Growing up, one of the things my mom used to tell me is, “You’re known by what you do.” Meaning that if I swore I was telling the truth about something but had a track record of lying to my parents, they’d be less likely to believe me. It’s the whole Boy Who Cried Wolf thing. And in the world of media relations, that saying definitely holds true.

If you’ve earned a reputation as someone who sends irrelevant pitches with no newsworthy angle, reporters are automatically going to view anything you send with a skeptical eye. That means that when you finally do have real news to share, it very well might be ignored no matter how interesting it is. Think about it from the perspective of the reporter. If a certain PR guy (or gal) has filled your inbox with insignificant pitches, at what point would you stop paying attention to that person? At what point, would you click the delete button rather than risk wasting even more time reading their useless pitches?

The problem is that a lot of times we lose sight of what the word “newsworthy” really means. Maybe you’re trying to please a CEO or maybe you’re an entrepreneur desperate for any attention you can get so you constantly bombard reporters with every little story idea that pops into your brain. The sad truth is that not everything related to your company is newsworthy nor belongs on the front page of the hottest publication in your industry.

Simply put, if your pitch isn’t relevant and timely to the media outlet and the reporter you’re pitching, it’s going to fall flat. And if enough of your pitches fall flat, you’ll earn a nasty reputation that’s difficult to shake and that will stifle your future PR efforts.

Remember, it’s all about quality, not quantity. Reporters will pay far more attention to the person who sends them one relevant pitch every few months than the person who bombards them daily with irrelevant, spammy pitches.

What kind of reputation are you building with reporters?

This article is written by Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases (http://www.ereleases.com), the online leader in affordable press release distribution. Grab three free ebooks, including the Big Press Release Book and Twitter Tactics, here: http://www.ereleases.com/offer/freebooks.html