More tips for PR-Media people on reaching out to bloggers

Bloggers have a reputation for being a pretty prickly bunch as far as PR and marketing folks are concerned.  I don’t think we’re too much different than other media folks, though we are more likely to broadcast your gaffs to the ends of the Earth–I guess that makes us a scary bunch.

Regardless Cory Doctorow wrote a guest piece in InformationWeek on how to connect with bloggers (in terms of do’s and don’ts) the points are summarized here:

Have a link.

Have a permanent link.

Have a link for everything.

Use real links.

Use links that go to pages.

Flash sites stink.

PDFs stink. It’s not a Web page (see “Have a link”). It’s hard to copy and paste out of. It doesn’t show up in browsers half the time. The Web is made of HTML.

Streams stink.

Put your URL on your images.

Linking policies are ridiculous.

Don’t worry about “bandwidth stealing.”

Offer high-res images.

Forget the “copyright protection” Javascript.

Enough with the legal boilerplate.

Creative Commons licensing takes the guesswork out of blogging.

Finally: Send suggestions by the preferred means. Source: FlackLife: Cory Doctorow’s simple, effective tips for blogger relations

The biggest suggestion that I’d add is find out what I’m interested in before you email me.  I received a lot of PR emails prior to SXSW.  Being on the press list will do that I guess.  I don’t think most folks checked out what I generally cover.  I won’t call them out, that’s not fair game in my book, but it is just annoying.

How would you like PR/Marketing folks to send you information for your blog?