Pitch Me

Profile and audience of Hummingbird604.com

An award-nominated blogger, Raul has been nominated to the Canadian Weblog Awards in 2009 and 2010 for Best Overall Blog, Best Personal Blog, Best Blog (Lifestyle), Best Blog (Food) and Best Blog (Readers’ Choice). Ranked in the top 10 blogs on Urbanspoon Vancouver food bloggers directory (currently at #9), Raul uses Hummingbird604.com as the canvas from where he tells Canada’s story. Raul was recently profiled in BC Business as one of the most influential lifestyle, travel, food and theatre bloggers in British Columbia.

Hummingbird604.com is frequently pitched to review products, restaurants, theatre, dance and fine arts projects, promote charitable causes, administer contests and giveaways, undertake media trips to showcase different provinces and regions, report on events, and provide readers with a taste of the lifestyle that Canada and in particular the province where he lives (British Columbia) can offer.

Pitching stories/projects

I am NOT “a professional blogger”. My main (income-generating) activity is academia (research, consulting and teaching). I write Hummingbird604.com because I love showcasing my city and the province I live in (read what I write about). For one reason or another, my blog is fairly well-read (and I`m very grateful for that!). Despite being incredibly busy with my teaching, research and consulting, I do try to write about stuff I’m pitched on my personal blog. I’ve written this document to help you shape your pitch to me (PR professionals, this is for you).

- Read my blog. At least a few entries (5-8). I write about a VERY broad variety of things (restaurants, local businesses, environment, theatre, dance, my personal life, my travels within the province and in Canada, as well as product reviews).

- Don’t pitch me with a generic “Hello” or “Dear Hummingbird604″. My name is Raul. It’s clearly written on every entry. Try to personalize it as much as you can. You may even want to use the first paragraph of your pitching email to customize it and make me feel appreciated and read.

- Give me a unique and different angle for your stuff. This is particularly important if you pitch several influential bloggers who may share a bit of the same audience. So, for example, pitching me environmental stories is a good idea, as that’s what my research and teaching are about. Pitching me new restaurant openings, theatre/dance/arts performances is also good. When a film festival approaches me, I usually pick the environmentally-focused films. That way, I can provide a different angle to my fellow bloggers.

-Tickets/freebies/giveaways are great ways to promote your client’s business. I am always more interested in giving tickets away than receiving complimentary tickets myself. Of course, if you invite me to review your play, it does help to set aside tickets for my review, but I find that my readers love freebies, and sponsoring a contest usually is a very good promotional tool within my blog. Full disclosure – I will be disclosing ALWAYS who sponsored the ticket giveaway.

- I’m very transparent and keen on disclosure. I write fairly long paragraphs about who pitched me, what I’m giving away, who sponsored the giveaway, etc. (for a couple of examples, see my reviews of the HP Canada printers and my printer giveaway). Even though the FTC regulations only apply to US bloggers, I’m a big overdiscloser, so be aware of this.

- Make it easy for me to blog about your stuff.Given the volume of requests I receive to write about stuff, you’d make my life 3 times easier if you provided me with text that I can just cut-and-paste. PDF press releases are usually hard to maneuver.

- Help me enhance my post with visuals (video, photos) Photos – it’d be fantastic if you could send me links to Creative-Commons-licensed photos from the get-go. Makes it easier for me to insert in my entry. Please, when you send me photos that I can use, send me also the name of the photographer(s) and if they have a website, the URL for them. Photographers should be credited for their hard work.

- Follow up. I receive hundreds of emails a day. If I tell you “yeah, I’d love to write about this but I may forget” – please follow up. I won’t get mad if you send me three emails. Trust me, I’m way more understanding than people think.

- Don’t take it personally – don’t be disheartened or disappointed if I don’t write about your play/event/dance exhibition/performance/resort/restaurant/etc. I do keep a file of those things I do want to write about and things that I wish I had written about but didn’t have enough time to do so. One of these days, you’ll score a home-run!

- Email is the best way to pitch me. Pitching me via Twitter works only if you send me a personalized email to follow up. I receive hundreds of @ replies every day. I can’t recall everything even if I want to.

- Pitch me preferably when I can write about your stuff In the fall of 2011 I teach Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays 2-5pm. It’s hard for me to attend events during those times, and sometimes even if I am invited on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday, I end up being so tired from teaching I can’t make it. It’s more like I can attend events during the day on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I can’t do anything before 6pm on Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

- Train your interns to pay attention to details as you would: This is a new tip. I have been approached in the past by PR companies themselves. In the process of gaining experience, many PR students take on internships, or volunteer their skills. This is fantastic, but the one drawback is that if the intern doesn’t pay attention to detail as you (the PR agency) have done in the past, you’re doing a disservice, both to yourself as a PR agency and to the intern him/herself. Lately I have been receiving non-customized emails, blanket press releases and non-personalized pitches from PR interns. This is not a good approach to receiving coverage on Hummingbird604.com. It’s YOUR duty as you hire interns to train them in how to approach bloggers. I’m an educator, first and foremost, and I take it upon myself to educate people, and I am keen in providing learners with tips to improve. Learning how to pitch me properly is key if you want to get covered on my blog.

Hope this helps!