Don’t be afraid to make a mistake

In a very thoughtful post, Tom Biro talks about a pitch to AdJab about an advertising promotion that Adjab had already posted about. Biro responded to the pitch by saying they had already written about it, complete with link to the post. Biro never received any response to his email.

In my judgment there were two mistakes. This first was sending out a pitch without first checking to see who had posted about the story. The second, and far more serious, was the failure to respond to a simple email from a blogger. Had I made the first mistake, and sooner or later we all slip on a banana peel, I would be quick to apologize for sending out the duplicative pitch. I would also hype the AdJab post from here to Sunday in a demonstration of blogger interest in the promotion as well as an effort to drive traffic to any site who posted favorably about a client. I think both reporters and bloggers respond well to flacks who hype their work. I don’t think it would make them more likely to write about your client; but I do think it will make them more forbearing when you make a mistake.