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Read more commentary from Ken Magill

A good press relations strategy certainly isn’t a necessity to a good marketing program. But if a marketing program is going to use PR, it obviously should be done well, as in creating some sort of relationship with the reporters who are important to the company.

Alas, just as in journalism, PR is such a large profession with such a wide variety of practitioners, it is often practiced very badly, much to the detriment of the company forking over good money for a know-nothing kid to essentially telemarket for positive ink about their firm.

Here are a few of my PR pet peeves:

Getting pitched by 20 somethings who pepper every sentence with “actually.”

Really, it happens. The word “actually” is apparently the young professional’s version of “like.” They’re still, like, too young to work the verbal ticks out of their speech, so they, like, pick one that they think sounds professional.

PR Person: I’m calling to actually see if you’re interested in a meeting with my client WouldBeAppalledIfTheyHeardThisPitch.com? They’ll actually be in New York on the 27^th and they actually have a new product announcement they would actually like to share with you. Are you available?

Reporter: I’m actually a little busy that day.

Getting pitched by 20 somethings who clearly have no idea what I cover.

PR Person: Hi, this is Tiffany calling from Playschool PR on behalf of WastingMoneyOnPR.com. I’m calling to see if you received that e-mail I sent you.”

Me: Does it have an e-mail marketing angle?

Tiffany: “Um. Actually, WastingMoney.com is a full-service, best-of-breed CRM agency that is about to announce a new partner. Would you be interested in a pre-briefing with them?

Me: Not if it doesn’t have an e-mail angle.

Folks, this is every reporter’s biggest pet peeve, and there’s no excuse for it in the Internet age. Go to the reporter’s site. Search on their name. I guarantee a pattern will emerge. It’s called a beat. We all have them. Find out what mine is and we’ll both stop wasting one another’s time.

Getting pitched on something I’ve already written about

A PR rep called me multiple times several weeks ago to pitch me on a study I wrote about the previous week. Folks, this is unacceptable. My time is certainly no more valuable than anyone else’s. But it’s at least as valuable as theirs. One would think that before pitching a reporter, the PR rep would at least do a Google search and a search on the reporter’s site to see what, if anything, he or she has written about the firm.

People who e-mail or CC my editor thinking they’re getting me in trouble somehow

This goes for letter writers and PR folks. Look, Ray Schultz knows I’m an insufferable @sshole by now. In fact, you can trust he knows it in spades compared to you. If you e-mail him to point out a legitimate factual error, it’s one thing. He’ll be all over it. (However, if you e-mail me pointing out a factual error, I’ll be all over it) But if you e-mail Ray telling him what an @sshole I am because I’ve irritated you somehow, he will simply forward it to me with a message along the lines of “another love letter.”

Message to would-be complainers: Start with the reporter. Most of us have taken more than our fair share of nasty calls. If you don’t get satisfactory resolution from the reporter, then by all mean escalate the issue up the masthead.