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How Far Should We Really Go to Please Bloggers?
I was contacted the other night by Joe Beaulaurier of PRweb. He sent me a link to a post on BL Ochman’s blog. Ochman’s post was basically a critique of PRweb’s editorial guidelines, saying they should be more flexible in allowing more casual and promotional releases to be published through the service, because that’s the kind of content bloggers want. Being critical of various PRweb policies in the past, I was asked for my feedback on the suggestions made in the post.
I think this is the first time I’ve ever sided with PRweb up front about an existing policy. Here’s why:
First of all, I think that any blogger implying that general practices be changed for them without regard for other audiences is just full of themselves and overestimating their influence. Bloggers are a new audience added to the existing target audiences of releases - they’re not a replacement. They can play by the rules, or they can quit the game.
Just the Facts Ma’am
As I told Joe privately, if PRweb used that as an excuse for relaxing their policies, they’d be doing nothing more than saying bloggers are a bunch of lazy-ass folks who can’t think (or write) for themselves. They’d be not only accepting that many bloggers really are lazy enough to only publish releases as-is instead of using them as inspiration for their own stories, but they’d be condoning the practice (and therefore also be condoning, and even supporting, all of the splogs doing the same).
If you’re not willing to do the work, you have no business blogging. As a blogger, it’s your responsibility to take the essence of a news story and turn it into something as formal, casual, or conversational as your audience expects. A release’s job is to get the news out there in a way that journalists, bloggers, and others can all use in a way most fitting to their audiences.
PR Reality Check
The big issue is that PRweb rejects releases that are overly promotional (more marketing than news value), and that includes releases written in basic first- and second-person “sales speak.” I don’t blame them. If you want to publish an advertorial-style piece, pay for the damn space on whatever blogs or other sites you want. That’s not what a news release is.
I’ve never found PRweb to be too strict with this rule when you use various POVs appropriately (such as in a not-overly-hyped-up quote from a company rep or industry expert). Many of my clients use PRweb, even exclusively (often against my advice). Not once have I received a notice that something was rejected for a first-person quote. It seems obvious enough to me (after using the service for a few years now because of the love affair my client base seems to be having with them) that the rejections only come if you abuse things.
Look Before Leaping
On another note, you shouldn’t be using any service if you haven’t bothered to read the “rules” first - especially when you pay up front before posting. In this case, I do think PRweb’s partly at fault - their editorial guidelines are hardly easy to find if you’re new to the site. A smarter move might be making them clear before payment with a terms-of-use style check box before paying for your release.
Faulty Comparisons
An argument was brought up saying that PRweb needs to lower their editorial expectations, because other wires (like PRnewswire) will post whatever you send as long as you pay (I don’t remember if that was in the post or someone’s comment). That’s a pretty crappy argument….
The more expensive services already have an added editorial control - their price. They’re weeding out spammers by charging more than they’ll pay (or more than they can afford). PRweb wants to offer a more affordable option, and therefore becomes a prime target for spammers wanting to push various shit through just for links.
PRweb therefore has to implement some other type of control to protect their credibility (and frankly, I think that’s already seriously lacking on the news source front with the crap that does get through which probably shouldn’t). If anything, if PRweb wants to be taken more seriously as a news source, their rules should be more strict; not less.
Moving Forward
Look, I’m a blogger. I know the value of blogs in getting news out. I’m not saying PR folks should ignore bloggers, but rather that bloggers should stop acting like they deserve some kind of special treatment.
In the majority of cases, coverage on a blog still won’t compare to coverage from a highly-trusted traditional media source or other niche media source. When they outshine all of their competition on a large-scale (which won’t happen until the majority of the population trusts, and turns to, blogs for their news), then we can talk about writing and publishing news releases exclusively for bloggers. Even now if your sole target audience is bloggers, there are plenty of other outlets for distributing releases to them that aren’t trying to compete on major media distribution fronts like PRweb is.
When Did Things Change?
On top of my own blogs, I’ve also worked as a writer with large content networks managing blogs, as well as spending over a year as the Tech Editor for another network before leaving to focus more on my own projects. I remember dealing with recruitment, and how one of the bigger perks for attracting expert writers was always that they’d be treated as a member of the media (and they are - you may even be surprised by how much).
Not one of those writers I came into contact with ever demanded special treatment for being a blogger or managing a Web publication. They were just happy to be included in a larger journalistic circle (getting anything from trade show admissions to advanced news on a major Web browser update to break the story to having their reviews taken seriously enough to be used by a major auto manufacturer).
Instead of expecting anything tailored to them, they were more than happy just to have access to the information to begin with, so they could use it to improve their blogs and sites and offer something more valuable to readers. What happened to that? I mean, seriously… where the hell did this collective ego from independent bloggers come from anyway?
I think a lot of bloggers need to take it down a few notches and realize that in the grand scheme of things, they’re still a small fish in a very big pond. They spend so much time consuming themselves with the existing blog crowd that they forget they’re only reaching a small segment of their overall niche audience.
I seriously hope PRweb can hold onto their collective balls and not succumb to pressure from bloggers wanting to forward PR spam, linkbait, and other marketing garbage through the service just to avoid having to put effort into writing for their own audience. Only time will tell.
Jenn — I see your point, but having re-read BL’s post I’m not sure she’s kvetching all that hard. (You and I both know she wouldn’t pull any punches if she felt *really* strongly about it.)
Until her post, I wasn’t aware there were several people using the service who had all had the same issue lately. Maybe there is a bit of a pushback, and maybe there is an evolution slowly underway. I think the fact that BL and Vocus worked out a compromise both could live with speaks volumes here.
I feel like the underlying issue is that several support people at PR Web just knew the party line, but couldn’t explain the ‘why’. (The Nuremberg reference was a stretch, but no biggie.) I read this as an examination of a coming discussion, not a manifesto to boycott the Language Police.
-just my pair o’ pennies…
Great post - regardless of where you are targeting information (particularly anything supposed to be news), it needs to be written well and have solid content. That applies equally to information that goes direct to a public or via an intermediary such as a blogger or mainstream journalist.
Distributing fluff or puff does no favours to anyone, and simply clogs up communication channels. It is spam PR and deserves to be deleted.
wow, i’m so new to all this i’m somehow getting re-inforcement in my wondering whether to go w/prweb for my first online press releases
learning learning learning
adan
http://www.adanlerma.com
ps - ok, just read your page about the free pr releases, like i said “learning” :-)
and for someone like me, long term goaled w/a long past of material to post (all arts related), not to mention $ conscious, worth learning more about doing it myself
after all, that’s what i do w/my art
thanks,
adan
http://www.adanlerma.com
Great article. Prweb has always been suggestive about how I could improve my release so it does not sound like an outright advertisement. Which is great advice because you are creating unique content for yourself.
I have noticed that over time I have received much less mention on blogs by way of PrWeb and have been getting more web time with the likes of parked pages trying to improve their ad payouts.
In terms of PR spam my site receives quite a bit. I started my own pr newswire in hopes of defining a target to help people build content that would lead their potential buyers into a purchasing cycle via the posters website.
Spammers have considered this a way to bombard our site with their PR spam.
In the end I thinks bloggers should be very attuned to researching and editing their stories, creating compelling/unique content for their site visitors. Someday the search engines are going to start cracking down on exact duplicates of content such as press releases and those bloggers who do not refine their writing skills will be left behind.
Anyway that my take on things. Enjoying your blog very much and thanks for the opportunity to voice my two cents.
Thx,
Troy
[...] Now, bloggers have some concerns about PRWeb’s editorial policy and link limitations. I agree with Naked PR’s take. [...]
[...] Naked PR’s Jennifer Mattern turns her guns on bloggers who now seem to be demanding more relaxed and ‘promotional’ releases to be issued by newswires because this is the kind of stuff bloggers want. I’m with her and PRWeb. If bloggers want credibility, they should work as hard as any other journalists, regardless of the style or medium. In fact, looking at some of the PRWeb releases, if this is the kind of stuff they want - and the kind of things PRs believe is news - then they deserve each other. [...]
more than 50% of posts coming to many free press release websites including PressReleasePoint is spam or sales letter or article or some nonsense. Some delibarately violate the rules of writing an effective press release while some other first timers are simply ignorant. in my opinion PRWeb already have relaxed norms. they should not relax it further. it will only lead to more noise and less quality news.
webmaster
PressReleasePoint.com
Amen Jennifer! :)
It’s definitely PRWeb, not ARWeb (Advertising Release Web).
Everyone should follow the same rules as everyone else.
Joseph Ratliff
[...] just posted a few weeks back about this topic (How Far Should We Go to Please Bloggers?) - where there was criticism of PRweb’s editorial policies, saying they should be more casual [...]
wanted to do a little blog/reply housekeeping this morning and thought i’d leave a quick update re my inquiry/use of webwire for my first online pr’s (this may appear on a few other blog posts):
have done over 1/2 doz pr’s via webwire todate, and am very pleased so far
service has been excellent;
had one technical glitch on, i think, my 3rd pr or so, where something in their code didn’t mesh (out of 32 platform/browser combinations) with a particular combination because of an older browser’s code problem, and they literally spent several days checking all sorts of combinations out to see where the problem was (sent me their screen shots of each browser/platform view of my pr)
they of course couldn’t recode an old browser’s code for another company, so they figured out a way around its limitations and everything of my pr showed as desired
in re to my own results,
i have to first say i don’t really know what to compare to, since these are my firsts, and other than a few general comments from a few people that these first online pr efforts seemed to be doing well, i more or less am just going by the results compared to recognition/attention to my site and work (original art and poetry and writings, the latter mostly arts related reviews of movies, music, and arts events)
bottomline (finally :-)
is i have gotten way more hits and indepth site searches of my content
i have a wide range of topics i cover in my arts site, and a couple of the pr’s only got a limited amt of click-throughs, while most did fairly well, and a few are still doing amazingly well (detailed info private, sorry)
i went w/webwire after comparing several services, partly because of their cost, and partly because of their willingness to talk w/me
prweb did spend time talking w/me, but the cost differential was too high to ignore
the only thing i’d like to see new offered via webwire, would be image inclusion, if it was affordable
otherwise, the social tagging, fwd’ing tools, backlinks, process of posting the pr, all are very nice, and easy to use; i plan to continue using them at this point
i’ve also posted the news releases on my own site, at:
http://www.adanlerma.com/other-form
where i also try to post (below the pr) some additional commentary re either the content or process of the pr
thank you much,
adan lerma
http://www.adanlerma.com