I have had many invitations from pr agencies, companies and all for the past few years. While some were just plain rude, there were some who really did a great job.

As someone who is pretty new in the pr industry, I now understand why some agencies make these mistakes. Here’s some tips of how I would like to be engaged. My humble opinion lah.

1) Introduce yourself

If it is the first time you are sending an invite/press release to a blogger and you have had never spoken to him/her before, it would be nice if you introduce yourself. It would also be nice to show that you actually read the blogger’s blog and actually have an inkling about him or her.

A good example would be:

“Hi Nadia!

First of all, let me introduce myself. I’m Crystel from XYZ Agency and we’re currently representing ABC cosmetics. I saw that you wrote about Majolica Majorca cosmetics recently and I really enjoyed the tutorial you did on how to obtain the smokey eyes look.

I was just wondering, would you be keen to attend our latest product launch? We will be launching the glitzy chapter which would consist of shimmery eyeshadows and glitter eyeliners. We would love to have you try these cosmetics and also share the experience with your readers!….”

Obviously this is fictional. But if this was true, Crystel would have done the following:

- Introduce herself, her company and the brand she’s representing

- Showed that she has actually read my blog and understood the contents

- Introduced the newest range of products

- Invited me to the event and has subtly hinted for a follow up blog entry.

In this way, even if I was not free to attend the event, I would have either asked her to send me the press release so that I could find out more about the products.

2) Don’t anyhow shoot lah.

Look at the relevancy of the products/services with the blogger. If a blogger specialises in food entries only i.e. a food blogger, would you invite him/her to a tech event?

Yes and No.

Look for an angle. It’s like how you pitch to traditional media. You always look for angles.

Ogilvy thought out of the box for one of their Canon events. They invited lifestyle, tech and food bloggers to a printer event where there was a food and photography talk. We had fun learning how to take pictures of food (which we arraged ourselves) and we could print them out with the printers available.

In this case, they made such an “unsexy” product event very fun and enjoyable.

3) It’s all about the experience.

Bloggers are not journalists, well not all of them. While most journalists prefer to go to an event where the information is there, where they get to play with the products, find out more about numbers (revenue numbers etc) etc. Imho, they like it straightforward.

Whereas bloggers like me, where we do not specialise in certain topics are loosely termed as lifestyle bloggers, may not like the straightforward approach. I prefer the experiential approach. Let me experience the product or service. An example would be the Canon event mentioned above, another would be when KLM engaged me for an advertorial. They flew me to Bali, let me experience Bali and the whole airline experience.

While it might be different for other bloggers, I prefer writing about the experience rather than just copying and pasting information.

4) Do not spam

This PR Agency has spammed me countless of times despite me telling them I was not interested in their products or their events. Guys, if a blogger/media says he/she is NOT interested and to remove us from your mailing list, please do so. Continuing to do so will just anger them.

I seriously feel like having a “Wall of Shame” entry for such companies.

5) Follow up

After you have invited the blogger to the event. Follow up. NOT by persistently asking when we are gonna blog about the event, which we are not obliged to do so. Follow up by asking for feedback about the event or share pictures that were taken or offer products to review.

But most of all, try to be friends with us. Honestly, it does work. Be it for traditional or new media, having a great relationship never did hurt.

Hope this entry will prove useful for you.

I would like to think that I grew up differently from other kids my age. While other mothers would mollycoddle or be overprotective over their daughters, my mum in a certain extent, couldn’t care less.

I remember walking to school myself at a very very young age. While she would ask how was my day in school, she hardly bothered about my grades. If I failed, just try harder she would say or if I passed, she would smile and say I did a fine job. She would be more interested in how I enjoyed studying rather than how I fared.

I could stay out late as long as I phoned back. As I grew older, there was hardly the need to ever “report” where I was going. While other mothers would instill a curfew or would insist on knowing the every whereabouts of their daughters, my mum was “cool” with whatever I was doing.

I remember her telling me that should I ever get pregnant (this was when I was <12 years old), to never ever do anything foolish. She would raise the child with me. She was the one who first got me my first spag strap top and encouraged me to wear them when other mothers would chide their daughters from exposing too much. My friends were always envious of me, while they had to sneak out of their houses in cardigans which they later shed, I could walk out wearing spag straps that my mum bought for me. She later told me about her rationale on doing so, she never wanted to have her daughter telling lies to her like the other kids were doing to their parents. She wanted me to share everything with her.

When I stopped going for religious studies when I was eleven (an age where most parents would still be  rotan-ing their kids), my mum only said she understood and didn’t say much about the matter. She never really showed much interest in the grades I was getting nor did she ever place any pressure in jobs that I was working.

I think the way my mum parented me was more like a parent leaving their kid near the swimming pool. I could choose to either sit on the sides or I could jump in. I may drown or I may swim finely but it was my choice. She wouldn’t dump me into the swimming pool like how most parents tried to teach their kids to swim. She wanted me to make my own choices instead of forcing them on me.

She always encouraged me to do whatever I like. If I hated a job, quit. Why be unhappy at work, she would say. While I was given the freedom to “roam” in a certain extent, I felt that I hardly strayed. I didn’t find the need to rebel from my parents, I never felt like running away from home or to slit my wrist or do some drama mama stuff that the kids at my school were doing. I guess, when you’re given so much freedom, you hardly find the need to lie/rebel to your parents.

Till now, I am still surprised at how liberal my mum is considering the fact that she was brought up in the typical Muslim setting. Once when we went shopping, she pointed out at some lingerie and suggested that I buy those when I visited Tiger in Australia back then. She also thought I was dating many guys at one time. Which I wasn’t ok! I have a LOT of guy friends. It’s only natural considering the fact that I was a tomboy when I was younger. Hell, my first best friend was a boy!

While I wasn’t strong academically, I gotta admit, I did slack a lot in school as there was no pressure to maintain my grades, I like to think that my relationship with my mother is a fine one. She supports me in everything I do even if she doesn’t understand the decisions I make. Like for this SoyJoy competition, she keeps asking her friends to vote and keeps updating me everyday “That guy is catching up!”. LOL. It’s amusing actually. I didn’t tell her anything about my “blogging escapades” but she always seem to find out. She also rallied her friends to come down to the blogathon to vote for me.

I love her to bits and while she may not be able to provide me with well, many stuff like other parents do, I find that the relationship with her beats everything else.

I don’t know if she’ll be reading this but I’m sure her many colleagues will be reporting to her regarding this entry. (She has spies wor!).

I love you mum.

Once in a while, I tend to do some facebook requests clean up and that includes my friends request list.

Don’t you hate those requests without any messages? The pictures are too tiny and you can hardly see who the fuck it is. What’s worse is when people use some pictures that do NOT show their face or show off their pets or whatever.

How the heck would I know who you are? There are a thousand and ones Sarahs, Janes, Marys, Pauls, Michaels and Johns!

So what I usually do is send a message to check if I know him/her. I like to keep my facebook friends really friends-only. It’s not an open account where I’ll add everybody and anybody. Facebook is super stalkerish la. Why would I want to add anyone that I do not know to snoop around anything me and my friends do?

So I sent this message to a few people that I think I may know. (I’m a lazy arse. I can’t be bothered to send to all 300 requests. Best way for me to ignore your friend request is when you add me without sending a personal message. Grrr)

One of the many replies I got. Someone who just wanted to be friends. Oh wait. He’s attracted to my profile? Sure or not? Here’s part of my profile…

Looks interesting doesn’t it?

So I decided to reply cordially.

Isn’t it obvious that I’m not interested? It’s such an easy way to back away with one’s pride left intact by just replying “Ok, thanks.”

But he decided to try again.

Grrrr. I do not want to meet sleazy old men from Facebook!

Nabei. Laoniang does NOT have a sad existence lor.

Second try at brushing Mr Obnoxious off.

Third try! Please do not stand around my well. I’ll plant some booby traps there. At least he was kinda cordial, can’t blame him for trying…. unlike the next fella.

Bloody asshole right? What such character? Just because I do not want to make friends with sleazy balding men who are at least 10 years older than me trying to get to know random chicks on Facebook?

For a soon to be 35 year old Sales person in AIA, he sure does not know how to sell himself. Maybe he just wants to make friends on Facebook to peddle his insurance stuff. Remember this incident?

SO BLOODY IRRITATING! TMD!

What’s your worst experience with such friends-wannabes? Share them with me!