Category: General

I have always taken the conservative route along the road of “naming and shaming” embarrassingly inept PR e-mail pitches based on the glasshouse theory.

The reality is that we ALL have bad days at the office.  In truth I fear that the one time I do name and shame it’ll come back to bite me – call it the coward’s dilemma.

However, it appears to me that the volume of these PR e-mails seems to be increasing.

My favourite piece of PR Spam today is so wrong on a number of levels. 

Firstly, what value does this blog have for any client interested in reaching a broad audience? None.

So the agency is wasting their client’s “time” – although you could argue spamming thousands of blogs doesn’t take a lot of time at all – and maybe by spamming they believe they are saving time.

Secondly spamming me about a service for a “phone” that I have never blogged about (a cursory look at my bio would underline why it’s highly unlikely I ever would blog about that particular phone – send your guesses to someone else’s e-mail address) is pretty dumb.

Finally spamming me about a service that’ll help me “date on the go” doesn’t really fit with:

1. the irregular musings on this blog
2. my marital status

There was a time I used to gently reply to these twits and try and help them see the error of their ways.  Now I don’t bother.

Hopefully some of them will come to their senses. If this is the “value” we’re offering our clients, we’re in trouble.

Postscript:

Just as I hit publish I got a really interesting pitch on a medical records company. Sigh.

Browsing through many neglected RSS feeds today, there wasn’t a lot that tickled my fancy (so to speak).

Once again, I did see a couple of posts that probably should have been held in a “drafts” folder overnight – and then deleted. 

I don’t wish to pour salt on the wounds, but there are a couple of PR bloggers who would be well advised to take a deep breath before hitting publish.  I mean it’s never nice to lose a client, but writing a post on why the client was wrong (thankfully without naming names) is at best ill-advised – no matter how much better you feel about it – and writing posts in that vein every time you lose a client, can start to look as though your business is dissolving in real-time. Perception is, after all, often reality.

Enough said.

Over time you see the PR blog community converging on a small number of similar themes. 

It will be no surprise that Twitter continues to be the subject of much attention, for example:

• Drew offers 10 ways Twitter can be useful to a PR practitioner
• Dave Fleet offers a list of 40 PR-related people to follow on Twitter.
• Andrew Smith ponders the challenge of so little time, so many Tweets.

Elsewhere the subject of “social media” is attracting some commentary from the UK fraternity.

The Chartered Institute of PR has released “Social Media Guidelines” (hat tip to Richard Bailey). (Disclaimer: In true blogging fashion I haven’t actually read the guidelines (though it has been added to an ever-growing “to-read” list), but I know some men who have.)

Stuart thinks they’re half-baked, while Simon points out that there’s some legal poetic license in there.

The cynics might say that about sums up Social Media. LOL.  Not me obviously gentle reader, no, not me. 

I came across this old video on the South African PR blog Practical Relations, it’s an interview with an Australian politician in the wake of shipping disaster. I suspect it’s not real but probably from a comedy show, but either way it’s pretty amusing and a great piece of video for your next media training course!

Can anyone in Australia validate if this is real or comedy?

Update:As suspected it’s a comedy sketch… more details in the comments!

Back in 2006, Strumpette appeared on the PR blogging scene, an anonymous site that promised to dish the dirt on the industry.  Of course its anonymity gave it free reign and it didn’t hold back.

As I recall, the response from PR bloggers at the time was mixed, with some welcoming a more caustic look at the business and with others feeling it crossed the line more often than not.

Bill Sledzik has just published the first of 17 interview shorts with Brian Connolly (pictured right), the creator of Strumpette, which is sure to reignite some heated discussion on the matter.

Personally I’m somewhat conflicted. 

I think the PR community can often be a little too precious.  We don’t necessarily react well to criticism.  We’re often a little too defensive -  too often. 

It’s no harm to have things shaken up from time to time.

On the other hand, I think Strumpette was over the top.

It took some pretty cowardly shots at people from behind its online moniker. Rather than being pithy and clever, it was too often just grinding out its own agenda, which was simply character assassination.

Some of the comments on Bill’s post have described Strumpette as “real”, “legitimate” and pointed out that it had “courage”.  I don’t believe it was or had any of these things.

I mean, Connolly used to deny it was him, see this clip from the Washington Post blog:

But eh…it was him. Not a lot of courage there.

Anyhow, Strumpette did mix things up for a little while, which was probably no bad thing.  I imagine a lot of people are pretty bitter about the whole project, but it’ll be interesting to hear Connolly’s side of the story.

It’s all about balance, something Strumpette probably missed. For smart, funny and caustic commentary, the UK’s “The World’s Leading” (RIP) was more my cup of tea.

Back in 2006, Strumpette appeared on the PR blogging scene, an anonymous site that promised to dish the dirt on the industry.  Of course its anonymity gave it free reign and it didn’t hold back.

As I recall, the response from PR bloggers at the time was mixed, with some welcoming a more caustic look at the business and with others feeling it crossed the line more often than not.

Bill Sledzik has just published the first of 17 interview shorts with Brian Connolly (pictured right), the creator of Strumpette, which is sure to reignite some heated discussion on the matter.

Personally I’m somewhat conflicted. 

I think the PR community can often be a little too precious.  We don’t necessarily react well to criticism.  We’re often a little too defensive -  too often. 

It’s no harm to have things shaken up from time to time.

On the other hand, I think Strumpette was over the top.

It took some pretty cowardly shots at people from behind its online moniker. Rather than being pithy and clever, it was too often just grinding out its own agenda, which was simply character assassination.

Some of the comments on Bill’s post have described Strumpette as “real”, “legitimate” and pointed out that it had “courage”.  I don’t believe it was or had any of these things.

I mean, Connolly used to deny it was him, see this clip from the Washington Post blog:

But eh…it was him. Not a lot of courage there.

Anyhow, Strumpette did mix things up for a little while, which was probably no bad thing.  I imagine a lot of people are pretty bitter about the whole project, but it’ll be interesting to hear Connolly’s side of the story.

It’s all about balance, something Strumpette probably missed. For smart, funny and caustic commentary, the UK’s “The World’s Leading” (RIP) was more my cup of tea.

Hurrah! A new Irish PR blog has come to my attention.

You can find Emily Tully’s blog here.

Hat tip to Damien.

Editor’s Note:

Since hitting "Publish” I remembered I wanted to include Piaras Kelly’s list of Irish PR & Marketing blogs.

If you’re still just dipping your toe into Twitter, you should take a trip over to Barbara Gibson’s blog.  She has a post on her experiences as a newbie to Twitter and last week wrote a nice common sense post on getting deeper into Twitter.

Don’t be intimidated by Twitter. If I can go from Newbie to whatever I am now in just seven weeks, anyone can. I’m not techy or especially cutting-edge.  The only thing hard about it really is the clunky Twitter.com interface, and lack of instruction for Newbies.  But once you get going, it gets very easy.  If you need help, just tweet me.

 

Worth a read.

Hurrah! A new Irish PR blog has come to my attention.

You can find Emily Tully’s blog here.

Hat tip to Damien.

Hurrah! A new Irish PR blog has come to my attention.

You can find Emily Tully’s blog here.

Hat tip to Damien.

Editor’s Note:

Since hitting "Publish” I remembered I wanted to include Piaras Kelly’s list of Irish PR & Marketing blogs.

Here’s a really nice story…

Two childhood sweethearts, aged six and seven, eloped from Hanover in northern Germany on New Year’s Eve, determined to tie the knot under the African sun.

 

Read on…