The whole PR pitch scene is a disaster. You either don’t know what the PR is even talking about, or you can tell they don’t really care if you’re interested or not; they’re just spamming you because you have a blog.
I don’t get 50 PR pitches a day like Pogue does — I get about 5 or 10 a week. Usually the email is just text that has obviously been copied-and-pasted from a generic write up, or else it’s just a giant image or PDF attached to an email. And so I just delete 90% of them.
Do they even know they’re sending it to me or are they just using a giant list of “tech blogs” or something? Do they even care if I am interested? I doubt it. They’re just throwing their news out there and hoping for the best… Deleted.
Maybe they’re putting such little effort into their PR pitches because they don’t think it’s worth their time to address me directly. It’s not like shawnblanc.net is a mega site. But by sending annoying PR pitches all they’re actually doing is wasting my time and theirs.
I do, however, get an occasional pitch that I can tell was actually written with intent. And I almost always reply back to say thanks for the heads up. Alas, from there it’s not uncommon to get a generic reply or even no reply. And then, a week or two later, I get a follow-up pitch: “Hey, we just wanted to know if you had a chance to review and post about our app?” Seriously? Deleted.
People should take note of David’s favorite PR Pitches. It’s amazing how far a little bit of thought and some personal connection will go.
It is a rare day when I actually get in contact with someone who cares about the product or service they are pitching. And I wish I could promote and review all of those people’s products and services. But since this weblog is still a part-time gig for me, I simply don’t have the time. Maybe one day that won’t be the case.