Any marketer that’s been paying much attention of late knows that bloggers and other active social media folks can be great resources to help you promote your business, products, service or brand.

But, there’s a right way and wrong way to enlist blogger support, just like there’s always been a right way and a wrong way to attract the interest of any journalist capable of writing about your business.

In this piece I’ll give you my perspective as a blogger and marketer on what I think the right way is. I’ll also use this as a plea to all PR folks out there that haven’t figured out that blindly emailing bulk press releases to members of the media has never been an effective strategy. And blindly emailing 2000 word bulk press releases to members of the media is a really, really stupid waste of your client’s money. There, I feel better now.

If you’re looking to ink a deal with a really wealthy individual (there are plenty of wealthy women, but I’ll make this example male, because that’s the universal pronoun), here are five rules to put you way ahead of your competition:

Rule No.1: Respect time.

Rule No.2: Don’t tell him his business.

Rule No.3: Give him the facts.

Rule No.4: Take notes.

Rule No.5: Anticipate his needs.

As I promised in my last tip, here’s another great fill-in-the-blank formula you can use to create a show pitch that is guaranteed to grab a producer’s attention virtually every time.

* Pitch Formula:  ”How to ____________ and still _____________”

And here’s a couple of examples of how you might apply it:

Show Pitch:  ”How to eat as much dessert as you want and still stay slim and sexy”

Show Pitch:  ”How to take advantage of high risk investments and still keep your portfolio safe”

RIP Billy, you will be missed. I had the pleasure of working with Billy, and meeting him first time, one day earlier in 2009 at a trade show. You can read about my experiences with him here and watch some videos too.

Here’s a video where I talk about what made Billy such an amazing, powerful brand, and how his pitching skills taught me a thing or two.

This new show looks great. Kinda like a combination of the American Inventor show with Pitchmen… but, with a a great twist. The “sharks”, or the people who are picking the products are using their own money to invest. Not “fake” game show funny money.

Also, the “sharks”, since they’re investing their own money, are going to negotiate as well, sharks. Should be an interesting show to watch pitches and learn how to pitch.

The supposed origins of the term “lobbyist” varies. The BBC holds that lobbying comes from the gathering of Members of Parliament and peers in the hallways (or lobbies) of Houses of Parliament before and after parliamentary debates.^[2] One story states that the term originated at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC, where it was used by Ulysses S. Grant to describe the political wheelers and dealers frequenting the hotel’s lobby in order to access Grant who was often found there, enjoying a cigar and brandy.^[7]

Once again… everything’s a pitch, especially in politics and policy.

In a blaze of publicity, more than a thousand media organizations around the world this week reported that the job of “caretaker” of Hamilton Island in Australia had been given to a 34-year-old ostrich-rider from Hampshire, Ben Southall.

Given that part of a PR executive’s job is to sell a product without paying for advertising space, then Tourism Queensland’s “best job in the world” competition has been a PR triumph that has left those whose day-job it is to devise such campaigns green with envy.

While we agree that it was a great stunt, and it did work. You have to take it with a grain of salt. The exotic location didn’t hurt, right? I mean, who in the world didn’t want to apply and go live on a tropical island for 6 months and get paid to do it?

Hand is up in the air here! I wanted to go!

Here’s the point. It was a great PR stunt. It was a great pitch. Masterful really.

But what if it was The Best Job In The World…

In Cleveland?

Forget the press. Forget the viral nature of it. Forget the kudos. Nobody would have paid attention to it.

The lesson is… Your pitch is only as good as the quality of your product/service.