Social media: happy-slapping PRs
I love a good old ding-dong of a tar-everyone-with-the-same-brush PR-is-evil kind of internet storm to get my controversy juices flowing.
This is an occurence which has really come along with advent of Web 2.0. Before, if a PR annoyed a journalist, it was hardly going to make it into the news. Now, with bloggers and Twitter, the slightest lapse in ATD can result in some helpless PR being named and shamed all over the web.
Last night I read about this particular case, a few months ago, by New York tech publicist Lois Whitman. If it wasn’t so outrageous, it would be quite funny. Actually, it’s quite funny anyway. Have a read.
This is also a recent favourite of mine, with the hapless PR being ripped to shreds by a too-big-for-his-boots blogger, merely for failing to Bcc. I mean, we’ve all done it some time, haven’t we? I know I have, in my first PR job, and, realising straight away, sent an apologetic email to follow up. It didn’t stop the sarcastic and angry replies (to the whole list, I add, so further and unnecessarily inconveniencing everyone on it). This simple mistake by an American agency became such big news (mostly because the media list was made up of high profile social media experts – I think there’s an irony there somewhere) that the agency involved is presumably going to be struggling to get new clients for the foreseeable future, especially given the advice of this blogger not to touch them.
The thing which I really like about these public outings of PR failure is the way that it polarises industry professionals. You’ll get alternate comments of ‘Yeah, today a PR sent me an email and got my name wrong – don’t they bother researching….’, ‘I’m a PR and we’re not all bad…’ and ‘Look, if we didn’t do X, Y and Z it would be impossible for us to do our job and bring you up to date news stories’. Some people are so aggravated that they get really personal. It makes for compelling reading.
Anyway, I don’t want this to be an industry blog, but a blog for non-PR professionals which provides advice and insight to help with running a business, so what can the lay person learn from these name and shame incidents?
1. Like any profession, there are good PRs and bad PRs. Because of the nature of their work and the kinds of people they deal with, bad PRs are more likely to end up on the receiving end of media wrath, but don’t assume that bad attitude, laziness or incompetence are traits of the industry.
2. Do your research: look up any prospective supplier, not just their website, but what other people have said about them as well. However, bear in mind that:
3. People make mistakes. Depending on the enormity or nature of the mistake, it may not be the end of the world, as long as it’s acknowledged and put right as much as possible.
I don’t really know if it’s the done thing within PR to address this trend (as one commenter on such a a blog says ‘hang the PR seems to have become a popular sport’), but as there’s often no avoiding them, I thought I would. I hope that I’m old and wise enough now to avoid this kind of thing happening to me…
Looking forward to any comments.
~ by Mira on October 21, 2009.
Posted in Haters & rants, Random
Tags: Blogging, Lois Whitman, PR, public relations, social media
Mira
jennytrelfa
Hey Mira,
Good post. I’m a journalist myself and yes, I do complain about PRs. However, no complaints go further than ranting at the person opposite me, just as anyone else would. I’m sure you’d do the same thing if a journalist annoyed you!
One thing that I’d like your view on is the ring-round – why is it that PR firms insist their staff ring round and see if everyone has got the emailed press release they just sent? Not all of them do it, obviously, but I thought I’d ask an insider if it was a useful thing to do, because it only really annoys people in my office!
Hmmmm, I would say that practically every agency does it. I suppose there are multiple rationales to it.
First, a genuine desire to make sure that your presser reaches its recipients. Quite often they haven’t received it and the phone call was worthwhile.
Secondly, we want to know if they can use it, and, if not, why and what kind of material is suitable to send in the future.
Thirdly, there is a belief amongst PR professionals that persistence pays.
I’m not a fan of sending out a press release to a trillion people and then ringing them all up – I prefer to talk to or at least email each person individually, but I would be lying if I said I had never done it. It’s interesting to hear your views on this as I suppose everyone assumes that, because everyone does it, journalists expect it. What would you say is the best approach which isn’t annoying?
Are you taking a jab at my weight?
Kidding of course!
You mention me chastising BrodyPR as if I’m some simpleton blogger out to beat up any PR guy. Not the case at all! Had you done some homework, you’d find that I’m very PRO PR. I have great respect for the profession, having been in Marketing and Advertising for the last 20 years.
In this case, this wasn’t simply a haphazard BCC, the day evolved with hundreds of email responses automated from their support system in addition to hundreds more emails from people on the list emailing everyone with colorful adjectives. It was a nightmare that interrupted my day over and over and over. You would have been pissed, too.
I honestly noticed the initial mistake and was NOT upset. But as hours and hours went by with no response nor any apology (that came days later)… only then did I really get upset. I was helpless as the deluge of email continued and the source of the email wouldn’t RESPOND to anyone.
After the fact, I spoke at length with Brody, provided them with a free copy of my e-book, and personally told them I’d be glad to help them however I could to overcome this.
Was all that too big for my boots? Is there some stinging irony here in your quick and negative reaction to my blog post?
As I say, there is nothing I love more than a good old PR bashing controversy. Don’t ask why. Schadenfreude, masochism, or whatever. I just love the polarisation it inevitably brings about.
I felt that the way that you, and other bloggers, to be fair, reacted was totally disproportionate to the inconvenience caused by an ATD failure and gave the impression that you were too big for your boots because of the implication that this was some personal affront to your status as a leading tech blogger, when, in fact, it was a little slip up.
Thanks Mira, wish you had experienced the ‘little slip up’ personally. I believe you’d have reacted very differently.
Wow, you are one quick reply-er!
Ok, but this PR, never intended to annoy everybody on the list, did she? It would be silly to assume so. She was trying to do her job and made a mistake of whatever magnitude, but an honest one.
Anyway, I just noticed that you say I make you out to be a simpleton blogger. I know this isn’t the case. The way this incident – which is probably commonplace across all professions but highlighted when brought about by a PR, simply because we deal with people who have the means to bring things into the public sphere quickly and with impact – spiraled into a full scale viral, shows that.