Our “Blogger- Publicist” Marriage series continues this week with Do’s and Don’ts form Melissa Grace (aka Grace Gold) who’s both a writer and a freelance publicist for Lancome.
Grace Gold is a NYU Journalism grad, and started out at Lancôme Public Relations, then left for a job in the beauty dept at People Magazine and People StyleWatch. She has now been a freelance beauty writer – mostly for AOL StyleList – the past three years, while still doing freelance work projects for Lancôme PR.
What are your honest opinions on working with bloggers?
GG: “Working on “both sides” as a beauty writer/blogger and publicist has been an eye-opening experience. While more brands are finally learning about the online world and how to pitch and woo bloggers, I sometimes haven’t seen the same level of care taken from the blogger side to learn the subtleties of how to create and maintain a relationship with publicists. Novice beauty writers often learn the ‘tricks of the trade’ while interning and assisting at publications – but since many bloggers hit the net with just their authentic voice and infectious enthusiasm for beauty as their guide, they often miss out on learning some of the important publicist-writer etiquette.
Now that’s not to say that there aren’t some absolutely lovely and amazing blogger personalities out there who have mastered this domain! But a clueless stray here and there can sometimes make the whole beauty blogging community look bad, which is why I wanted to take a moment to share some do’s and don’ts of working with publicists.
DON’Ts
-Demand product samples for yourself and/or every member of your team. This one drives PR folks especially batty! There are now literally hundreds of magazines, blogs and vlogs out there, and sending everyone product just isn’t within the realm of reality for most brands. Also, not every publicist
is given a stock of samples to distribute at will.
-Assume that free product is a ‘given.’ Beauty writing is unique in the sense that complimentary product often abound. Other journalists who write for harder news outlets are often forbidden from accepting any kind of gifts including even a coffee with publicists, or else risk losing their job.
-Publish info ahead of an “embargo date.” If a product is embargoed, it means the scoop was promised to another publication, and you can write about it after that publication publishes their story first. Press releases will sometimes clearly state embargo dates, so you know after which date you can cover the product launch. Disrespecting a serious rule like this could get a publicist in hot water and potentially even fired – not to mention yourself blacklisted.
(more…)
