How bloggers can improve their public relations

There's always a lot of talk about how PRs need to change their ways when it comes to bloggers. And in some cases, that's true. Of course it is. But everybody could be be better at what they do.

Darika, who runs Grapevine Consulting, has been doing an excellent series about bloggers and PR outreach, and one of the things that doesn't crop up throughout the debate is that actually, bloggers could stand to be taken down a peg or two. Bloggers could go a long way to improving their PR relationships. Turns out, there's a lot of things that bloggers do that hack PRs off. The difference? They can't talk about it as openly as they'd like. They've got clients to represent, and they're not often independent. The last thing you want to do is slag off your media outlets and jeopardise your clients' campaign. Or, piss off the guys who actually pay your wages. Unfortunately, with all the Twitter bashing that goes on, it seems that bloggers believe they can do no wrong. That's so damn arrogant. The world doesn't end because a PR spells St Pancras wrong or doesn't use BCC. We've all done it.

I had a chat with some PRs about what hacks them off about bloggers, and actually, they were pretty honest. Although some of them did ask to remain anonymous. Understandable, given the topic. But it's clear that just because PRs don't bitch in public, that doesn't mean that we don't piss them off.

"Unnecessary snarkiness - Don’t feel as though you have to cynical/snarky just for the sake of it, or to develop some blogger credibility, whilst clients appreciate feedback both positive and negative, sarcasm is just unhelpful (Caveat – obviously the onus is on the PR agency to filter the blogs, but sometimes coverage like this can come out of the blue)." - This is what Dom Whitehurst had to say before leaving the world of PR for teaching.

"There's arrogance in bucketloads on both sides and an 'I'm better than you attitude'. I'm not saying it's across the board just that it seems to be becoming more prevalent." - From a lovely PR guy who asked to remain anon.

"I'd love it if bloggers who don't want to be contacted by PRs said so by their contact details - a win win, surely?!" From Kate Brennan.

"The only thing I’d like to see less of is the public ‘calling out’ when PRs make errors – bloggers can grow a relationship better by privately corresponding sometimes instead of publicly making a spectacle – the more public PR bashing that occurs, the more scared people are to engage with bloggers and that only sets everyone back further." The ever-lovely Adam Vincenzini.

Most of the time, I think that bloggers and PRs get on pretty well. But I think that bloggers need to address that they're not always brilliant. I'm including myself in this. I've got about five PR emails to reply to after I've written this. I wrote in my interview with Darika that PRs forget that a lot of bloggers write in their spare time, but I also think some bloggers use that as an excuse to be really rude. PRs do have a day job, they do have clients breathing down their neck all day (incidentally, that's often the client that you want to be in contact with) and they have more pressure on them. It's just about a little bit of give and take. I know I'm a professional blogger, so my views are skewed, but I don't think the rudeness is warranted.

I'm not saying that PRs don't need to improve the way they approach bloggers. They do. That's something that we've gone over time and time again. We never talk about what bloggers can do to improve that relationship. I think it takes a lot for PRs to talk about this, I'm impressed they have. I'm also impressed that not one of the PRs who got in touch with me did any bitching.

If I'm honest, I work harder when I'm working with a PR I like. They make my job easier. We all want to work with people who make our work enjoyable. General consensus is that PRs do the same. If a blogger is a nightmare to work with, why would a PR want to work with them? Why would you deal with someone who makes you hate your job? Bloggers don't want to work with PRs who make their blogging more difficult (especially not if they don't get paid for it) but we're kidding ourselves if we think it doesn't work the other way as well. I'm not trying to divide the digital PR/blogging community, I really like people in both sides, but bloggers aren't very good at admitting they're in the wrong. I'm rubbish at it.

I think that's the thing that bothers me about the whole PR/Blogger debate is that it's very one-sided. PRs have to change, it's all their fault, how dare they make a mistake, I'm running to tell everyone on Twitter about it and be all passive aggressive. I'm a bit sick of it now. I don't think it's helping. Whilst it might be true to an extent, putting all of the blame on the side of the PR doesn't do anything to improve the situation. Without bloggers taking responsibility for their side of things, I think we're a long way off things changing for the better.