PR, blogs, media, and doing right by folks
There was a bit of a dust-up recently about making lists of “bad PR people” and it’s taken me a while to get to this because I’ve been answering emails from PR folks. I put out a call on ProfNet that Manscaping 101 (my men’s grooming blog on b5media) was open for business and I’d love to hear about new products.
Did I get answers?
Yeah you could say that. Like about two dozen plus in one day and … I answered all of them. Yep. Even a polite, no thanks is good. Come on they are people, have jobs, and deserve respect.
My b5 colleague Colleen Coplick, who writes BuzzNetworker and comes to us from the PR world, had a good perspective on the recent dust up:
I think PR people who pitch blindly, throwing a bunch of shit at the wall to see what will stick, and in turn are pitching the Editor in Chief are lazy. Chris is right. I think that media people who aren’t clear on how they want to receive information, and then get bitchy when they are contacted, or break PR’s trust - breaking embargos, threatening exclusives and when not granted them, refuse to write about the company, or just act as though the person on the other end of the phone is obviously a complete idiot because they dared to say the words “Hi, My name is Colleen, and I’m from Type A Public Relations. Do you have a minute?”. I should have named my PR company something other than “Public Relations”, obviously.–Drama, Drama, Drama
Basically, like Colleen, I depend on PR folks too. No, I don’t always reply quickly (my bad), no I also don’t cover everything (I try to cover as much as I can), and it isn’t a personal thing. It’s a time thing. I just can’t do it all and sometimes the moment passes and writing about a launch really doesn’t make sense a week later.
Should we write publicly and so and so is a jerk? Yeah, no. My mom would smack me upside the head if I did that. Now if I were asked, “hey I’m trying to deal with so and so … what’s your experience been…” tactful honesty. Well for most people, close friends get the blunt truth.
It does come down to the Golden Rule, doesn’t it?
Remember that next time you get a bad pitch. How would you feel if you were raked over the coals…
Tags: courtesy, Media, PR, pr pitchesRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Opinion
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