{"id":8452,"date":"2018-05-01T17:56:05","date_gmt":"2018-05-01T17:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/tips\/?p=8452"},"modified":"2025-11-10T22:44:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T22:44:34","slug":"pr-pitches-from-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/tips-of-the-week\/pr-pitches-from-hell\/","title":{"rendered":"PR Pitches from Hell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Issue #1219 May 1,\u00a02018<br \/>\nPublisher: Joan Stewart<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8220;Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity&#8221;<\/h2>\n<h3><strong>In This Issue<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>PR Pitches from Hell<\/li>\n<li>61 Ideas for Instagram<\/li>\n<li>Pinterest Deadline Midnight Tonight<\/li>\n<li>Hound\u00a0Video\u00a0of the Week<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<blockquote><p><strong>This Week in the Hound House:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I opened all my windows this morning and, for the first time in what seems like an eternity, I can smell spring! I filled 10 bins with yard waste over the weekend and will haul them to the dump this week. Next: Planting the 15 dinnerplate dahlia bulbs I bought at Costco for only $18.99&#8211;a steal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">1. PR Pitches from Hell<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-8455 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/tips\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/05\/PR-pitches-why-are-so-many-so-bad.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"96\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When <strong>Jessica Lawlor<\/strong>, a PR and communications expert, wanted to see what journalists on Twitter had to say about bad pitches they receive, she set up an alert for the terms &#8220;PR pitch&#8221; and &#8220;PR pitches.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The results, she says, are both hilarious and horrifying. Here&#8217;s a sample of what journalists tweeted:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;&#8216;Hi, I would like your email to send you press releases like this one&#8230;&#8217; &#8211; not the best PR pitch opening. In fact one of the worst.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Did I really just get a PR pitch written in entirely lowercase letters?&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Just got another PR pitch that begins &#8220;Hi INSERT FIRST NAME HERE.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Getting PR pitches via LinkedIn is a fresh kind of hell.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I love how personal and intimate modern PR pitches are.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Bad pitches will never cease. Make sure yours isn&#8217;t one of them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>To do:<\/strong> See more in Jessica&#8217;s article <a href=\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/23\/this-month-in-bad-pr-pitches-5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;This month in bad PR pitches.&#8221;<\/a>\u00a0 For free guidance on how to pitch correctly, opt-in for Muck Rack&#8217;s excellent download <a href=\"https:\/\/sawu.wufoo.com\/forms\/free-download-how-to-craft-a-winning-pr-pitch\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;How to craft a winning PR pitch.&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>#PRPitches #PR<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">2. 61 Ideas for Instagram<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-8456 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/tips\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/05\/teacup-with-daisy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you find yourself sharing the same old types of images on Instagram and you need fresh ideas, you&#8217;re not alone.<\/p>\n<p>Freelance writer <strong>Arfa Nazeer<\/strong> faced the same problem. She started researching what others are sharing and compiled more than five dozen ideas. They include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Share a photo of your coffee or tea mug, or your smoothie glass.<\/li>\n<li>Feature your best follower on your account.<\/li>\n<li>What&#8217;s your goal of the week or month?<\/li>\n<li>A reminder to join your email list.<\/li>\n<li>Tell people how to follow you on other platforms like Facebook and Twitter.<\/li>\n<li>Post a photo of your workstation.<\/li>\n<li>Your favorite product of the month. This could be a regular feature.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>To do:<\/strong> Read her 54 other ideas in her blog post <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180814142012\/https:\/\/epife.com\/instagram-post-ideas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;61 Instagram Post Ideas to Beautify an Instagram Feed for More Followers.&#8221;\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>#Instagram #InstagramIdeas<\/p>\n<h3>3. Pinterest Deadline Midnight Tonight<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-8454 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/tips\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/05\/Old-is-the-new-black.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"133\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you haven&#8217;t watched the video replay of the webinar I hosted last week, packed with free tips on how to sell on Pinterest, you have until midnight tonight.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike so many other social media sites where you have to spend hours creating valuable content to share, you can place a quote on a fun stock photo within minutes, and post it. Or use someone else&#8217;s best-selling book as a springboard to catch people&#8217;s attention. Or feature a fun product you sell.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s what <strong>BL Ochman<\/strong> did after watching last week&#8217;s webinar with <strong>Daniel Hall<\/strong> and <strong>John Kremer.<\/strong> BL sells humorous license plates for walkers, rollators, and scooters. She collected a few of the best and created a vertical image that links to the sales page. You can see her pin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/pin\/807903620628423093\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Even if people aren&#8217;t in the mood to buy, they might be encouraged to click the link just to see other funny license plates. And if they might spot one that would be a perfect gift for Mother&#8217;s Day. Pinterest, by the way, is the Number One social media site for selling products and services.<\/p>\n<p><strong>To do:<\/strong> Take advantage of the free training by watching the video on <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20240624053040\/https:\/\/realfastsocialgraphics.com\/joan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;Pinterest Profits for Authors &amp; Experts: Get Your Piece of the $11 Billion Annual &#8216;Share Economy&#8217;.&#8221;<\/a> It disappears at midnight.<\/p>\n<p>#Pinterest #PinterestTips<\/p>\n<h3>4. Hound\u00a0Video of the Week<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/-SY2Pa6xlQc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-8457 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/tips\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/05\/uptown-funk-with-dogs.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"182\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Saving dogs&#8217; lives never sounded so funky. The folks at East Bay SPCA in Oakland, Calif., remixed the hit Bruno Mars song <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/-SY2Pa6xlQc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;Uptown Pup&#8221;<\/a> and renamed it &#8220;Oaktown Pup&#8221; to promote adopting pets from your local shelter. You&#8217;ll want to get up and dance to this clever video&#8211;and then run out and adopt a dog.<\/p>\n[Tweet &#8220;#PublicityTips &#8212; PR Pitches from Hell #PRPitches #PR&#8221;]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h2>The Publicity Hound&#8217;s Tips of the Week<\/h2>\n<h3>&#8211; Issue #1219 May 1, 2018<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>PR Pitches from Hell\n<\/li>\n<li>61 Ideas for Instagram<\/li>\n<li>Pinterest Deadline Midnight Tonight<\/li>\n<li>Hound Video of the Week<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/tips-of-the-week\/pr-pitches-from-hell\/\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"rmlink\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":7,"wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[217,111,36,537],"class_list":{"0":"post-8452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tips-of-the-week","8":"tag-instagram","9":"tag-pinterest","10":"tag-pitching-the-media","11":"tag-pr-pitches","12":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43328,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8452\/revisions\/43328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}