Blogger Outreach: Amber McNaught

Aside from battling issues of gingerism and the fact people frequently steal her image to use as their own profile pic, she deals with a lot of crazy PR. She spills all below (names changed to protect the guilty)

Amber McNaught

1. Do PRs contact you regarding your site?

Yes! Sometimes dozens and dozens per day (or hour…)

2. Should they?

Yes, absolutely: I’m always happy to hear about anything that might potentially be of interest to my readers, as long as it’s relevant to my sites.

3.    How do you prefer to be contacted?

Email

4.    What’s the worst “outreach” you’ve ever received?

I’m not sure this counts as “outreach”, but the worst experience I ever had was with a well-known footwear brand, whose PR took exception to a comment I’d made in an otherwise very positive post, about the fact that they’d recently increased their prices fairly substantially (which they had). I’d also noted that they liked to give their shoes amusing names, and apparently they took exception to this, too. It could’ve been an excellent opportunity for the PR to talk to me about WHY the price had increased (better quality, perhaps? Finer craftsmanship than their competitors? New designer?), and just what it was that made them think “Ploopy”* was a good name for a shoe, but instead I received an angry email from the PR, who ranted at me for a couple of paragraphs, before telling me that in future I was “welcome” to continue writing positive things about the brand, but was not allowed to write anything “negative”.

I’d love to think the email was the work of a trainee, or someone having a very bad day, but during the exchange that followed, I got the strong impression that she’d simply thought, “Oh, it’s just a blogger: I bet if I yell at her she’ll be intimidated and think she’s not allowed to write about us unless it’s something nice.” It was a shame, because it was a brand I’d actually really liked, and she had an excellent opportunity to make me like them even more, but instead she managed to do exactly the opposite. I did email her back and said I was very surprised that she seemed to feel she was able to dictate my content to me, and that I didn’t expect she’d have emailed a traditional journalist with the demand to “only ever write positive things about us”. She did apologise, but by then the damage was done.

*Shoe name changed to protect the guilty

5. 3 things you HATE about being contacted by PRs

• Emails that address me as “Dear Blogger” or begin with the words “Hi, Police!” (Yes, one of my blogs is called The Fashion Police, but surprisingly enough, that’s not MY name…) and go on to talk about how the PR reads my blog ever single day, and how it’s their very favourite blog on the whole internet, while making it crystal clear that they didn’t so much as run their eyes over it before sending the email. I understand that PRs can’t be avid followers of every single site they pitch to, but if you’re going to claim to be my number one fan, at least get my name right, and if you can’t be bothered getting my name right, don’t try to pretend to be my number one fan: I will have more respect for you if you just admit that you’re approaching me with a business proposition rather than trying to flatter me when it’s very obvious that you couldn’t pick me out of a line-up
• Being chased up. If I’m interested, or have questions, I’ll get back to you. I particularly dislike it when someone sends me a sample for review and then contacts me the very next day to ask why I haven’t posted a review yet. If you send me a skincare product that says “Results visible in 14 days”, it’s going to take me at least 14 days to know what I think of it…
• The assumption that all bloggers live in London. It’s a fair assumption if you’re dealing with print media, because so much of it IS based in and around London, but one of the great things about blogging, and one of the reasons it has become so popular, is that it can be done from anywhere, with no barriers to entry. I’m in Scotland, and I receive dozens and dozens of emails per week about events that are being held in London. It’s always nice to be invited to these things, but it would be nicer still if there could be some recognition of the fact that people blog from everywhere , not just from London. It becomes particularly annoying when I have to repeatedly tell the same PR that no, I STILL don’t live in London! Haven’t moved since the last time you invited me to brunch there, three days ago!

6. 3 bits of advice if a PR is going to contact a blogger generally

• Don’t patronise us. Not all bloggers are hobby writers sitting around in their pyjamas feeling absolutely thrilled at the prospect of getting a free bottle of shampoo to feature on their “little blog”. Some of us are professional journalists who’ve seized the opportunity to get into a new form of media, and who are making a full-time living out of it. It’s patronising to get emails which seem to assume we know nothing about journalism, and that we’ll be willing to write about any old rubbish in exchange for a link, or “exposure”, or a freebie. It’s also patronising to be invited to an event and told that “we’ve arranged this for a Saturday so you can fit it around your day job!” This IS my day job, and I don’t want to work on the weekend any more than you do, thanks
• Have at least a cursory look at the blog you’re pitching to. Just echoing the answer to question 5:  it’s really, really obvious when you lie about being “a big fan” of my blog and then try to pitch me a story about tractors, when I write about shoes and makeup
• Use email, put the pitch in the body of the email, and don’t send huge images or attachments in mysterious formats that I have to spend half a day working out how to open. Make it easy for us to open it and read it. And those of you who’re still sending out paper press releases, have a thought for the environment!

7. Complete this sentence: PR/Blogger relations could be improved by…

each party putting themselves in the other person’s shoes. Especially if the shoes are Louboutins.

8.    Anything else you’re dying to get off your chest about PR? Good or Bad [We like good things too!]

I think I’ve said more than enough

Crib notes:

• Don’t fake it. If you don’t really read the blog all the time, don’t say you do (looks worse when you make a mistake)
• Don’t make assumptions: about location, full-time profession, or anything else
• Just send a plain email with some simple attachments or links to where further info can be read or downloaded if you want your info to actually get read

Can’t get enough? Read the full set of Blogger Outreach interviews.