I love everything that Darren Rowse does on ProBlogger.net — for years and years! Well, his quality is always top and his advice is generous and spot-on. Although I am excerpting all of the 21 things Darren recommends, below, there is a lot more good stuff associated with each one, so head on over to read 21 things you need to do in order to properly pitch a story to blogs. The short comments after the points are mine! (Via ProBlogger.net via Drew B’s take on tech PR)

  1. Comment First Pitch Later – This is great advice, we find
  2. Personalize it — Be sure to send from your real email!
  3. Get their Details Right – Dear Sir/Ma’am won’t work!
  4. Show You Know Who they Are – Always be contextual
  5. Introduce Yourself – A real person must send the pitch
  6. Keep it Brief — Short, sweet, and plaintext if you can
  7. Highlight Benefits — What is the gift? No gift, no pitch
  8. Keep it Simple — If they’re interested, they’ll ask for more
  9. Research Your Question — Your bloggers knows more than you do
  10. Consider Time Zones When Calling — In fact, don’t call bloggers
  11. Don’t Stalk — True, but also be aggressive and persistent
  12. Be Persistent — Stick-to-it-ive-ness is always rewarded
  13. Avoid Press Releases — Link off to an online Social Media Press Release
  14. Keep on Topic — Be clear and only gift or ask for one thing only
  15. Be Polite and Courteous — Pretend you’re not in PR ;)
  16. Free Stuff Works, But…. — Your gift doesn’t need to be swag
  17. Mention Your Blog — Bloggers distrust PR folks without a blog!
  18. Link Up — Bloggers notice it when you link to them — link up!
  19. Give an exclusive — Always offer online content to bloggers only first
  20. Don’t Include Anything You Don’t Want Blogged in your Communications — Someone will always full-text-post your email!
  21. A word on Embargoes — If you want to know, visit ProBlogger.net!

The saga of at least the first controversial phase of Facebook Beacon seems to be coming to a close. Facebook announced that it is changing its Beacon program, giving the users of Facebook more control of how the system works in relation to their profiles. The initial system, which essentially forwarded people’s online purchases from Facebook’s retail partners to a member’s “friends”, was quite controversial. It, in many peoples’ minds (including mine), invaded a user’s privacy. It also forever changed the relationship a customer had with a retailer without the customer’s prior consent. And it put the burnden on the customer to stop publication. The customer, also, would never benefit from this arrangement.

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You’ve heard of permission marketing. You’ve heard of pull marketing. Now we’ve got a whole new concept: Usurp Marketing.

Yes, I’m thinking that’s what we should be calling the new strategy put forward by Facebook and their partner vendor sites in the new Beacon program. The dictionary defines usurp as “To seize and hold by force without legal right or authority”. Sounds about right. I mean it’s diametrically opposed to the mantra that many online marketers have been using through the years. That would be Seth Godin’s permission marketing.

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Here’s an actual demo of how Facebook Beacon actually works.

It’s pretty telling. Worth a look.

Business student Andrew Houshian of the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business sent us some questions, asking us how we like Google Apps. We have been hankering to answer this question publicly, so here we go!

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