Church of the Absurd
I was stunned this morning when I read Shel Holtz’s post about Ben McConnell of the Church of the Customer blog arguing that PR pros should “stop pitching bloggers you don’t know.”
Ben and sidekick Jackie Huba are smart people. They’re also very influential in the online marketing realm and have an increased profile of late as they tour to promote their Citizen Marketers book (which they’ve managed to get me to cite in two posts already today!). To see one of them make such an absurd argument is startling to say the least.
Not all of what Ben says is bad advice. He does argue that you shouldn’t add bloggers to your latest blast email touting your announcement. That’s absolutely correct. But as Shel points out in his post and as I do in my 7 Deadly Sins of Pitching Bloggers white paper, there are good ways to reach out to bloggers you don’t already know.
Sticking your head in the sand and dealing only with friends in the blogosphere makes no sense. In this case, the Church of the Customer seems to be worshiping a false prophet.
Chip, I agree with your take on McConnell’s comments — there is a difference between spamming bloggers (bad) and introducing yourself properly to someone you don’t know.. yet.
But, I do have to chide you a bit for calling Huba his sidekick… aren’t they business partners and co-authors? Sidekick is a bit demeaning, implies he is more important in the partnership than her. I’m just saying….
I certainly don’t mean to demean Jackie. The American Heritage Dictionary defines sidekick as “a close companion or comrade” and that’s how I meant it. Personally, I use sidekick interchangeably with partner.
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