Getting Ink

Confessions of a former Mac person: hating the iPhone

So, I might as well just put it out there: I think the iPhone is over-rated. I know. And me, a Mac person. How did this happen?

I’ve been given the opportunity to test (responsible blogger disclosure: freebies) two mobile handsets this month.

One of the handsets was an iPhone. And I hated it. I’m really sorry, but I couldn’t cope with the on-screen keyboard, I spent too much time deleting messages because of typos, and I found the menu really counter-intuitive – sure I could read the manual, but let’s be honest, I’m just not a manual sort of person.

The other handset was a Samsung Windows Mobile smart phone that Vodafone sent me after I complained my old phone couldn’t really access email on the move. As a Mac person, I had some profound reservations about using anything with a Windows element – in fact, the PR promised me I could switch for a BlackBerry after a month if I really hated the Samsung.

It turns out, I’m keeping the Samsung. It’s nice and robust, the keyboard is infinitely more usable than the iPhone, and the email is a cinch. The phone was new but for some reason the manual was missing - but I've worked out how to use everything I need to. Result! And I’ve been to London twice this month and didn’t need to take a laptop, because the phone gave me fast access to email all day, with a decent screen, and the high-speed connection also meant I could check in on Twitter, too. 

Of course, being me, mobile technology has turned out to be extra useful. So, on Sunday, I was looking after my daughter and nephew when I locked us out of the house. Through the miracle of mobile technology, I could Google for a locksmith, phone him and then decamp to the park and ask the locksmith to text me when he arrived.

Honestly, don’t know how I lived without it. So I can't do the cool iPhone app where you download a picture of a pint of beer and tip it from side to side, but I think I'll live.

What PR Agencies Should Know About Pitching Bloggers

It's been around five years since I first started blogging. I’ve been blogging here at Getting Ink since 2004, and this year started a parenting blog over at Who’s the Mummy, where I've also been publishing an index of the UK's top 100 Mummy bloggers. As a freelance journalist, I've also been ghost-writing a number of blogs for clients in the technology, HR and consumer sectors.

Despite this, it's probably only in the last six months I've really started getting a lot of pitches from PR execs for blogs, in the same way I'd expect to get pitches as a journalist. My impression certainly is that PR agencies are hugely interested in tapping into the blogging community, but are also unsure quite how best to go about it. Here are some things I've noticed about UK PR agencies pitching bloggers:

• Most PR agencies don’t know one blog from another. So I get a lot of irrelevant pitches, for nappies (my child is four), or crafting products for a photography blog (hmm). Today, I got pitched a recycling bin. I have no clue what blog that was for.
• Most PRs don’t know how to evaluate blogs. This tends to result in companies taking one of two views of blogs. Approach A is the big retailer that said to me this week: “There are too many blogs we need to look at, so we’re not looking at any this year.” Then there’s Approach B, where a PR agency said to me: “We’re just sending to everyone we see on Response Source.”
• Of the 100 or so PR agencies I've dealt with as a blogger, I can count on one hand the number that have asked about my traffic. And I can count on one finger the number that asked any detailed questions about my traffic.
• It’s tempting to assume bloggers are less savvy than journalists. This is a big mistake. And when you start your pitch with “I just read your post on [insert title of most recent post here] and it really made me laugh” it's just as cringe-worthy as when you take the same tack with a journalist.
• Bloggers talk to each other – on social networks, via Twitter, through email and at meet-ups. So when you send the same offer to 50 people at once, it’s safe to assume we know everyone else has been offered the same thing. And if your pitch is bad, people will hear about it. Remember that ‘name and shame’ debate in journalism a few years back? Bloggers are now having that exact same debate - except, unlike journalists, most bloggers don't NEED PRs and don't see dealing with bad pitches as just part of the job, so they're less tolerant of poor practice, if anything.
• Some PR agencies treat bloggers with much less professional courtesy than they would journalists. As a journalist, if I reply to a PR pitch to ask for more info, I don’t think I’ve ever been deliberately ignored. As a blogger, it’s an almost daily occurrence. I’d say, personally, this doesn’t seem like a good long-term strategy. I certainly take down names, and make a note of who plays nice and who doesn't.
• Nobody seems to know whether you offend a blogger by offering to pay them, or whether it’s more likely to offend if you ask them to do something for free. There are some really clumsy conversations going on as a result. Bloggers are scared witless by the stories around the FTC regulations, and there's a lot of uncertainty going on. 
• A lot of PR agencies think bloggers should provide free consulting. Bloggers get sent a lot of questionnaires and surveys by PR agencies. "Would you just fill in this survey, it should only take 15 minutes, to tell us how you like to be approached and what sort of thing you're interested in?" Well, that's all well and good if blogging and working with PR agencies is my job - but the majority of bloggers don't do this for a job (or it's a sideline) so why should they take 20 minutes out of their day to provide you with free consultation? When one blogger replied to a PR agency pointing out that she charged an hourly rate for consultation, she got an INCREDIBLY rude reply that I guarantee that agency would never have sent to a journalist.
• The companies that REALLY get blogger outreach REALLY get it. And they’re building really strong, interactive relationships with key bloggers, that are going to give their clients a massive advantage in 12 months time and beyond. But these companies are still few and far between.

Now for a brief plug: I've decided to put some of my tips and tricks into a new, half-day 101 training workshop for any PR agencies that are interested in pitching bloggers, and gaining insight into how to identify, evaluate and work with blogs more successfully - you can see more details over on the 101 PR training website, or you can email me. At the moment this course is going to be run in-house for agency teams, but depending on interest, I may look to run a public workshop in January, so please drop me a line if this would be of interest.

Journalist: will work for peanuts and publicity

I was recently invited by a publisher to speak at a conference on communications. I know – yay me, right?

The company wanted a “fresh, funny, high-profile blogger” to give an after-dinner speech on PR and bloggers – and since I know a bit about PR and blogging, and am rarely short of an opinion, they thought I’d be perfect. The only complication was that the conference was in Milan.

I knew the gig would mean two days work for me – writing a speech, travelling to the airport, the flight, getting to the hotel, doing the dinner thing, travelling home the next day… so I asked what they were paying.

Turns out, they weren’t paying. In fact, when I told them I would expect to be paid, and told them my day rate (which, trust me, is very reasonable) they didn’t even bother to reply to my email. Now, I’m confused here. How many professionals would be expected to give up two days of their time and spend a night away from home for zero compensation?

The people attending the conference are being paid by their employers. The people organising the conference are being paid by the publisher. And the publisher is charging attendees over a thousand Euros per ticket, so I think we can assume they’re getting a little something out of it. But because I’m a journalist, you think I’m doing it for free, to ‘get my name out there’? Seriously?

Can you fake it till you make it?

A couple of years ago, I ran a 101 training workshop with another freelance journalist. We’d met through blogging and the other freelancer regularly commented on this blog.

As the course was starting, everyone around the table introduced themselves. One of the PR execs attending was another regular visitor to Getting Ink, and a frequent commenter. At the coffee break, the freelance journo confessed to me: “I never realised Katie was a real person – I thought you made her up!”

It was one of those moments where you’re simultaneously a bit insulted (you think I need to fake comments on my blog?) and also want to slap your forehead (HOW did I never think of that?).

Fortunately, I’m not usually in the position of lacking comments on a blog these days, and if a blog post doesn’t generate comments, I tend to just think, “Oh, well, I thought it was interesting, but obviously that was just me, then.” Possibly, this is because I'm just too idle to think up fake opinions.

But this week I noticed a blog I occasionally read had posted what I strongly, strongly suspect were fake comments. Call me cynical, but five comments in five minutes, none with a URL attached, look suspect. Especially when the first comment begins with “I checked out your website and I think it looks gr8! Can’t wait to sign up…”

Hmm.

I can see why you might be tempted to post a fake comment. It’s like a positive version of what local government types call the ‘broken window effect’ – if there’s one smashed window left on an estate, more will inevitably follow. So with blog comments, one fake comment might be seen to ‘break the ice’ and encourage others to comment.

Here’s the problem, though: bloggers are a pretty savvy bunch. They can smell a fake comment from 50 yards. Within half an hour of my posting a Tweet about fake blog comments, four bloggers had identified the blog in question. By the end of the night, I’d guess a lot more had identified the site, judging by the parodies that starting popping up on the comment s over at Who's the Mummy? (my parenting blog). As one blogger said to me: “They couldn’t have made it any more obvious, could they?”

It’s not THAT hard to get genuine comments. In fact, it’s very simple. First, post interesting content that people will want to engage with. Put a bit of personality and authenticity into a blog, and I think people will always respond. Second, take the time to comment on and read and link to other blogs. A blog that never acknowledges anyone else’s existence can seem a bit snooty and tends to be forgotten about.

Ultimately, I think blogging is a long game. And if you lose your credibility, especially if you’re blogging on behalf of your business, it’s going to take a really, really long time to get it back.

** UPDATE: The business operating the blog this post refers to has since changed the time stamps on several comments, making them appear to have been posted at different times, and has deleted one comment and posted a new one in its place. Draw your own conclusions from that one, chaps. **

Bad news chaps: Technorati says you're not "good enough"

You might have noticed Technorati has had a redesign this week, and I saw some rumblings on Twitter that Authority figures have changed.

I had a quick look today and saw my own blogs’ Authority scores have dropped from 100+ to zero. None of the blogs have any inbound links recorded. I tried to ping the blogs, but Technorati has removed the ping page. Hmm.

I posted a question on Technorati’s new support forum and got an answer this evening: “We now only record inbound links from the past 30 days not the past 180 days, so your authority score will drop. Also, we don't count links in the sidebar any more, jsut links in the text. Please read this FAQ…”

Which is fine, but running a monthly index means I tend to get some inbound links each month – I ran a quick Google search and found 32 inbound links from October alone, pointing to Who’s the Mummy , my parenting blog. I posted those on the Support forum. I said these were all recent links, and not one of them showed up in my account. In fact, if you search at Techorati.com you will not find a peep of any of the blogs I work on, either my own or those I manage for clients.

The nice man from Technorati said he understood my frustration (ooh, just feel the customer service) but the blogs I listed were not part of the "set" that the new, improved Technorati monitors.

The new, improved Technorati apparently wants to distance itself from the problems of the past by only reading blogs where it can be sure of the quality of the content. The nice man said: “With the new site, we’re putting a much higher emphasis on the quality of the site experience, especially search results, and the main reason our previous search results were so bad is that a huge percentage of the claimed blogs are spam: copying other people's work, reposting advertising articles, creating as many links as possible to target sites without adding any useful content. So we are now crawling a much smaller set of blogs.”

It's an admirable idea, but here's teh bad news for most of you reading this: Technorati thinks you're not worth bothering with. You don't add any useful content to the blogosphere. Yes, I'm talking to you Sleep is for the Weak, Little Pong, View from Nappy Mountain, You’ve Got Your Hands Full, English Mum, Stop Homework, Play and Stay, Tish Tash Toys, Jan Mary, A Place of My Own, Ackroyd House, Business plus Baby and countless others... the list goes on and on.

If it cheers you up, Technorati isn't bothering with any of my blogs, either, presumably because they aren't "adding any useful content". So, sorry about that.

Needless to say, I don't think we'll be including Technorati data in future Tots100 indexes!

Spiked!

By all accounts today was A Good Day.

I managed to post the latest index of the top 100 British Parent Blogs and nothing broke. I tracked down an elusive interviewee, my acupuncture client aproved his new website with only TWO changes, and I confirmed trips to Athens and Legoland. After lunch, a new client confirmed they want to film me for their new website. Then I had a great conversation with a new potential PR client - a really lovely pre-school activity group. I got offered a really interesting opportunity with a TV production company, and sorted out a Halloween costume review special for the Great Toy Guide. 

Despite this, I feel rubbish. Right at the end of the day I got an email from an editor telling me she'd spiked the story I filed because I'd completely missed out several crucial details about the product. I'd ignored them, thinking they weren't interesting, the editor didn't agree. And the editor is always right.

I'll be honest - it really pisses me off when I don't deliver good copy for a client. And it bruises my ego to think what I produced wasn't even usable - ouch. So I've brooded for a couple of hours, kicked myself repeatedly, gone over my notes to try and work out how I missed the angle, and then emailed the editor to apologise and offer to make amendments if I can.

I've been a journalist for 10 years and I often tell newbies that tough feedback and criticism is all part of the job. But it doesn't make it any easier when it's my copy on the spike. It's still a real kick up the backside to do better tomorrow. Which I suppose is no bad thing.

Would you hire a reporter?

I had a conversation this week with a veteran IT journalist who’s looking for a job in PR. He’s worked in journalism for almost 20 years as a reporter, news editor and editor, and has been freelancing for too long – now he wants a regular salary, a nice office and company during the day.

Honestly? I’m not sure how quickly he’s going to be snapped up.

I think there’s a tendency sometimes to assume that journalists can waltz over to a cushy PR job when it gets too much, but I think there’s always been a lack of understanding about exactly what it is PRs do when you’re not pitching the likes of me (for proof of that, see the roasting this reporter got at Bad Pitch Blog). I’m sure it’s not all about sipping lattes and cutting little articles out of magazines.

I also wonder whether the skills involved in PR in 2009 are such a good match with old-school hacks. The journo in question doesn’t blog, doesn’t have a Twitter account, doesn’t understand the basics of SEO.

Then I saw this NY Times story (which has also been written up on the PR Media blog) about a US sports team hiring its own reporter. I wonder if this isn’t a better career option for the disillusioned, experienced technology journalist? Not to be a sports writer, but to become an on-staff writer for a technology vendor, PR agency or similar.

I reckon there are plenty of mid-market vendors who don’t get the coverage they’d like from their target publications. Bringing on an experienced technology writer to cover their events, products and announcements could reap huge benefits.

The company could have their own blog, which could carry dynamic, independent content that’s written by a professional. The journalist would also be able to submit content to press release and news wires on the vendor’s behalf.

I know that there are obvious questions around objectivity and conflicts of interest, so I think this is a career route to be explored with caution. Contracts and rules would need to be in place to protect all parties. But I wonder if this isn’t a smart way for journalists to market their skills (writing, research, industry knowledge) rather than assuming they’re a dead-cert for that senior PR job?