Livingston

May
27
2007

Thinking Bloggers and Pitching Blogs

thinkingblogger.jpgThe Bin has gotten some great write-ups of late from friends in the blogosphere. Rich at Copywrite, Inc. dubbed me a thinking blogger, and called the Bin one to watch. For the record, as a thinking blogger right now I’m pondering about what a smug, hypocrite Bono is after reading his publicist’s letter to a journalist in the June issue of Vanity Fair. Humanitarian or phenomenal ego? As an owner of every U2 album released, let’s just say I’m disappointed.

In his post, Rich challenged me to write up five blogs that I would call thinking blogs/bloggers. Rather than write Rich up again and since he has already been dubbed a thinking blogger, it would be great to write up some link love to some other smart writers who could stand to be recognized for the first time in the Bin. Consider this our weekly Blogs of Fire entry. OK, here we go!

Engage in PR’s Kyle Flaherty seems to have a pretty good idea of how to engage in the 21st century PR environment, as well as the sad state of our industry. For a great write up check out this post (note, the Buzz Bin is written up in this one), “Are We This Misunderstood?”

PBS blog Media Shift written by Mark Glaser has a great write up about how interviews continue to survive, no matter the media format. He’s right by the way, our most popular posts tend to be our interviews. People just love them!

PR Differently is a good one in NYC. And yes, another blogger that has slammed Vocus’s misguided effort to teach everyone how to pitch bloggers… with the Vocus press release. Whoops.

Susan Getgood’s Marketing Roadmaps has given me food for thought on occasion. Most recently, she too, entered the how to pitch a blogger fray. The impetus… Vocus again. Note, she hit the magic button: Give, don’t take.

Lastly, the New PR from Ryan Anderson looks at PR as a profession and debates whether or not if we’re really spammers at heart. God, another article that once again demonstrates how bad many of the practitioners in this business are.

These last three entries brings up the great how do you pitch a blogger debate. We have never weighed in on this, but because I like these entries so much… Check out this blog post.

As all the five of you have now been dubbed thinking bloggers, we encourage you to pass the good karma along and dub some thinking bloggers!

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by Geoff Livingston | Blogs of Fire |

4 Responses to “Thinking Bloggers and Pitching Blogs”

  • Ryan Anderson Says:

    May 27th, 2007 at 11:20 pm

    There are a lot of bad PR people, but the number of thoughtful blogs from really good PR practitioners that I read every day gives me hope.

  • Engage in PR Says:

    May 29th, 2007 at 4:05 pm

    [...] Geoff Livingston has inspired me to create my own Thinking Bloggers List; but to add a dash of originality and to distance myself from stealing the idea completely, I will name my list “Think My Blog“. I’m going to try and make this a weekly item…we’ll see how long that lasts. Here are my rules: [...]

  • Marketing Whore - Marketing, PR, Internet Marketing Tips for Mainstream and Adult Bloggers: Carnival of the Capitalists Says:

    May 30th, 2007 at 8:47 am

    Kramer auto Pingback[...] Carnival of the Capitalists The Marketing Whore welcomes you to the Carnival of the Capitalists.The good news: All posts which are safe for work reading. (So click and link away!)The bad news: This post was delayed due to our server being down (still celebrating Memorial Day we guess). Sorry about that.The next carnival, June 4, will be hosted at Spooky Action.Now, onto the carnival.Marketing:Zenofeller.com smacks of rebellion (with a hint of lunacy) with The Failure of Marketing: Historically, marketing is plagued by one fundamental, strategical failure. It fails to communicate the notion of “don’t buy this shit”. Nope, that’s not a typo. And don’t let my hype fool ya, there’s genius in this post. (Genius always has a hint of insanity.)At Sox First the Six rules to avoid PR disasters are mandatory reading. I don’t care if PR interests you or not; this is vital.The Buzz Bin had a great post on Pitching Bloggers:What’s wrong is treating bloggers like traditional media outlets. New media content creators do not have any obligation to “report” or field inquiries. They don’t have to write up a kind review of your product (even if you comp them something), and a great majority distrust traditional public relations tactics. (This post is a follow-up to this post, Thinking Bloggers and Pitching Blogs, which I think he intended to be his first link in that post… In any case, I also recommend reading it.)In Queercents says, God Made Me Buy It: The Virtue of Consumption. This line should make you go read it:consumerism is consumerism… no matter what virtue or non-virtue is pushing you to buy something.Gender & Culture:The Epicurean Dealmaker poses some interesting gender matters regarding i-banking in Fingernails that Shine Like Justice. Also a delight ~ no, make that a riot to read.I have witnessed and participated firsthand in sustained and determined efforts to increase the number of women recruited into investment banks, and it is true that the number entering each year in first-year analyst and associate classes has increased markedly from my youth. However, what is also true is that very few of these women stay. The ones I know who do genuinely seem to enjoy their work, and they can cut the balls off a charging rhinocerous (or CEO) with an indenture with the best of them, all the while making their doltish male colleagues think impure thoughts about their pantyhose. In other words, I am of the opinion that smart, aggressive women have a distinct advantage over men in investment banking. Why, therefore, aren’t there more of them?Phil for Humanity writes about The Size of Money. Those who cannot see and those who are new to the US have to deal with our funny money and it’s time we started making more cents sense with our money.Econbrowser writes on something we all are thinking about, fuel prices, with the current status of Arizona Clean Fuels’ effort to build a new refinery, Who should pay this bill?General Business:Atlantic Canada’s Small Business Blog compares Business life lesson - Business is a team sport. But don’t mistake this for just the typical “No ‘I’ in “Team” talk; this is worth reading.InsureBlog ponders health care in Margarita’s & Medicine. As a self-employed person who knows many others in this same boat, I know we wonder what’s worth paying for. Here’s a perspective I recommend you read.You can cough up the $40,000 or so to have your joint replaced (if you do not have insurance).Or, you can jet to an exotic isle where the procedure is more like $6000. hell’s handmaiden discusses Supply, demand, behavior, profit … and such like. With 8 points, she had me intrigued at the first one:The law of supply and demand is not based on human behavior. It is assumed.Small Biz Survival asks, What is an entrepreneur? I found the ideas for spotting and supporting them to be most interesting.Wayne Hurlbert at Blog Business World has a book review of Run With The Bulls by Tim Irwin. Does Wayne give it a thumbs up or down? Go read and see.Charles H. Green of Trusted Advisor says Far too many people are calling themselves “Trusted Advisors”, and he’s got some advice for you if you’re considering joining them:The two most trust-destroying words you can say are, “trust me.” Never say you’re someone’s trusted advisor, much less say you want to be, much less build an ad campaign around it. It is inherently non-credible and insincere. (I try on my own website– which of course uses the term — to say “helping people become trusted advisors” — and not to claim that I are one).Businesspundit wrote What Tiger Woods Can Teach You About Running a Business. Even the non-golfers can follow the lessons. And we need them.In business, I think we often know the things we should do, but instead we try to do the things we want to do. We like the random fun things. We want to plan, brainstorm, hold meetings, all the stuff that doesn’t require any discipline or focus.Can I get an, “Amen,” from you all? *wink*About.com Entrepreneur’s Guide discusses Borrowing to Build Your Business. I know a few of you may be tempted to by-pass this post, but read this line and see if you shouldn’t change your mind:why would you want to borrow instead of getting investors? Simply put, borrowed money is cheaper than invested money.Also, a few posts with neat resources:The Alexander Report has a list of Apparel and Textile Associations and Organizations.Prosperity Achiever has a CSS Tools Collection.Labels: blogging, book reviews, consumer types, gender, general business, marketing, PR [...]

  • Diva Marketing Blog - Marketing blogs and corporate social media strategies for innovative companies Says:

    June 20th, 2007 at 7:15 pm

    Kramer auto Pingback[...] Comments Toby, what a wonderful way to pass on Thinking Blogger magic! Posted by: C.B. Whittemore on Jun 20, 2007 8:14:09 PM Wow! THank you This is my second designation as a “Thinking Blogger” in a month. I passed on the TBlogger love to five others who my readers may not be familiar with (Toby, you have a permanent spot on my blog roll as I find you to be an invaluable resource)… so I tapped these folks: http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/blog/2007/05/27/thinking-bloggers-and-pitching-blogs/ [...]

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