I just had a bad experience with a PR firm who are well known for being social media gurus. They approached me today as if I was simply a tool to be used in their quest to launch their client’s brand new service.
Watch this video of me on Cranky Geeks arguing with John C. Dvorak about this very article. Argument happens right at the beginning of the show.
I’m not going to mention the PR firm or the company they’re launching. My point in writing this post is to ask PR firms and the companies they represent to simply stop treating bloggers, press, and influencers as if we’re tools to be used. I could have just ignored this experience, deleted the email, and moved on, but I want to make it clear to PR firms that we’re not stupid. We know when a media relations company is trying to take advantage of our network of influence.
I’ve replaced all the names and the company name. I don’t wish to damage anyone’s brand.
Here’s the story:
Today I got an email where the opening line read:
Hey David,
How’s it going? I’m helping John Doe get the word out about a startup that he is working on with Jim Smith called CrazyStartup. It went live in Public Beta today and was wondering if you might be able to put up a short post about it?
The message went on to explain what the company did and included key talking points.
What I found so insulting is the FIRST thing they asked me to do was write about some new company…for FREE! Writing, editing, and producing content for companies who are trying to create and establish their industry voice is what I do for a living. If the PR firm knew that, they might have not made such an insulting request.
Honestly, I don’t know if the PR firm knew that, because there’s absolutely no acknowledgment in the email that this company would be of any interest to me. The PR rep could have gone to my blog and simply typed in a few key words in the search box to find a post where I wrote something related. They could have also spent ten minutes reading the post and writing something relevant to acknowledge that they had read something that I had written. All the message needed was a single line that this new company might be of interest to me because of what I had written in such and such a post.
Instead, the PR rep included me in a mass mailing and asked me first to do some free publicity for her client. It would be the equivalent of me mass mailing to every PR firm I know, “Hey PR company, I’m launching a new product today, do you mind issuing a press release for me for free?”
They didn’t want to take the time to care about what I do, but they did want ME to take the time to care about what they’re doing. They saw me as a tool to be used to spread the word of their client. All they wanted was to show their client, “Look how many bloggers we got to write about you. We asked them to blog about you. We told them what to say. And they did it.”
I didn’t.
This behavior is not isolated to just the PR firm. The client is responsible for this behavior as well. When I got the email, I noticed the name “Jim Smith” (not real name) and thought that I had seen it before. I looked it up on Facebook and yes, “Jim Smith” was the guy who had friend requested me a month ago with the message, “We know a lot of the same people, let’s connect.” Now this is not the first blind friend request I’ve received. And I’m sure plenty of you out there have received blind requests as well. We all have our own policy on how to handle them. My policy is if it’s someone I don’t know, I respond back and ask them to tell me a little about themself. So I did that with “Jim Smith.” I never got a response so I declined his friend request.
So to sum up:
- PR firm first asks me to write about their client for free, a service that I normally charge for, and then they tell me what their client does.
- PR firm doesn’t acknowledge what I do for a living nor do they acknowledge that they have read anything that I’ve written.
- “Jim Smith,” doesn’t want to respond to direct messages from me, but he wants me to be his Facebook friend so as to get access to me as a blogger and influencer as he launches his new company.
In the future, PR firms can simply send me a message about a new product or service that they’re representing. They can also acknowledge that they’ve read something I’ve written (the BEST compliment you can give a journalist or blogger). And NEVER tell me what I should write about. I’ve been a journalist for fourteen years having written for more than 25 media outlets in print, radio, and TV. You don’t ever need to tell me what’s a good story. I can figure that out all by myself.
This story has been indicative of some experiences I’ve had with some PR firms. On the flip side, I’ve had some amazing experiences with PR firms who I’ve worked with on a business level and have also helped me find some amazing stories and clients. Some of them their direct clients, and some not. In all cases, they built a relationship with me, knew what I did, and acknowledged it.
I don’t normally write negative posts about experiences like this, because most PR interactions are usually positive. But if you’d like to see another interesting tale, read The worst product demonstration I’ve ever seen.
I ask anyone who is reading this, who knows who I’m talking about, to please not expose the PR firm or the company they represent. I have emailed this post to the parties involved. They know what I think. Again, I don’t want to damage anyone’s brand. I hope this is only a learning experience for all of us and that we can actually build a relationship where we care about what each other does. I’d rather they see me as a valuable voice in the industry and not some tool to be used.
UPDATE: Two weeks after this incident, there’s a follow up story. Read “Bad PR experience story. PR firm’s client is obtuse.”
This news item is for the Spark Minute week of 2/2/09 which can be heard daily on Green 960 and 910 KNEW in San Francisco, CA.
