By Charlie Kondek, Director of New Media Relation, MSandL Digital

Boing Boing is a grand slam to PR people working in new media relations. It is the holy grail of new media placements, the Internet equivalent of The New York Times or an Oprah Winfrey Show. But just because Boing Boing is top of the online heap doesn't mean it's a good target for your pitching effort. Knowing when it fits and managing your client's expectations when it doesn't are as important as your pitch-text crafting skills.

Really, this speaks to a larger problem. Clients know they want to be online, but they often don't know as much about the online outlets that are most relevant to their business. Many of them have heard of Boing Boing and it springs (pun intended) to mind when they think of the digital landscape. In their minds, it represents the full power and scope of blogging.

I see Boing Boing referenced all the time in case studies and presentations by PR and advertising firms. You'll see a quick succession of PowerPoint slides that tells a story like this: "Average Joe blogs about a bad experience with your company. The next day it is picked up by Boing Boing. Then it's Digg'd. Then it's ALL OVER THE NET, and your shareholders REVOLT!" I myself have often heard, "What does it take to get us on Boing Boing?" or "Do you think the Boing Boing guys would go for that?"

Boing Boing is only one example. Often, clients and even other PR personnel with only a casual knowledge of new media become fixated on placing their product or story at certain publications, usually the most popular in any given category. Maybe they skim the Technorati Top 100 and pull names onto a wish list of targets, or maybe they've seen certain blogs referenced in stories at The Wall Street Journal, Forbes or Business Week. It leads to those kinds of questions: "Will Dooce try our cosmetics?" "How do we get Perez Hilton to attend our event?" "How do we let The Huffington Post know how green our products are?"

What these communicators don't understand is that each of these publications is textured and unique, and some of them don't interface with PR, or do so only in a limited way. As for Boing Boing, it really lives up to its subhead, "A Directory of Wonderful Things," and the interests of the contributors are, among other things, science fiction and futurism, offbeat art and music, digital rights management, activist politics, history, comic books, alternative lifestyles and cryptozoology. No kidding, cryptozoology! And, yes, the occasional accessory, especially now that it has a gadgets section.

Boing Boing flourishes because its readers send it all kinds of great suggestions and because its contributors are very good. There's a very specific process for this, so by all means pitch them as they want to be pitched.

Chances are good, however, that Boing Boing does not want to try a new dog food. They may not even be interested in your new social media environment or software application. They might be interested if you are pitching on behalf of a small, quirky toy maker or a new, modern art exhibit, and they are definitely a powerful force for making online videos and other net items "viral." But if you think you can slap together a thirty-second spot of a kid wiping out on a skateboard, brand it, upload it to YouTube, submit it to Boing Boing, and have it be the next Star Wars Kid, you got another think coming.

Ditto Dooce, who, last time I checked, doesn't accept overtures from PR firms but is receptive to ad buys. Perez Hilton may come to your event, but only if he can rub elbows with A-listers. The Huffington Post draws its content from multiple contributors. Maybe you or your spokesperson could be one of those contributors, but be sure you learn the ups and downs of being in that political environment before you follow through.

Instead of lusting after these hard-to-get blog placements, your time would be better spent identifying other targets for your pitching effort and evaluating them for your campaigns. This sounds simple, but it requires daily effort. Just as PR professionals from a traditional background walk, talk, eat and sleep print publications and broadcast outlets, so, too, must those specializing in new media immerse themselves in web-based publications. They should be able to effectively describe web-based pubs, prioritize them, and educate their clients on them. And they should be able to do this succinctly, because clients have a limited amount of time and attention to devote to your plans. After all, they hired you to help them out. You're the expert.

So the next time a client asks, "How do we get our branded ergonomic pens onto Lifehacker?" you should reply, "Lifehacker is probably not a good fit. Instead, we think you should go after these ten business blogs and these five lifestyle blogs." And so on. When we discuss all the tools and necessary skills of PR professionals, managing client expectations is usually not one of the first that come to mind, but it should be. In helping colleagues and clients navigate the evolving new media landscape, it is critical.

Charlie Kondek is Director of New Media Relations at MSandL Digital, managing proactive web-outreach campaigns for such clients as Proctor and Gamble, General Mills, Novartis, Best Buy, Philips Electronics and others.