To Pitch or not to Pitch. That is the "blogging" question.

Brian Solis covers a wide range of topics in his series "The Art and Science of Blogger Relations". As aspiring PR professionals, we all need to take heed. Really. This stuff happens every day and as a matter of fact, a PR firm right here in Austin got black listed about 2 years ago from several prominent bloggers because they did not care to think these things through. No names will be mentioned, but this stuff happens all the time and this is why Solis places so much emphasis on building relationships.

The old PR cold pitch approaches don't work any more (did they ever?) and the new ways are writing new rules all the time. The only way to keep apprised of these new rules are to follow blogs like Brian's. Read them over and over and over. Read the comments, read the stories, find out what blogs he follows and follow those.

One comment that resonated with me and that I personally call the 95% rule: Solis quoted Chris Anderson in saying that "Common sense is all to uncommon in almost everything we do these days." I state that the human race is the only race that natural selection doesn't work most of the time because technology keeps allowing the stupid to survive. At the going rate, there are only 5% of us that have any common sense. Be a 5 percenter and use your brain.

You will be joining this PR arena soon. You have the unique ability to learn from other's mistakes, but you also have the challenge of overcoming the preconception that "PR is too stupid to participate in Social Media" and that your predecesors have placed you in a preconceived category with those the likes of "used car and snake oil salesmen".

Heed Solis' "Advise on Media and Blogger Relations". Copy it, laminate it, keep it in your pocket. You will need it, you will use it and at some time you will need to remind yourself of it. There are 10. Think of them as the "10 PR Commandments" and you'll do just fine.