I want to say that I 100% agree with everything Aprill says. No one goes to a blog to read a press release that has been copied and pasted from an email or retyped from a paper press release (that pile in the picture is about 1/3 of the press releases currently hanging out on the floor of my mid-reorganization office). It gives you no credibility as a blogger, your readers want to hear what YOU think, not a PR rep, and really... are you just that lazy? There are bloggers that feel that publishing a press release is a favor to the PR rep. It really isn't. And they aren't fooled.
It's really very easy to get a press release and make it your own. Add an intro, reword some of the info, move things around and then add more of your own thoughts. Put together the graphics in a way that is your own and is branded to your site.
I do things like this all the time, and the result is a post like my recent post on a fresh and pretty wedding makeup look, which had info from the press release (I wasn't at that show interviewing the makeup artists, and the model images were sent to me by the PR rep), but I reworded everything, made my own images by digging for the exact colors and products used in the look and then I added my own info by adding in alternative products (some of which are faves of mine) that would help you to recreate the look. That's what my readers wanted, not what the PR rep sent. And you know what? Less than an hour after that post went up, before I could even email to let them know about it, Le Metier de Beaute emailed me to say that they loved the post.
Head over to Glitter Gloss Garbage to read more about how you should be handling press releases as a blogger, and why just reposting the info as it was sent to you is a bad idea.
Bravo, Christine, Bravo! As an avid blog reader, I hate it when bloggers do this. There is one particular popular blog that comes to mind that is especially egregious about this but I will not name names. You have to wade through mounds of PR BS to get to a review of the actual product. What a waste of the reader's time. Any of us can go to the actual product website and read their PR blather all day long. I've had a sneaking suspicion for a long time that certain bloggers do this to suck up to particular brands. Maybe I'm wrong, still can't help that feeling. Thank you so much for bringing this out. Maybe other bloggers will actually pay attention to this post and hopefully, cut out some of the crap.
ReplyDeleteVery thought provoking, and a great read! I read Aprill's take on It as well. I love blog posts like these!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this. I've thought in the past that I was doing PR a favor for posting their articles, but recently, I've thought, omg that is so boring! If I'm not excited when reading my own blog, that's a problem. It's really not that hard to tailor things to your blog and your own individual style!
ReplyDeleteThats a really great tip I've come across.. Till now I used to do the copy pasting thing as you said nobody come on the blog to read those PR. From now on I will use the same tip give by you. Thanks a lot for sharing ;)
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