socialADDICT

Photo Courtesy of freshpeel.com/2007/03/

I am really getting sick of the term “pitch”. So many times people ask me to write a pitch for a press or new release and I just cringe at the thought. It sounds so sales-y and impersonal to me. Not to mention it sounds like “bitch” and nobody likes that either. My philosophy & strategy has always been about creating authentic conversation (if you didn’t get that from my blog already) and to avoid crappy pitches (by the way they don’t work on me either).

So to further solidify my position I did some research and personally asked a few top-notch traditional marketing bloggers how they like to be approached about product launches, web app launches, etc. and what really ticks them off about being approached. Here are their answers:

Steve Rubel (PR, Micropersuasion Blog): “Ultimately it’s about the blogger themselves – what’s in it for them. Figure out their mo and how to achieve win-win. Take a look at a post I linked to 4 Rules to Understand What Makes People Tick: http://tinyurl.com/24akk9”

Seth Godin (Author, Entrepreneur, Blog): “pr doesn’t work on me, or press releases. my readers have my ear, not marketers.”

Kevin Dugan (Strategic Public Relations, prBlog): “it’s always going to go back to my audience. consumer vs business, young vs old. a lot of factors to consider with who before I worry about the what. they all have their place. there is sadly no silver bullet. in my day job we use direct marketing and PR more than anything else. not trying to be vague. It’s true!”

My takeaway is just to develop relationships and really nurture them. And with that being said don’t be fake or superficial because it will backlash. Be who you are and stay authentic and for the love of God please stop calling it a “pitch”! Or I’ll bitch slap you.