Tuesday Tip: Stop Spamming Blogs

At Urban Bliss, we’re working with some awesome PR clients these days. We help them with media campaigns, social media campaigns, and general brand consultations. While we advise many of our clients to be active in the blogosphere, there are still MANY businesses out there who still do not *get* it: instead of leaving valid comments they leave spam comments on blogs. As a PR person, and as a blogger of many blogs, I cannot tell you how frustrating this is.

For instance, I write about family-friendly events and news for OregonLive.com and today received this comment:

I see so many good writings advising parents on raising their children. My book, “(insert name of his book here),” is different in that it is a one on one counseling sessions with the reader (teenager) encouraging them to make decisions leading to a successful, happy live. For additional information please visit my website at: (insert this person’s url here, which I will not do but they did in the original comment). God Bless!!!

What’s wrong with this comment?

1. It has NOTHING to do with my blog post. Nothing at all. The author didn’t even try to make a half-hearted attempt at a valid comment.

2.  It is ONLY a pitch for this person’s book. Again, lame/lazy attempt at PR.

3.  I don’t even do book reviews on that site, so even if he were to pitch appropriately (through email!) it would have been totally off-topic. If he read that blog even just a little bit, he’d know this.

4. Never end a comment with “God Bless” unless you’re commenting on an openly religious website.

If you’re going to leave comments on blogs, do it right. Become part of the community. Get to know the bloggers – their likes, dislikes, style of writing. Get to know the blogs – each on has a truly specific format, specific topics that are covered and not covered.  Actually READ the blog posts and leave relevant comments. Most blogs allow you to include your URL in the info section – not the comment section. Don’t pitch your product in a comment.

I could go on and on with this topic but that’s the basic tip. Don’t spam people in blog comments. It’s not nice.

Tags: blogs, PR & Social Media