Has PR overstayed its welcome in the bloggesphere?

In the past few days some of my favorite bloggers have gone on considerable rants about PR people and their use of new media to promote clients and products. 

Robert Scoble and Michael Arrington are among the many bloggers who are having a hard time dealing with PR professionals. Their arguments present an interesting dilemma. It seems as though bloggers want PR people to introduce exciting products/companies to them (which is great to hear) but that they don't want to feel like the average journalist who gets releases pushed on them. It's understandable but it begs the question: What should we do?

If a PR professional has a great new product/client/event to promote we will undoubtedly want to let bloggers know. If we follow their requests we would have to make very personalized appeals to a select group of bloggers. We would tailor each email to them, creating unique opportunities. This is completely possible and in many ways ideal. It shows bloggers that you value their opinions and recognize them as influencers. 

But here's the cache: There's a chance that they may not mention you.

If your client isn't a major company then you run the risk of not getting coverage. Bloggers could easily write you off as a nuisance with another seemingly useless product. It's a veritable PR catch 22. 

So, what to do? You can't tell a client that they or their product is not innovative, important or exciting enough to pitch to bloggers. Not only is that a different type of rude but it also makes you, the PR professional, look stupid. Why can't you frame the product in an interesting way? Can you really not find any innovation in a client?

After considering all of this, my opinion is that bloggers are still a valuable resource that should be utilized. I've said it before but I'll say it again: I think the biggest problem with pitching to bloggers is that some PR people still have a hard time separating them from typical journalists. Bloggers write because they love it. For many, getting a mass press release is equivalent to you getting those forwards from your high school lab partner that you haven't spoken to since prom. Not only is it time consuming to discern if the email has value, it makes you annoyed with a person you don't speak to at all.

In essence, there is no blanket policy for pitching to bloggers. However, if I were to give one it would be this: Make your pitches personal. Recognize the power of real relationships. If you consistently treat a blogger like a valuable person and pitch them interesting things, you may strike gold with an awesome post. Think about interesting angles and what services your client offers. Don't just let bloggers know that a new product has been launched. Tell them how it can improve their lives or offer them an opportunity to try it. 

I don't know if these rants from bloggers are indictative of how they'll always feel. This could be akin to a lovers' spat about leaving the milk out: harsh but breif. But then again, who knows, maybe this is a wake-up call to PR professionals to find some new ways of getting the word out. 

Let's put on our thinking caps, shall we?