Natasha Netschay Davies (Moonraker and Peak) invited me to guest lecture at Simon Fraser University's Public Relations Certificate. These are the slides I used as the basis of my talk.
My Pitching Bloggers talk May 2012 (Guest Lecture for SFU Public Relations Program)
1. Pitching Bloggers The Right Way
Raul Pacheco
Chief Content Creator, Hummingbird604.com
http://hummingbird604.com
http://www.facebook.com/hummingbird604
Http://www.twitter.com/hummingbird604
http://gplus.to/hummingbird604com
raul@hummingbird604.com
SFU PR Program
May 3rd, 2012
Hashtag: #hb604sfu
6. I write about...
In a nutshell, I'm a travel and
lifestyle blogger with an
academic slant.
Travel and tourism
Food
While I have a PhD in
environmental studies, I rarely
Wine blog about environmental
Music/Dance/Theatre issues anymore (mostly
because I put those on my
Entertainment research blog,
Queer issues http://www.raulpacheco.org/blog
Non-profits
I don't cover the Canucks, nor
− Cancer Real Housewives of
− Mental health Vancouver. And I think
− HIV/AIDS Snooki's pregnancy is a
− Homelessness presage of the world's perils.
7. How do you pitch bloggers?
I'm going to my PREVIOUS presentation here...
http://www.slideshare.net/raulpachecov/pitching-bloggers-101-guest-lecture-
11. Know my rules
Disclosure and transparency
My readers are my priority
Photographers need to be credited
Send me visuals
Accept that I have very limited time
Follow up, because I receive hundreds of emails
12. Know my fields
Food and wine
Nightlife
Travel
Lifestyle
Dance
Theatre
Non-profits
Unique, unconventional stuff
15. Three additional tips...
Train your interns.
− Your interns are an extension of you. They need to
behave equally professionally to how YOU would
behave.
− Your interns should reflect your image. And yes, I
know it takes a while to train them, but I did it and so
should you.
16. Three additional tips...
Follow the rules uniformly (and
don't lie)
− If you say X “can't be done” don't go and offer X to
blogger Y. Because the rest of the blogging world is
going to find out. And your PR company will lose its
reputation.
17. Three additional tips...
Don't break down the rapport
you've already established
− If the blogger tells you they don't like non-targeted
press releases, and you've done specific, tailored
pitches... don't revert back to blanket press releases!
− Make sure your pitches are always targeted to the right
people. Even after you've had success.
18. More resources:
On my site, search for the following posts/pages:
4 additional thoughts on pitching bloggers and online influencers
http://hummingbird604.com/pitch-me/ (My Pitch Me page)