DISQUS

Clever. It's not a hard hard sell, and you weren't terribly surprised that an iTunes validation led to some response, right? We don't tend to mind when the outreach is relevant.

Rude is if you take no action to further the engagement and they continue to email you after this initial outreach.

Can't tell if this comment went through before or not so trying again. Thanks for the kind words. Blogger relations has become a focus for me over the past few years and I'm glad that my posts and workshops are helpful to marketers and bloggers.

I did move the blog off Typepad last fall. The new address is getgood.com/roadmaps

Thanks for the kind words Chris. Blogger relations has indeed become a focus for me over the past few years, and I'm glad my posts and workshops are useful to marketers and bloggers.

I have moved the blog to a new platform. It's no longer on Typepad. The address is now http://getgood.com/roadmaps

Thanks for the shout-out Chris. Some of my posts actually talk about good pitches too; it's just that the ratio of good to bad is pretty poor.

But stay tuned. I've actually got some posts brewing that go through the recipe for a good pitch.

Fundamental problem is that the few PR pros who get it, really get it, and do a fine job.

The majority though. Still no.

I write about this pretty regularly, and am in the middle of a series called Good Pitch, Bad Pitch. If you've got any other particularly good or bad ones, I'd love them for the series.

To Selina's point, absolutely we have a responsibility to fact check if we want our blogs to be taken seriously as a source of information versus simply opinion.

However, I still don't see why a freelance writer or a blogger should need E&O insurance, unless they are providing some sort of business critical functionality -- like software development -- or they are providing information that people may rely on for important decisions. Regardless of the fact that people should evaluate the source of all info and we are an entirely too litigious society, I would consider it under both those circumstances.

This might be an interesting topic for a social media breakfast.

Well, I am neither a lawyer nor an insurance agent, but I am perplexed at why a writer would need errors & omissions insurance. If they are writing about a company's products, the information provided to them comes from the company. If The company is responsible for the accuracy of their information. And the safety of their products for that matter. It's different when you are talking about software product development when there is an assumption of fitness for purpose and the purchaser may be relying on the functionality. But words? Seems excessive to me, unless as in the case above, there is a strong possibility that people will make decisions based *soley* on that information.

And as far as the personal blog, as long as there is a disclaimer that this is opinion etc. and as you say, it is professional, I'd put this in the category of the underwriters don't understand what a blog is.

Since I make my living helping people promote their products and services, I had to develop a personal policy for this early on.

When I am compensated in some fashion, whether it is for client work or simply some sort of freebie from a non-client, or if I was explicitly pitched on something, I disclose. Every time. And in the case of pitching clients on my own blogs or via social networks like Twitter, I do it sparingly.

On the other hand, if I am writing purely of my own volition, for example the weekly sci fi column I write on my personal blog, I don't put the "negative disclaimer," ie that no one provided services or free DVDs for the review.

As someone has already pointed out, at its root, marketing is all about sellers and buyers meeting to exchange things of value with each other -- originally, goods in a true exchange, now generally products and money :-)

The rise of mass media and the intermediation model, where sellers no longer spoke directly with buyers, instead speaking through the MEDIA, changed the dynamic and created the "consumer." Which has to be just about the worst word in our marketing arsenal. No longer people, companies thought of us simply as consumers of their products.

What social media does is bring marketing back to its roots. Once again we can engage directly with our customers in meaningful ways. The first thing I tell people is to strike the word consumer from their vocabulary. That more than anything else seems to get the mind shift working.

I agree -- the how do you know this person clearly reflects FB's origins. How many business folks do you know who will indicate "We hooked up?" Assuming they actually understand what that means :-) The other drawback for business use is that it is difficult to find people if you don't know their email address. LinkedIn on the other hand, has that down cold, but lacks the social side of things. I wrote about this last week. Like one of your commenters above says, it's an oppty for a developer, either through FB's API or from learning from the conversation and developing a new aggregator that does what we want.

Re: the baby industry -- it can kick in earlier than birth if you buy or register something. So, if you sign up on any parenting sites, you'll start getting some stuff. But yes, most companies wait until after they know the baby was born.

Good for you for getting the car. Trite, but true, life is too short to deny simple things that bring so much pleasure. Enjoy your time with your son. In the end, it is the time you spend that matters, not so much what you do. Maybe there is something he has always wanted to do or try that you can learn about together (and no I do not mean something else in Second Life :-) !

Good for you for finding some joy showing Maryam Yellowstone. It is hard but necessary to keep living even when someone is dying.

Six years ago, my grandmother (with whom I was very close) died three weeks before my son was born. She'd had a stroke and seemed to be recovering and then she had another at rehab and went into a coma.

I was so pissed that she was taken before she could meet my son in any way other than the sonagram. But my stepdaughter had organized a surprise baby shower (against my wishes mind you) coincidentally on the day she died. They called all the non-family members and told them the shower was off, but they went ahead and held the shower for the family. And it helped everyone, to be doing something with joy, to be welcoming my soon-to-be-born son into the family.

We gave him her maiden name as a second middle name in her honor.

God bless you all,and know that many are thinking of you.

Amen.

First off,I agree with David - so far, the CEO is handling this whole thing deftly and with pretty good humour given the situation (see his comment on Valleywag). To go ahead now or in a week? It all depends on how ready the product is. As we all know, the last week before a tech launch is when a lot of stuff gets buttoned up. Sometimes that last few days can make all the difference between the polished presentation you want to make, and a mess. And I don't mean just product issues -- Web site, demo sites, e-commerce arrangements etc. etc. You particularly don't want to launch an e-commerce product if people won't be able to try it right away.

I also don't think interest will completely wane in a single week. It will take at least that long for all the PR and tech bloggers to write about it :-) It also sounds like they have a business announcement to do in the interim.

On balance, I think I'd deal with the fallout but stick to the original plan.

Instead of fighting the phenomenon, a smart PR team would help the bloggers handle this new role. Give them some communications training. Not command/control training with approved corporate speak and message points. Simple training on how to get your point across and not get tricked into revealing more than you intended. It would help the bloggers better handle their quasi-public roles, and be a lot better for the company than trying to clamp down/control everything.

Who gives a shit about links. Cute kids. That's what is important. Hope you had a great vacation.

Maybe I'll play in this one (except I really don't care about rank). It' just too tempting -- I have cute kid (only one though), cute dogs (Scottish Terriers), cats AND a puppy :-)

Thanks for posting this. I think it is pretty new.I just bought the directories for print media about 6 months ago and I'm sure I would have considered this instead of those doorstops if it had been available.