More than likely you saw Office Max’s Elf Yourself promotion during the last two Christmas seasons. If you’re not familiar with it, Office Max created the site to let people upload pictures of themselves or someone they know and put the head on a dancing elf. It was huge. It seemed like everyone I knew and was reading online was talking about it particularly during the Christmas season of 2006. As good as Elf Yourself was, it also had a consequence…it encouraged other companies to try something similar and less remarkable. Case in point: Get Irish Now promoting Irish Springs body wash.

I could spend the bulk of this post talking about how Get Irish Now falls short of Elf Yourself in originality and overall delivery but I think the thing that struck me most is that I found out about Get Irish Now because someone from their PR firm emailed me to let me know. In the email pitch they led with a comparison to Elf Yourself and then went on to compare Get Irish Now to “virtual worlds” and opportunities for people to create their own content online.

Without getting into a really long explanation on this for those who don’t know about virtual worlds like Second Life, neither Elf Yourself nor Get Irish Now are virtual worlds. They’re not even close.

As for the claim that people are really interested in creating content, I agree wholeheartedly but I think the stats that back those claims are more along the lines of social media sites like YouTube or blog or podcasts.

My point here is that if you’re going to pitch yourself to bloggers you really, really, really need to know what you’re talking about and who you’re talking to. If you’re a PR person or just want to pitch yourself, your service, your product, or something else to bloggers you need to know what you’re getting into. For more on this check out what Chris Anderson did several months ago. I also talked about this when another PR firm contacted me in August. In that post I recommended five things to consider when you pitch bloggers and here they are again if you weren’t reading this blog last summer. The full explanations for the points below are on the original post:

• Remember that bloggers are individuals not organizations.
• Be direct. 
• Don’t be a spammer. 
• Bloggers would rather make and break news than react to news.
• Study the individual blogs you hope will work with you.

The bottom line is that pitching your ideas to bloggers is great. I do it too. You just have to remember that you pitch bloggers differently than organizations. Some PR professionals seem to still be learning that.

One final note on Get Irish Now…if you load the site and just wait, meaning you don’t do anything for a minute or two, the guy will come out and harass you. Depending on your sense of humor you’ll either laugh or want to punch him.

I saw this morning that Target has responded to a recent request from a blogger about an advertisement complaint by saying: “Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets.”

The ad complaint aside, this response from Target was both interesting and surprising from an organization that seems to be on the forefront of cultural awareness and at least quite conscious of what people think about them. Anyone remember when they dropped “Christmas” for the more politically correct “holiday?”

The fact of the matter is that bloggers could be Target’s best friends. Target does what it does well and could get extended mileage out of that by harnessing the power of bloggers. These ladies are a perfect example of that. They love Target.

What Target is likely thinking is that they don’t have the personnel to respond to numerous blog posts and inquiries each day. I contend that Target can’t afford not to engage bloggers. Target says they only respond to traditional media, but traditional media is increasingly following bloggers and becoming bloggers themselves. This entire story was picked up by The New York Times for crying out loud. Target talked to them of course…so it’s a case in point. Bloggers can (and do) generate mainstream news.

I expect Target will take some heat from the blogosphere on this move. Kind of ironic they may find themselves in the cross hairs of bloggers given their logo. Target should do a couple things here:

1. Start a Blog ASAP - If Target starts a blog now they’ll have the forum for a public response in the same medium as the criticism. Likewise they’ll be prepared to address future blog requests on their own blog. This particular story would have been easily addressed on Target’s blog if they had one and they wouldn’t have had to concede if they disagreed with the ad complaint. The issue isn’t about agreeing with critics, it’s about engaging them at all. One blog and a part-time blogger could solve a lot of their problems and also make them better prepared to respond in the future. And that’s just the reactive help a blog brings. There’s a vast opportunity for Target to be proactive and positive with a blog, but that’s a whole other blog post.

2. Be Open and Honest - Here’s the thing about blogging, it’s a great medium that facilitates conversation and understanding, but if you’re not telling the whole truth, you’re going to wish you never said anything at all. I don’t think Target is trying to hide anything here, but this point is more about the tone and approach they should have when/if they start blogging. As long as they respond openly, honestly and candidly, people will see they don’t have anything to hide and that they’re willing to address concerns.

The rule of thumb is that when you’re silent or avoid questions people will assume the worst. When you address an issue head-on and quickly you don’t give it enough time to get a full surge of momentum. A well timed quick response can squelch an issue altogether. At the very least a quick response shows a willingness to address an issue publicly.

3. Ask for Help - If Target doesn’t understand how to get a blog started or how to respond to blogs, they should find someone to help. From a technical side, any blogger they find will be useful to them regardless of what their own blog is about. Someone with news or public relations experience is a bonus. This is just another reason why public relations people have a better mindset for new media marketing. It’s all converging both in medium and strategy.

[HT to Chris Abraham for this story]

I found this interesting post from Chris Anderson (author of The Long Tail and Editor-In-Chief of Wired Magazine.) He’s tired of getting hammered by PR folks who don’t know how to pitch to him via email so he’s banned them from his email. To take it up a notch he posted all the banned email addresses on a blog post. Yes, the deer have guns. Here’s another example of a PR firm that struck out. Darren Rowse at ProBlogger was providing some insight on this topic recently too.

Earlier this week I discussed whether PR professionals are better new media marketers than traditional marketers. I still contend that PR pros have the better mindset for new media marketing. The variable, of course, is whether the PR pros have taken the time to understand the new media culture. I have seen one such case in the last few weeks where a PR firm didn’t (and likely still doesn’t) understand new media. Here’s what happened…

On August 6, I received a “Blogger Alert” in my email from a “full-service media and public relations agency founded in 1994 to ‘restore faith in media,’ provide ‘value-added P.R. that defines values’ and give Christian messages relevance and meaning in mainstream media.”

This “alert” was an HTML email sent with the following headline:
CREATE A “CULTURE OF STEWARDSHIP” IN YOUR CHURCH

The email was to notify me of a new 30-day small group stewardship study by a well known church stewardship consulting firm and that this product now has a promo video on YouTube and GodTube. Nine days later I received another email from this same organization but this time it wasn’t a blogger alert, rather a standard news release.

So…where to begin…ok, here’s the beginning of my issues with these emails:
1. I don’t know this PR firm. I have heard of them but have never talked to anyone from their organization.
2. I don’t recall ever signing up for any news alerts from this organization. I don’t see anywhere on their website where I could sign up for news alerts if I want them so I assume I never signed up for anything. Both emails I received from them had links to unsubscribe from their list, but how did I get on it to begin with?
3. What do they want from me? Both the alert and news release didn’t say what they want me to do if in the off chance I am actually interested in what they are promoting.
4. Is this really newsworthy? So an organization created a new product and they posted a video on YouTube and GodTube? Is that it? Am I missing something else here?

I have to admit these emails really frustrated me because they’re coming from a Christian PR firm that just seems lazy. I really hope it’s simply a case of ignorance and that they will learn there are better ways to promote to bloggers. In an effort to follow up a little ranting with a little help, here are some things for new media marketers (PR folks or otherwise) to keep in mind when they want bloggers to promote something for them:

• Remember that bloggers are individuals not organizations. If you want a blogger to promote something for you, you MUST build a relationship with him or her before you do anything else. It’s the most important thing you can do.
• Be direct. If you want something, don’t beat around the bush. The blogger is already expecting you to ask for something, otherwise you wouldn’t be emailing him or her. Bloggers are generally pretty nice folks. They may turn you down, but if you’re direct and personal they will still probably respond (and not write a blog post about how you don’t know what you’re doing.)
• Don’t be a spammer. When you send an email blast to bloggers you’re spamming them. Spam is unsolicited bulk email. From time to time I get personal emails from organizations and individuals to mention something on this blog. If it’s a personal email I try to always respond. If it feels canned, fake, or otherwise less than authentic, I delete it. If it’s a bulk email I delete it also…except in this case when it just seemed like it was time to talk about it on this blog.
• Bloggers would rather make and break news than react to news. Give us a chance. Don’t give bloggers the scraps. Was the fact that this client has a video on YouTube really newsworthy? If you already know it’s not newsworthy in mainstream media then don’t bother sending it to bloggers either.
• Study the individual blogs you hope will work with you. If you have never read the blog that you want to use, don’t email the blogger. Take some time to at least read the most recent four or five posts and look through their archives to see what makes the person tick. You will almost always find something that you can relate to what you’re doing…otherwise why do you want that blogger in the first place?

Yesterday I spent a few hours downtown at the first BarCamp Nashville. I met Michael, the blogger behind Marketing Monster (thanks to Chris for the introduction) and he and I were talking about how we both have our degrees in public relations but work in marketing. It got me thinking about how new media marketing is really much more geared toward those of us with a a PR background/training and here’s why I think that:

New media marketing is largely unpredictable and uncontrollable. It works on its own time frame and cannot be forced or it’s quickly recognized as contrived and fake. When new media marketing works, it does so with a grassroots growth or viral explosion that seems to come from nowhere. It’s all the stuff that PR professionals live with and love about the business. It’s the idea of dropping a few hooks in the water to catch some really big fish…though in new media the value of a “big fish” is not simply the weight of a single fish (like a story in the New York Times for instance) rather the cumulative weight of thousands of smaller fish like bloggers, online video creators, podcasters, social networking friends, and shared photo references.

Marketers, especially the most traditional ones, seem to have trouble with the new media because they don’t think like PR people. They are accustomed to complete control over the message, image, creative development and brand. They don’t have ears to listen because they operate with one way messages. This is doubly bad because it means they talk only when they have planned to and are not prepared when a response in necessary.

Here’s what the disconnect seems to boil down to: the marketers are the ones focused on the emerging technology while the PR pros are not giving it the same attention. So while on the one hand you’ve got PR people with arguably the best mindset for new media marketing due to their inherent thinking, they don’t seem to have the knowledge or interest (I’ll have a personal example of that here on the blog in a few days.) Then on the other hand you see the marketers who have quickly seen the value of new media and salivate all over themselves for a big score but they don’t naturally have the best mindset to really do it right and end up making themselves look worse. Chris discovered an example of this two weeks ago.

Maybe new media will show us the closest convergence of PR and marketing that we’ve known. Maybe some PR firms will realize they have an opportunity to compete with ad agencies and marketing firms now. Maybe in the future there won’t even be PR firms, ad agencies, and marketing firms because they’re all rolled into creative communications companies that do it all. Maybe corporate communications offices and marketing divisions will do the same. Maybe it’s time for you to start moving this direction today.