THINKing

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1. It’s not that I want to say bad things about Tom. Tom is actually just one person out of tons who would probably do the same thing. I don’t think we should bug him. Maybe we can just teach folks like him.

   Better idea?

   Comment by Chris Brogan... — April 30, 2008 #

2. Let’s make a distinction between “Your PR Guy” and this Tom Mahon guy…”Your PR Guy” wouldn’t make this mistake. As a former journalist — Embargo? What the F$#&!

   Comment by Rodger D. Johnson — April 30, 2008 #

3. I think Chris makes a great point… Tom needs a lesson, some constructive instruction.

   Comment by Rodger D. Johnson — April 30, 2008 #

4. Chris and Rodger, you are probably right about not bugging Tom too much. But after 30 years as both a reporter and a PR practitioner, I get a little tired of seeing the same egregious practices.

   Comment by Harry Hoover — May 1, 2008 #

5. […] was pretty hard on a so-called PR practitioner whose bad blog pitch went awry and got him into social media […]

   Pingback by THINKing » Pitching Bloggers — May 1, 2008 #

6. LOL

   I’ve just this second returned from a meeting between a switched on PR company in London and Giles Shorthouse at webitpr who was talking them through their Social Media News Release template.

   I found myself asking Giles on the PR company’s behalf if there was any provision for meta information on the news release such as setting an embargo.

   To his credit (they have a very good monitoring system. I expect he’ll pick up this comment in about 30 secs!) he just looked a bit perplexed and said “well no…. what would be the purpose in social media!” …..which is generous, he should/could have added “duh!!!”

   But for traditional PRs working with traditional media….embargoes - even long ones - are still pretty…..well..traditional!

   BTW i love socialmediabitchslap …gonna use it

   Comment by Alastair McKenzie — May 1, 2008 #

7. Alistair, thanks for wading in to the conversation. As a former reporter, I’m familiar with embargoes and their continued use. But not on a mass emailed pitch!

   Comment by Harry Hoover — May 1, 2008 #

8. I have a system in place after one time too many of these. I got embargoed on a release. Worse, it started with “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.” I was also sent to every major ad blogger who was Cc’d, some with their private emails of people I know listed.

   I immediately posted the entire release with passwords and ftp access to the agency’s server. (Minus the Cc’d ad bloggers of course.)

   As an aside, if anyone is looking for constructive criticism, this is about as good as this will get: my name and email are on the blog, top right, and have been since inception almost three years ago. IF as a PR person you can’t even bother to check that out and instead just address stuff FIR, I delete with extreme prejudice and will go out of my way to make sure I ignore you from then on.

   Until proven otherwise, the vast majority of all releases I get are farmed out to PR shops on behalf of an ad agency or brand and are the same old thing: massive story and MAYBE links to a clip, mostly not though, and most are still not addressed to a person. In short, they make it too hard, and this is anything but. (I have seven in my inbox right now.)

   This agency’s are robbing their clients because they have no clue on a pitch, and it shows. Are the interns that stupid they can’t even check out a blog for a contact name? They’re there. I GUARANTEE that every major marketing and ad blogs have names and contacts listed, because I’ve seen them all.

   Others may need more, but here’s what I want:

   “Hi (name), Here’s a new campaign we came out with, check it out when you have a sec. Here’s a link. Thanks!”

   DONE. And even that’s no guarantee I can get to it, but I’m far more likely to post about it if the message is that short and sweet.

   DO NOT GIVE ME YOUR LIFE STORY. DO NOT GIVE ME EVERY BIT OF INFO YOU CAN THINK OF. WE DON’T HAVE TIME.

   If I like a story, I will find my own way into it, and you can bet it will be far more genuine that way.

   And isn’t that what PR’s ultimately after?

   Comment by bg — May 6, 2008 #

9. (Apologies for the PR-fueled typos.)

   ;-p

   Comment by bg — May 6, 2008 #

10. Wow, Bill. This bent you out of shape worse than it did me. Thanks for your comments.

    PS - I like Make The Logo Bigger.

    Comment by Harry Hoover — May 7, 2008 #

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