i iz not a piece of blogging meat
This post has been a long time coming. Every time *something* happens, I’d be motivated to write about it; I’d imagine the title, the content, the words… then promptly forget about it until the next time *something* happens. Or I would have already bitched to my friends that the anger/ annoyance gets purged from my system, and I wouldn’t be irritated enough to blog about it.
But yesterday, *something* became the straw that broke my humps. So here goes.
I IZ NOT A PIECE OF BLOGGING MEAT
by Suanie of Suanie.net
I blog. I own a blog. It is a fun thing for me to do, because I enjoy the attention. There, I said it. Lucky for me, some people provide me with attention that they check back this blog on a regular basis, and I am grateful for it. Mostly because this is a personal blog, and the only real, constant focus of this blog is the subject matter = ME. If you wish to join the wave of bloggers who’d ideally spend 2 hours a day to market their blogs by ‘building relationships with influential people’ or ‘coming up with interesting and constructive comments’ on ‘5 of top-100 blogs that works well within [a] target market’, Suanie.net is NOT the blog for you. You are better off reading Homer’s Iliad; even if you don’t understand jack shit, you could still go around town boasting to people, “Ἰλιάς ήταν μεγάλος!’ Truth to be told, no one in the real world gives a rat’s ass if you read Suanie.net… with the exception of Suanie. Putting aside my pride (for 10 seconds), I am greatly inconsequential. Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor went to space and back. I blog.
Blogstory
For all ye blogging newbies, you probably have not heard of me. Why should you? I am just another blogger to you. True, that. But for Malaysian bloggers who have been around since 2004/ 2005, you probably would have heard of me. By now, you probably know me in real life.
In mid-2005, three other noobs and me appeared on StarTwo, with a two-page feature that highlighted blogging as something that can be non-political yet ‘popular’. Then came a series of mentions in print media here and there. Somehow or the other, my hits went up, I was marked as a popular blogger, and somewhere along the lines became one of the many influential Malaysian bloggers. Whether it is true or a myth, I don’t know. Would I care to find out? I can’t be sure, but I *think* I have better things to do with my time 
But here was what happened: thanks to the StarTwo story, I got to know more people in real life. They work in various industries, and sometimes they would extend me an invitation to attend this and that event/ party/ gathering. Over the couple of years, the process became organic, as in:
- someone would give me a product to review = people assume I am popular/ influential enough to get a product to be reviewed/ kept = more opportunities come my way; or
- someone would ask me to go here and there = people assume I am popular/ influential enough to be asked = more invites
The way I see it, 2005 was the big blogging wave for Malaysian bloggers, the starting point of blog recognition and pre-commercialisation. I just so happened to be on that boat.
Blogs as a marketing tool?
From a blogger’s POV, this is a great and awesome thing. Print media still rules, no doubt about that. Seriously, who are we kidding?! According to Nielsen AIS, 62.5% of monies spent on advertising in Malaysia during the 1st half of 2007 went to newspapers and magazines. Doesn’t that tell you something?
However more PR/ advertising agencies are seeking out blogs and bloggers to spread the word. From my conversations with many PR practitioners, they are very interested in collaborating/ communicating with bloggers, especially now that they are pimping products relevant to the digital age. However their one biggest problem remains this: how does one take the first step in approaching bloggers? And if you ask me, it is not the easiest problem to be solved. Many considerations have to be taken (reasons below). But it is far from rocket science, so…
You see, the situation is like this; I don’t know about you, but I largely do not blog for profit. Taking into account everything I have stated above, sure, I greatly enjoy and appreciate the benefits I derive from blogging. Until I joined Nuffnang, none of the benefits arrived in the form of cold, hard cash (or a nice-looking piece of cheque). I do not have the technical know-how (a.k.a. malas) or determination or sad to say, interest in a singular or multiple subjects (such as what Paul Tan and 5xMom have successfully done) to capitalise on Internet money-making programmes. I did, however enjoyed attending events, movie screenings, parties and such. On some occasions, I have been lucky enough to receive products to be reviewed and to keep. Thanks a bunch, folks
In the beginning, it was fun and flattering to be asked to go anywhere. I mean, I am not in anyway part of mass media — you think this no-list blogger is somebody and you want her to come leech off your food, beer and entertainment? OKAY I BE THERE ON TIME THANKS! My friends and I would go, mostly because it was a why-not thing to do. No one pressured us to blog about anything; if we blogged, it was because we enjoyed ourselves, felt that it was blog-worthy, wanted to share the experience with our blog readers… the point being that we wanted to and did so voluntarily. That, IMHO should be anyone’s best marketing plan ever.
These days I receive quite a number of press releases and invites and stuff from assorted people. Sometimes they are from my friends, sometimes it is for a good cause, sometimes I blog about them and sometimes I go have a look at whatever’s happening. And sometimes I don’t, because I just do not have the time for it, or whatever is happening is not happening enough for me. Ms. Chong had to give me VIP passes to coerce me to attend the Speedzone party, heheh. Oh well, to each her own, right?
The part about the PR practitioner
Having said all that, the following is what I always tell the PR peps, as per my POV:
Bloggers are not conventional media people. Unlike journalists, bloggers do not write with editors breathing down their necks. The bloggers you want for your events/ marketing campaigns generally do not do it for fame or fortune. The bloggers you want for your events/ marketing campaigns will only do it if there is something in it for them, and/ or whatever you are pimping is of interest to them. For example, James Yeang is not going to attend a fashion catwalk show because 1) he has a real job in real life, and 2) his blog is tech-related. Unless you are planning to make Hannah Tan walk down the runway dressed in nothing but Intel Core 2 Duo stickers at all the strategic places …
Some PR peps told me that they understand the nature of blogging, with an idea of how things are done, because at the end of the day:
a) You do not want to be seen as hardcore bribing bloggers. It does no good to both your product/ services/ company and the blogger
b) You do not want a complicated, backlashed situation like the Microsoft Vista + Acer Ferrari + Edelman
c) You may want glowing reports/ reviews, but the blogger may not comply and create a situation where your boss will fly off the roof and your ass gets fired
d) But you also sort of know that you cannot control what will be blogged
a + b + c + d = might as well save all the trouble and deal with traditional media.
Here is the part where I attempt to help by offering some solicited (or otherwise) advice:
i) You are already thinking of collaborating with bloggers, congratulations on your wise foresight, go you!
ii) Some PR peps are blog readers. They may have been silently following several blogs for a long time, then finally took the initiative to contact these bloggers for whatever. If you are not known to them, do remember that you are not known to them! Approach them like the PR-savvy person that you are or aim to be. A good starting line would be:
“Dear Suanie,Good morning! My name is Brad Pitt, I am from Brad Pitt Agency and I have been following your blog for a while now. I am not sure if this e-mail is appropriate, but from what I have seen on your blog, I hope that it is of interest to you.
[insert spiel, for example Brad Pitt would like to make you the happiest female alive and give you hardcore sex every day of the year for 10 years in return for a blog post reviewing his sexual prowess]
If this is agreeable to you, I look forward to hearing from you soon!
Regards,
Brad Pitt
[insert e-mail signature]
With that, I hereby state a few things that would give rise to my displeasure and choke on my roti canai hence ruining my morning and vowing to have nothing whatsoever to do with you or your company or the product/ service that you represent:
- I do not know you, we have never communicated before, yet you send me cold e-mails telling me about your awesome whatever. No thanks.
- You misspelt my name or you address me as someone else. Which when you come to think of it, is rather stupid because you got to my blog via suanie.net? Lolz.
- You e-mail the whole world with my personal e-mail address listed in the ‘To’ field, with no attempt to hide it under ‘BCC’, then the same list of bloggers/ e-mail addresses get sent to someone else without my prior permission. Gee, thanks
- You automatically assume that I would be so honoured to receive your e-mail and that I should oblige to every of your wish and whim. I iz not a piece of blogging meat, so no thanks
- You have no clue how blogging works, and have no desire to understand nor make any attempts to ask. In which case I would really suggest that you don’t bother, and leave it to a colleague who may know better
- You do everything that ShaolinTiger was pissed about as seen on his blog post. I got the same e-mail too
iii) If you have a shitty product/ service, do not expect a positive review. Actually one would think that this is common sense, right? Lmao you would be surprised
iv) Bloggers who blog on their blogs are not your free advertising tools. Basically when in doubt, put yourselves in the blogger’s shoes and ask: WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME? You should be quite sorted then.
v) My friends will fill this out for me
No, seriously…
By now some of you may be thinking, ‘bloggers only mah.. TAI SAI MEH?!?! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!?!’ True, bloggers only mah. But you are the one e-mailing us, right? So be nice, be courteous, be professional and by rule of the thumb, bloggers will be nice back. Actually, it should be a standard PR practice… so it’s quite befuddling when some people just tembak sesuka hati. No excuse for fresh grads, don’t they teach those kind of stuff at uni? No? Then invest in Rosalie Maggio’s excellent how-to book, “How To Say It“, which saved my ass more than a few times when I used to correspond with people of all nationalities via e-mail. Sorry, but I just think that the approach part is the most important aspect, the make or break.
Not all PR peps are clueless. In fact, some of the PR peps I’ve come across and got to communicate with really know how to do their jobs. They make you feel decent, they make you feel warm and fuzzy, they talk WITH you… that’s really some good public relations. You guys and girls know who you are, you rock my socks. Salut, salut! If I had a hat I would take it off.
So, who’s compiling the list of e-mail addresses of every PR rep so I can spam them with this blog post?
I got the same email -__-
First to comment!
Salut, Suanie. You iz captured the right thingz.
Excellent post, hope some of the right people read it.
Aiyak…. shit…I was beaten to the first comment by KY.
@ST: Your post was much more… *direct*
Suanie for president! But hands off brad pitt kthx.
Can we start a website to collate all the spams we get from all these idiots?
I thought it was simple cow sense to be (especially) nice to people you’re asking favours from, be it in real life or digitally - apparently I thought wrong. Sometimes these people just make it sound like we OWE them our time and blogspace for an oh-what-an-amazing-generous-reward of something trivial thrown to everybody ELSE on the streets for free, and in return, expect us to jump all over it, kiss their feet and then write post to advertise about their events.
Bloody insulting dumbfucks.
Is it too difficult to see that blogs are just another form of media and bloggers deserve as much respect and courteousness as the next journalist? Granted, we are not tai sai, but hell, THEY wrote US the email , therefore, THEY REALISE that we worth SOMEthing to them. The least they could do is to be courteous & professional, which is of NO cost to the agency in ANY way.
There’s absolutely NO excuse for ANYONE to NOT be able to produce a simple informal letter because as shitty as our school education is, we were ALL TAUGHT HOW TO WRITE LETTERS - BOTH FORMAL AND INFORMAL. So what happened to the Ps and Qs? What happened to the standard introduction paragraph of a surat tak rasmi? What happened to even signing OFF properly?
Where the hell do the agencies FIND these retards?
LOL suan, you really can do a thesis on “PR Professionalism in the Digital Age” - course 101 with this entry. Respecz
It’s called cost-cutting. Because experienced PR people are too thinly spread, they prefer to hire the young cikus and cross their fingers the kids can make it.
OHCANDIEDOTCOM.
Signs the PR person handling you is very green:
Press release title they don’t bother changing to Queen’s English.
They try to cold-call you on the phone and you have no idea what they’re saying. “Har, you want to go Chow Kit Market?” when they actually wanting you to review their latest product.
They send emails which would make Lynne Truss weep tears of blood.
They abuse apostrophes to the level of abject cruelty.
They call you just to ask “have you received my email/press release/first-born child?”. Oh wait they all do that.
Or…jengjengjeng…they send the invite to the Maxis Open House with your name on it to…NTV7 instead!
True story.
So. Much. Intensity.
I thought I read a quicker version of this rant on ST’s blog!
Let me make my self clear here. You are saying some dude so call this PR from somewhat ad company email to you to so call promote their products/ service through your blog? They make as in they have read your blog for quite sometime and thinking that you are the kind of person that would take any kind of offer?
And because of this reasons or what ever you wanna call it…you dont like it? And there should be the right way of dealing it as in with bloggers? I am sorry if I am misinterpret and misunderstand the message that you want to sampaikan here.
In other words, are you saying you can’t be bought? At any price? Not even for some Reese’s peanut butter thingies?
FA: hmm i don’t need to be treated like part of mass media/ journalist, just from one person to the other lor. bleh
tbg: i think u captured the essence of the post; professionalism… lmao u should do the thesis
erna: then i guess it’s the fault of the supervisors also. but i know some real good supers.
swifty: why not
dabs: this is not a rant
aizat: not really, heh. the example was just a random example. i am not pms-y because a certain someone did this or that. not really singling out someone or anyone. i’m just saying if u are in pr, then do pr, and this post is an accumulation of correspondence i received over the years. i guess it is easy to be misinterpreted that i am stressing that there is a certain way bloggers should be approached as if bloggers are high and mighty beings. i was trying to convey the msg that bloggers are not necessarily in it for the dosh, it is not necessarily their work, some basic courtesy if you require a favour would be nice, kan? just like real life.
mad: for you i will
Nice one….and as a matter of fact i do have a list of PR ppl’s e-mails. hahaha.
“The bloggers you want for your events/ marketing campaigns will only do it if there is something in it for them, and/ or whatever you are pimping is of interest to them.”
- I totally agree on this. They should do their research and not just think that this person ought to have numbers (readers) and therefore target anyway!
zaque: What she’s trying to convey is… she’s been blogging and then pr ppl noticed her and approached her by emailing her - but then…. in the e-mail, it must have been quite abrupt without any form of formality or professionalism. Takkan la any tom dick n harry who say, “Suanie! I read ur blog!” and then ask her to do a posting to promote the product - then she must accept. ESP if the person has no courtesy… I wouldn’t like it if I received that same treatment.
This post would have been the most awesome post ever in the history of the bloggersphere, if not for the lack of awesome pictures.
There should be some mandatory rule where by after ‘x’ amount of words, there must be a picture to break up the monotony sea of text.
0_o
Ahem, sorry Suanie, hijacking with minor digression.
What’s all this finger pointing and animosity against fresh grads/interns/young ‘cikus’? I’ve heard remarks in the same vein time and again, and frankly such lack of faith in the upcoming batch of workforce is quite worrying. Granted, nobody likes or needs to tolerate incompetency, but I daresay I’ve come across plenty of badly written letters and emails from supposedly experienced officers/managers/insert-title-here who’re also at least above 25. Then there are those who’ve worked in the same field/establishment for more than 10 years and/or are middle-aged but still have difficulties stringing a grammatically correct sentence up while providing/presenting crucial information. Not necessarily the PR people, but essentially aren’t all staff part of what makes or breaks an organisation’s image?
What I really want to say is this: please give us (yes this is motivated because of my terasa-ness) kids a chance. We may be green, but we’re not all imbeciles.
Thank you for your time and attention.
p.s. This comment was brought to you with Ps and Qs and sufficient respect for elders.
come to think of it, yours was probably the last time any blog actually got an increase in hits after appearing in the star… ahahha. i is rawking.
if you think the PR invites that blogs get are bad, you should see the ones I sometimes get for MY real job. never do proper research, send fashion invites to health desk, bloody product launch also want cover story… etc etc etc.
I also hate it when they are present in person during an interview and KEEP BUTTING IN in an attempt to ’steer the conversation back to the product’ or asking questions that they THINK we should be asking. fuckers.
PR is an acquire skill. those who manage to learn from their mistakes naturally get better and stick around long enough to actually make an impression in the editors/journalists’ minds. those who DON’T learn from mistakes can fuck off.
Dear Suanie,
We would like to invite you for free booze and good food. (Oh and it’s at an event too!)
P.S. Brad Pitt will be there. (NAKED).
Kthxbai!
That’s how a PR invite should sound like.
where can i sign up?
*sayangs Chen*
LOL, not saying all the young’uns suck, m’dear. Just the recent batch of hirees. I’ve been in the publishing line three years so am used to dealing with the PR companies but this year, adoi, felt like slashing my wrists.
Problem is: established, terer PR pro gets promoted. Young ciku gets grunt work. BUT terer pro didn’t train ciku properly /PR firm dowan to spend money on ciku with brain/can speak England and we get “OHAI DIS U GET MAI PRESS RILIS?”
Blame the employers. They don’t want to spend money on good talent - you get wonderful emails like this sent to Suan.
“Dear Suanie,
Good morning! My name is Ted and I have been following your blog for a while now. I am not sure if this e-mail is appropriate, but from what I have seen on your blog, I hope that it is of interest to you…”
[snicker]
Sorry, couldn’t resist…
Cheers,
Ted
Kim (Ong): again, you summarised everything
to add on to your points, i wouldn’t do that (i.e. no head no tail asking for favours) to anyone i just met, let alone a potential someone who may do me the favour. it is nice that any readers of this blog contact me should they need something; it means that they think i have something to offer them, but it is rather inappropriate to just shoot from the hip. i have email examples of blog readers who email me asking for this and that; one i replied back because he was nice, and the other i deleted because it was rude. doesn’t look good on your pr firm.
fox: old skool, bitch
chen: oO forgive me if i sounded discriminating and condescending. it was not my intention, and i truly understand where you are coming from. i guess i have been writing from my pov corresponding with pr reps, with most of the really ‘makes me want to strangle myself’ type being fresh grads. that said, i do know some fresh grads who aren’t bad; in fact they are better than some more experienced ones. however these are far and few in between. so to quote datuk nazri, majority rules, the minority doesn’t count
actually that’s not really so lah. i replied back to give chance a lot already. that made me sound like some pretentious bitch with my head stuck up in my arse, but just telling you what i have done 
eyeris: hehhehe i loves u uuuu uu uu uu uu u uu!! btw my eldest sister was awesome in her ex PR job! HERRO LT YOU TOTALLY ROXXX
iesnek: Dear iesnek, I would be most happy to obliged. I’ll bring the whip.
frostier: ar?
erna: to be fair to some of them, i came across a few ‘how-to’ sites online advising the PR peps to follow up press releases with a phone call.
Ted: *smacks*
Errr… yo know, I have forgotten your real name… sori..
I know some good PR people.. like KIMKOMM!!!
LOL@“OHAI DIS U GET MAI PRESS RILIS?â€
So true!
suertes: it’s ok, i am not very memorable
tim: hehehheh ohs i know them too
iesnek: hehh if they are nice about it, why not
PR ppl are you listening?
Hannah Tan
Core Duo