You have found the blogs you want to reach out to, now its time to start beating the streets. But you do not want to just start spamming people, there needs to be a method to the madness when pitching bloggers. The short version:
- Don’t Cold Call — Email First
- Engage Us In Our Natural Habitat
- Personalize Your Communications
- Offer An Exclusive
- Pitch An Angle
- Be Flexible
- Give Adequate Lead Time
Here is an excerpt from an excellent article on engaging bloggers:
Finding bloggers doesn’t have to be difficult. You can search for bloggers in a specific niche on Google or Yahoo. Most bloggers who are doing this for a living (or trying) use social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. You can even find journalists/bloggers that are eager to promote a wide selection of products and services who are attending #journchat, which is held on Twitter once a week. I’m just one of the many who join in on the conversation, so #journchat is a realistic way for bloggers and PR reps to connect. The potential for creating relationships during #journchat is great. PR mavens who attend #journchat should take note of this.
In some cases, bloggers will try to find PR professionals on their own. Help a Reporter Out (HARO) has allowed me to connect personally with several of the PR contacts I have today. I’ve also emailed PR representatives, on my own. When I was starting out, I didn’t have any PR companies knocking on my door. I had to find them. It took time to build up a relationship with many of the PR companies I work with the most. I just never gave up and the bigger my website became, the more willing I was to re-email past PR reps that had previously ignored my emails.
I would personally suggest using Facebook or Twitter as a last resort of contacting someone. Those networks are more for personal communications and a potential blogger may not appreciate being approached there. Marshall Kirkpatrick lays out the reasons why you should try to avoid using Facebook or Twitter and suggests how one should pitch blogs, especially Read Write Web.
[...] You’ve taught a group of young, eager professionals how to follow conversations; engaging your blogger of choice. You have provided some tools they can use to follow discussions on [...]