I’ve mentioned before that I intern for a PR firm on the days I’m not in class. I can’t help but notice how this fairly traditional firm treats bloggers. Or rather, doesn’t treat them.
Often I’ll be ready to send out a press release to a media list containing only contacts in the mainstream outlets, or small local newspapers. I can understand the challenge of trying to keep blogger-exposure local. It’s easy to pitch the opening of a small amusement park in Carver, Massachusetts to The Carver Reporter. But it’s difficult to find a blog covering that niche market.
Yes, asking for blogger attention and “link love” can be difficult. But what about unsolicited mentions?
One of my tasks as an intern is to monitor media coverage for theMassachusetts Bay Commuter Rail. So every day I get Google Alerts highlighting anything new that mentions the phrase “MBCR.” The first day my boss was giving me instructions on how to compile the coverage, he told me to “just ignore anything that says ‘blog’.”
I’m just a student, but from what I can see, ignoring the blogging community is wrong.
This growing community of people publishing their own content on the web is growing, and it’s growing quickly.

Their influence is expanding closer and closer to that of mainstream media outlets. They can’t be ignored forever.
David Meerman Scott, who wrote the industry bible “The New Rules of Marketing and PR,” stresses the potential of the blogosphere. He says bloggers are usually excited to receive a piece of news being pitched to them, and that he has been successful in his blogger relations efforts.
He says bloggers should be treated as if they were journalists, and journalists should be treated as individuals. So that’s the PR perspective, old and new.
What do the bloggers think?
Chris Pirillo, a long-time well known blogger in the tech community discusses the issue:

The video is 19 minutes long. Here is a summary of the guidelines he gives to PR folks interested in pitching to bloggers:

1) Be transparent
2) Don’t ask for links
3) Be proactive for reviews
4) Know who you’re pitching to are and why they matter
5) Keep it short and sweet
6) Treat everybody as if they were someone important

Pirillo mentions that bloggers are different from journalists because they aren’t paid. They are passionate writers covering what matters to them.
“Press releases are not aimed at people who are passionate,” Pirillo says. “They are aimed at people who are used to reprinting.”
Bottom line: Bloggers need to be approached differently and independently from journalists.