Robert Scoble’s pitching preferences

It’s always nice to know a content producer’s (e.g. blogger, journalist, etc…) pitching preferences prior to the pitch. I mean it. The more I can customize my pitch to meet their needs, the better. Otherwise, it’s up to our best guess and good judgment.

Along with at least 1,000 other people today, I sent a pitch to Robert Scoble (@scobleizer), the well-known tech evangelist who also works at Rackspace and is helping to build the community site Building 43. Shortly after sending the pitch I received an auto-response. The auto-response wasn’t a generic “thank you” or “leave me alone,” but a guide on how to pitch him.

This is golden information for myself and my team (and hopefully for you). I thought I’d share the preferences with you in case you’re pitching him soon and as a reminder to think about the pitching preferences of others you reach out to.

…To PR people, if you want me to cover your product you’ve got to give
me more than one day warning. I do videos and I’m already scheduling
out September.

I don’t do press-release rewrites like other tech bloggers. It’s best
to get in touch with me at LEAST A MONTH before you launch (right now
my calendar is totally booked until mid-September — you can get on
that at http://tungle.me/scobleizer !). To see a successful pitch, see
how Flipboard pitched me (it is my favorite startup of 2010):
http://www.google.com/buzz/scobleizer/EsMhJvooEWv/Its-interesting-because-I-get-dozens-of-pitches
(Flipboard showed me what they were doing THREE MONTHS before they
shipped!)

I specifically am looking for world-changing technology and startups,
if you have one, please be persistent. I am often out shooting and
miss cool stuff once in a while.

If you are looking for my calendar, or other items, visit
https://profiles.google.com/scobleizer which has links to all of my
blogs, social media accounts, and calendars so you can see if I’m open
or not.

Another way to get through to me is to talk with my producer, Rocky
Barbanica. You can reach him at rocmanusa@gmail.com.

Thanks and sorry if I don’t get back to you.

The takewaways from his preferences:

• Pitch him as early as possible. He shoots video and needs the prep time.
• He likes “world changing” technology. Did you tell him how your technology will impact the world?
• He’s busy, but has a producer you can also contact.

So, if you’re pitching someone like Scoble and you never hear back from him, bets are you haven’t read his pitching preferences.