I’m a blogger, former journalist and public relations professional. As a blogger, I’ve found myself in the role of a journalist once again. About three years ago, I noticed an uptick in news releases coming to my inbox. The new mail wasn’t a surprise to me. I expected it, given the topic of my blog.
Nonetheless, as fate would have it, some public relations professionals would spam my inbox with news releases for which I had no interest. As a former journalist, I’d get peeved at flacks who would spam my inbox, and as a blogger the same applied. Last week, however, when I answered some quick questions for a Chicago-based PR firm, the account executive asked me this question:
What do you believe bloggers and blog authors in general value about working with PR professionals?
My response isn’t earth shattering, but it is true. Bloggers are people and people value truthfulness. They value honesty, which is much different than transparency. They value a good story. And they value timely information — not much different than a journalist.
What separates bloggers from journalists is their value placed on relationships. I think, in a sense, they want to have more conversation with PR professionals, while journalists may not have the time for this. So, bloggers value a deeper relationship, and I think this is a product of their environment. Many bloggers aren’t deadline driven and have the free time to develop relationships deeper than journalist have time for. Furthermore, “brand evangelists” may want to share more information with their readers than a typical journalist. This information only comes from a deeper relationship where thrust is built and nurtured.
Bloggers also like to be first because it makes them feel exclusive — special. This it true for product PR and bloggers who write about their favorite stuff. This has to be balanced with mainstream journalist too, because they like to feel special as well.
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