaned that already.

In my specific case, your pitches and emails to me are wasted effort. I delete most of them, the press releases immediately. The personalized messages I indeed do read, but I’ve never written about one product promotion or event or campaign as a result of them. I’m okay with not being the first to know. There are other people out there that do that much better than I do.

I know there are bloggers out there that want your info, because they do want to be in the know. They consider their blog much more of a media outlet than I do, and themselves more in the framework of a journalist. I’m a writer, pretty much. A thinker sometimes, for better or worse. I’m not a very good promotional vehicle for things that don’t have personal relevance to me.

So by all means, keep up the blogger relations thing, because I’m sure it’s effective in other places. But me? You can take me off your list. You’re not going to get much traction here. It’s not what I do. That’s not what my blog is for, and it’s not what my readers come here for.

If all of that makes you want to break up with me, that’s okay. I’ll save you the trouble. I’ll read about your campaign on other people’s blogs and be happy that you found someone to cover your stuff.

My blog is an intellectual adventure for me, not a channel for you. I intend to keep it that way. And if ever an exception were to be made, it would be because it’s a topic, thing, or person I’m passionate about to start with.

But really, you can take me off your list and you don’t have to send me free stuff. You don’t need to put me on your rockstar blogger lists of influential people. Because really, the kind of “influence” I have – if it’s real – isn’t the kind you’re looking for. I won’t send legions of people into your stores or to your website. My purpose here is to mobilize and influence thought, not commerce. If that makes me a lousy blogger, I guess I’ll learn to live with that.

So I think we should part ways, but it’s okay. You’re doing the right thing, it’s just that I’m the wrong outlet. Really.

It’s not you. It’s me.

Find more like this: Blogging, Communication, Social media , blogger relations, PR pitches, Public relations