There have been a number of articles written about how to pitch bloggers to get your story/product noticed.
Robert Scoble, author of Scoble's Corporate Blogging Manifesto, recently illustrated the right way and wrong way to pitch a blogger.
Wrong Way
On Thursday Michael Gall, in perhaps not the most diplomatic way, blogged on why Scoble did not link (read: publicize) the release of the Firefox 1.0 browser. Scoble, quickly responded with some retribution.
Right, your cause is entitled to a link on my blog. Damn, did you see the right side of my blog? There's a link to Firefox EVERY SINGLE DAY (well, until right now, I just removed it because I hate it when people think they are entitled to tell me what to write about or link to).
Obviously Mr. Gall should of done a little bit of research first, perhaps spending some time reading the blog first. If Mr. Gall did his homework he would have known the Scoble had always provided a link to Firefox, and that e-mailing him for a link, is not the way to get attention.
E-mailing a link request or criticizing the lack of a link is analagous to complaining to your local reporter/editor/publisher that your press release did not run in the paper. Not a wise idea, and does not bode well for future coverage.
Use the same principles you would use in approaching any media contact. Research...learn what format the person prefers to receive material, what are they likely to write about, and not write about.
Right Way
In contrast, look to Scbole's blog a few days earlier and you'll find Mirra reaping the rewards of publicity generated by a Scoble post.
While Scoble does not post details at how he arrived a Mirra, I would assume they invited him to stop by and take a look at their product. Some comments on the Scoble blog point out that the Mirra system uses Linux, so they were surprised that Scoble (a Microsoft employee) would even mention the product. (Scoble addresses those issues here)
For Mirra this is a calculated risk, if Scoble is not impressed by the product he will say so, and that might spell doom for sales. Luckily for Mirra, Scoble was impressed.
Obviously Mirra benefitted from the publicity, but there were added benefits. If you review other posts by Scoble on that day you will see that Mirra was able to quickly receive feedback via comments posted to Scobles blog.
What I find interesting is that here, in less than an hour, we've gotten most of the objections to a new product out on the table.
Not a bad focus group huh? On Mirra's end:
On the other side of this conversation are Bret Savage, Chief Client Architect; Gordon Clyne, Product Manager; Tung Pham, Product Manager; Sandy Benett, Vice President of Engineering; and Leslie Latham, VP of Product Management. And they are all reading your comments.
When was the last time the leaders of your organization sat down with customers and had this type of conversation?
