Many bloggers opt to attend conferences with a sponsor, which helps them defray the cost of attending these expensive events (some conferences cost up to $1000 per ticket) while opening the door for new networking and collaborative opportunities.

I belong to a Facebook group for bloggers who want to help and support one another and recently the conversation turned to what elements brands look for in a pitch from a blogger seeking conference sponsorship.

Having been a blogger since 2008, I have been on both the sending and receiving end of these types of pitches and offered up several points that any blogger might want to consider before pitching a PR agency for conference sponsorship.

To read more about strategies to pitching brands and PR agencies a conference sponsorship visit Red Jeweled Media’s Blog!

While most prospective clients ask thoughtful, intelligent questions, occasionally we receive some rogue questions that are difficult to answer, not because we can’t answer them, but because they simply aren’t as relevant.

To streamline the interview process when you want to hire PR help, here are three alternative ways to ask the tough questions and get the answers you need.

To read more about the questions to ask your PR agency before hiring them, visit Red Jeweled Media’s blog!

Several years ago, a group of mommy bloggers started their own “PR agency.” While they are savvy women, they are not tried and true PR professionals. This distinction is important because there are a lot of misconceptions about what people who work in public relations do. Therefore, there are also a lot of misconceptions about the kind of knowledge and experience a person needs to execute a professional public relations campaign.

I once had a prospective client ask me, “Why should I hire you just to send emails around when I can do that myself?” Is that all he thinks I do?

Read more about why you should hire an experienced PR agency on Red Jeweled Media’s blog!

I learned a few important things in this role, and while my thoughts here are based on only one experience, it was an experience that confirmed a few things I often tell my clients.

Read more about what I learned by being the client on the Red Jeweled Media blog!

Why?

Because at the risk of sounding negative, receiving and reading pitches from other publicists has taught me what NOT to do when writing brand messaging, composing a pitch letter and distributing it to my network of media contacts.

To read about the “seven deadly PR sins” please click over to the Red Jeweled Media blog!

Public relations is a constantly shifting and changing industry, now more than ever that I am in business myself. I find myself repeating that line almost daily and with public relations recently ranked the seventh-most stressful job in America, I know I can’t be the only one.

This list of “33 (more) Signs You Work in PR” by Beth Monaghan is entertaining…especially to someone who may or may not have spent many a night sleeping beside a certain Blackberry.

33 (More) Signs You Work in PR (Credit: PR Daily)

1. The five scariest words you fear all day are, “Why aren’t we in this?” (from the hilarious@lmokaba)

2. In grade school, your teachers noted that you were a “social butterfly” on your report cards (not in a good way).

3. You’ve disabled all your notifications on your mobile devices and your computer. You don’t need them. You know you have at least 50 emails, five direct messages on Twitter, and 10 texts.

4. When you see a great story in the press, your first thought is, “Who placed that story?”

5. You scrutinize every word you write. Yes, there is a difference between “over” and “more than!” (Just ask Steve.)

6. You’d never buy a gift for a reporter, but you would retweet him or her to show that you are paying attention.

7. You’re surprised to hear that people still use desktops.

8. When the iPhone first came out you sacrificed function for image. Yes, you had to figure out a new way to manage your tasks because they no longer synced the way they had on your BlackBerry, but it was worth it.

9. You know what a “muscular verb” is.

10. A “day off” means only checking email every 15 minutes while you are physically out of the office.

11. In your personal life, when people try to help you stuff invitations, assemble gift bags, etc., you take over the project because you can do it more quickly.

12. When a friend tells you an amazing story over drinks about how she saved a lost dog or saw an ostrich along the side of the highway, you say, “I could get that on TV.”

13. Your grandmother wants to know when your article will be published in The New York Times. You just tell her “soon.”

14. Your friends ask you to compose their apology letters.

15. You can identify people at meetings, tradeshows, and on the street based solely on their Twitter avatar photos (h/t @lmokaba).

16. People assume you attend parties and meet celebrities for a living (and you let them think so, because it’s better than the reality of being chained to your phone and laptop).

17. You could easily hold the record for the most lists on Twitter, but there’s no formal way to measure that yet.

18. You still have Google alerts set up for past clients just to see what type of coverage they are getting (again, h/t @lmokaba).

19. You might use terms such as “boilerplate” and “hashtag” during happy hour conversation.

20. Caffeine and alcohol, in that order.

21. You have a running list of jargon that you ban from all writing. And you judge others who use those terms.

22. You are perfectly capable of writing a press release while tweeting, updating Facebook, and watching “Mad Men” at the same time.

23. You justify new clothing and accessories by telling yourself and others that you are “in the image business.”

24. You believe that all customer service reps will give you what you want if you approach the conversation the proper way. If that doesn’t work, there’s always Twitter.

25. You use Google+ because it increases the SEO for your content and all of the reporters you work with are on there—not because you like it (at least not yet).

26. If you are unable to find a piece of information, it’s not findable.

27. You take pride in finding typos in the novels you read (and you consider notifying the publisher).

28. You know and use proofing marks.

29. You have entire conversations with your colleagues using buzzwords just to crack each other up (another great one from @lmokaba)

30. You sleep with your iPhone.

31. Your answer to most questions that begin with, “Do you think it’s possible to…” is “yes.”

32. You write headlines in 140 characters (actually, 120 is ideal—to leave room for retweets).

33. “Speechless” is a foreign word. 

As someone who uses Twitter daily, I confess to feeling occasional frustration when my entire feed is full of tweets from a sponsored Twitter party about a topic that doesn’t interest me. It’s easy to recognize the many cons that Twitter parties have but as a marketer, I appreciate the value that they can bring to my clients.

So, what’s so great about Twitter parties?

Impressions, Impressions, Impressions. I am a firm believer that when measuring any public relations campaign, you should look at both qualitative and quantitative metrics. If a client is solely focused on number of placements, number of readers, number of impressions, your campaign will not be as successful as it could.

I’ve seen Twitter party organizers measure success in a few different ways, but I typically like to report the number of participants, the number of tweets posted, how far the hash tag reached (use TweetReach), highlight several of the top participants (most active, most influential, highest following), what questions and topics were the most important/relevant/engaging to participants and what we learned, or could improve upon, for next time.

Timing is Everything, but Plan Ahead: Public relations is about long-term relationships, not quick hits. However, clients like to see results (understandably so) and there is no better tool than Twitter to deliver instantly. Twitter is a great way to help jump-start buzz over a certain topic and get your client’s brand name in front of hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of eyes. A one hour Twitter party can generate up to several million impressions and the only cost is your time.

Twitter parties offer instant gratification, but that doesn’t mean you can execute them hastily. Plan your date well in advance to avoid conflicts with big events (a Twitter party about canned ham on Oscar night probably won’t be too successful) or religious holidays. Spend time framing questions carefully so that you’ll generate meaningful answers and people will want to contribute to a valid discussion.

Stay Focused: During Twitter parties, you’ll have the opportunity to listen and share with hundreds of influential consumers. While access to a computer and a Twitter handle certainly doesn’t make someone influential, active social media users have a platform to share their thoughts and opinions with a wider audience than non-social media users. Make the most of this opportunity to find out what consumers think about hot topics and trends. You might be inspired by a great pitch angle or story idea. Take careful notes and save important Tweets for future reference.

Last night on Twitter I caught wind of a conversation between two food bloggers on Twitter that raised an interesting question to me as both a public relations professional and food blogger.

At work, it has always been important to me to not only ensure that my client understands these guidelines, but to ensure that the bloggers I reach out to on my client’s dime are aware and respectful of these rules. If I am representing a high-end food product and a blogger whose entire site is covered in product reviews, advertisements and declarations that she is “PR-friendly” that is a red flag to me: this blogger is not someone who wants to provide genuine content to her readers, but rather she’s probably in it for the free yogurt coupons that companies send her.

However, I, like Jeanne Sauvage, have noticed recently that as bloggers are increasingly working with brands as spokespeople and brand ambassadors, they are often having conversations about these brands and their products on social networks. When they write about these items on their blogs, they are required by law to disclose their relationship with a company. When they post to Twitter or Facebook, those rules no longer apply.

As a food blogger and freelance writer, I often receive samples of products – ingredients to try new recipes, small kitchen appliances to test for articles. As a public relations professional who works from a home office, I often have a lot of my clients’ products available to me, too.  The relationship between a blogger contracted by a PR firm or brand to represent a product is not unlike the relationship between a publicist and her client. In both instances, someone is being contracted to perform services (albeit very different ones) to help promote something. In both cases, the relationship should always be prominently disclosed in the media, no matter what.

Disclose if you are a spokesperson for a product. Did a high-end kitchen appliance company reach out to you and offer to send you sample products and monetary compensation in exchange for writing a few blog posts for them? Disclose that relationship in your tweet or post. Is your face plastered all over an online ad for a salsa company in exchange for a hefty check? Disclose that relationship in your tweet or post.

Disclose if a company purchases advertising directly from you. If you sold ad space on your blog to Joe’s Restaurant and you suddenly begin tweeting daily about how much you love Joe’s Restaurant, you need to disclose in those tweets that you have a sponsorship relationship with Joe’s Restaurant. I do think the exception to this is when you are part of a larger ad network and different ads run on your blog at different times. I always review the ads that are running on my blog during a specific month, but I admittedly don’t know which ones are running on a daily basis.

Disclose if you just received free samples. You know the saying, “there’s no such thing as free lunch?” Well, I like lunch a lot, so I think that’s sad, but it’s a little true. When a blogger receives a product from a nice publicist, there is at the very least, a shining glimmer of hope, that they will love it so much that they will tell all of their friends about it. If you like it, go ahead, shout it from the rooftops. Just remember that your readers probably don’t all understand the PR/blogger relationship and won’t expect that you’d received an item for free. If they have to go out and buy your new favorite super special water filtration system with their own money, they should know that yours was complimentary.

Disclose if you feel like you should. Listen to your gut. I work on a brand of baked lentil chips and when I was eating some as a snack a few days ago, I clearly labeled that they were my client in a tweet by adding “[client]” in that Tweet. Have I ever mentioned a client’s product and forgotten a disclosure? Sure, but I wasn’t trying to pull wool over anyone’s eyes by endorsing a product that, well, I get paid to promote. A slip here and there is human, but if you’re a blogger tweeting every day about how much you love your free washer and dryer but you haven’t disclosed yet, it might be time for an ethics class.

What are your own personal guidelines for disclosures in tweets or Facebook posts? Publicists, when do you expect bloggers to disclose a relationship with your brand or client?

These days, pitching media means pitching bloggers. For some topics, a blogger may even be the more influential expert. Still not all publicists have refined their blogger pitching methods. Three years ago when my coworkers discovered that I had a blog – or maybe I sent it to them, begging that they become my first five readers – I became the point person for blogger relations for some of my clients. Since then I have become aware of a lot of disparities between public relations professional and bloggers.

Many PR pros think bloggers sit around on our couches all day lazily typing on the Internet. I will quote a panelist who spoke at a conference that I attended: “Bloggers get to sit at home with coffee while I am in an office, wearing professional attire.” That is very untrue. Alternatively, some bloggers think PR professionals are inattentive idiots who can’t be bothered to address an email to the person we’re writing. That is equally untrue.

There are a lot of things that I wish I could tell every blogger and single public relations professional from my seat on both sides of the fence. Since I can’t, I’m going to share a few key things I have learned over the years.

For PR Professionals:

• There are thousands of bloggers and each one probably has a very different agenda and goal. Some people blog for fun, some people blog because they have professional ambition, some people blog because they love to write and blogs provide an accessible platform [right here!]. Others blog because they saw it on the Today Show and they want to get free coupons from yogurt companies.
• Yes, you should read the blog. You don’t need to know where the blogger you’re pitching went to elementary school or whether he wears boxers or briefs, but in order to deliver an effective pitch you need to know what interests the recipient. Read the blog and even if you don’t know the person you are pitching, know what they are trying to accomplish with their platform.
• Keep up. Tactics that worked with traditional media might not necessarily work with bloggers. Bloggers are not all trained journalists. Some  are, some aren’t. Newspaper reporters and magazine editors expect a certain amount of pitches each day but bloggers are not trained with that expectation. Blogs are, often, a labor of love and their writers are not getting paid to maintain relationships with media. Their job description simply doesn’t include sifting through press releases, e-mail blasts, etc. in order to produce relevant content. 
• Educate your client. A lot of public relations professionals employ tactics they don’t necessarily believe in because their client believes in a “traditional” route. Take the opportunity to do your homework and show your client by whatever means necessary that media is changing and evolving. The conservative approach might not be the way to go even if “the client wants it that way.” If they aren’t going to listen to your advice, why do they pay you?

For Bloggers:

• Know the difference between editorial and advertising. If a publicist emails you and offers you a tip, story idea, press release, etc. it is likely that they are offering this information to you. If they flat-out ask you to write something (which they shouldn’t) and you don’t want to do it, use your delete button or politely decline.
• Don’t generalize. I’ve heard many bloggers say “PR people are bad at their jobs.” Yes, some are. But so are some doctors. And some lawyers. Publicists just have the benefit of working with people who have a public forum to complain if they aren’t happy and boy, do some people take advantage of that.
• Public relations is a practice that involves earned media not paid media. It is easy to confuse PR/editorial with advertising work but they are very, very different. Though online media is blurring the lines between the two, most public relations companies are offering you information to inspire a story idea or fit into a story you might already be writing. They are not prepared to pay you to do anything you don’t want to do. In fact, if a reporter for the New York Times asked a PR person for payment to write a cookbook review, she would be fired. She writes those cookbook reviews because they are relevant and informative for her readers. Or maybe her boss made her.
• With that in mind, public relations professionals are also being tasked with figuring out how to navigate the very new waters of online media. Sponsored content might be a great way to pay the bills – and I think that it’s very advantageous to partner with brands, for a number of reasons that I will talk about later – it should be organic. Your credibility will take a nosedive if on the first page of your blog you have six posts, four of them sponsored. Be empowered to create real content and when the brands come knocking on your door prepared to hand you bags of cash for real estate, think of a way to work with them that is clearly separate from your editorial work.
• Stop comparing yourself to bloggers that have already achieved career success. For example, while The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond is one of the kindest, loveliest, most generous bloggers out there, her success is the exception, not the rule. Her cookbooks and her upcoming Food Network Show are not necessarily realistic aspirations for everyone with a dot com.  Set realistic goals and try to make yourself and your blog the best you can. You never know what kind of great things will happen to you by being yourself.

If you’re a publicist, what do you wish every blogger knew? If you’re a blogger, what do you wish every publicist knew?

 Originally posted at PR Newser