Bad PR Works
This morning I received some spam.
It wasn’t the most horrid spam ever, not by a long shot. The topic was Social Media: did I want a review copy of an upcoming book, by an author I actually do respect? This was spam I might actually eat.
But I was just one of scores of people being bcc’d on this email. It wasn’t written “for” me. It didn’t reference the fact that the author and I actually know each other.
It was a blanket pitch. Spray and pray. A blast email.
The old way.
Normally I just delete this stuff and move on. But in this case, anytime one of the other recipients replied, it was a “Reply All” situation. THAT gets annoying. So every BCC recipient (including some heavy hitters) winds up kvetching — which led to even more junk in the inbox.
But …
A handful of people on that “BCC” list replied, “Yes, I want to write about this, please send me a copy!”
The old way = a “numbers game.” Send out 1,000 pitches and 5 people get interested? — that’s a win, given how cheap and easy it is to send out 1,000 emails.
It sucks, it’s on the wane, but because it still works, bad PR will never disappear completely. Sorry to say.
Posted on: August 19, 2009 at 12:11 pm By Todd Defren
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I myself believe that spamming is really a big issue not a days and would like to go one step further and consider it as social crime. I strongly believe that there should be one way or other to get rid of spammers. It’s really a cheap promotion ethics.
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Bad PR Works – PR Squared – [link to post]
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RT @tdefren Bad PR Works [link to post] /me: falls into the category of even a squirrel can find a nut once in awhile.
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RT @tweetmeme Bad PR Works « PR-Squared [link to post]
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RT @tdefren Bad PR Works « PR-Squared [link to post]. Mass email = effective, but impersonal.
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Hi Al,
With the help of you and other bloggers, I have created a summary of some of the lessons I’ve learned from this experience, http://brodypr.blogspot.com/
As a new blogger, I’d appreciate any feedback you have.
Thanks,
Beth Brody
Does seem though like most of us have moved away from this though – I think it’s the small number of takers vs. the risk of dimishing your reputation and the respect that others have for you.
From your post I don’t know if you’re referring to the Brody PR debacle. Because in that one she accidentally didn’t use the BCC list. And if you do use the BCC list there’s no way you can hit “Reply to All.”
But this isn’t bad PR, it’s email marketing. And some people do it well, and some don’t. And to do business you HAVE to send out mass mails. In that case, the woman made a series of mistakes, the most egregious was the fact that she didn’t use the BCC list.
My irritation was the behavior of the people who responded. They just wanted to be malicious. And I feel via email people have no problem being malicious. They wouldn’t do the same things face to face.
Here’s my take on the responses in the Brody PR case.
Social media “gurus” and bloggers are egotistical jerks
http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=915
Also, if you want a real PR fail story, read this one. It’s a two parter where the client comes in with a completely obtuse move at the end.
Hey PR, bloggers are not tools to be used
http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=497
UPDATE: Bad PR experience story. PR firm’s client is obtuse.
http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=514
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Reading @TDefren – Bad PR Works [link to post] (now that’s a bit upsetting….)
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Bad PR will never disappear completely – good case in point by @TDefren [link to post]
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@pujamadan ‘Bad’ PR may provoke a response tht turns bad in2 gud for d sender. Wht it does for d brand in d mind of d recipient is anoth qs!
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@ashoklalla very true
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You can never get away from anything BAD. Sorry to say, the secret is trying to create something GOOD and maybe the GOOD will out weigh the BAD.
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Bad PR Works (via @TDefren) [link to post]
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Clearly our standards of spam are getting higher! Used to be spam was porn, Viagra or a Nigerian money scam. Now “reply all” is spam? Yes using reply all is annoying, but it seems to me more a breach of etiquette than spam.
I don’t think defining spam as any unwanted email is a useful definition.
There is a place for blast email, just as there is a place for the mass fund raising appeal. The mistake is sending a mass appeal to a major donor. Technology allows us opportunities to refine fine tune our lists with far greater levels of discernment than in the past. Keeping your lists straight, separating prospects from insiders, is paramount.
It seems to me that there were two mistakes made: including an insider on a prospecting list and pasting names into a BCC instead of using mail merge distribution with one email per individual. But sending out an email to a large list a mistake? I don’t think so.
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Unfortunately, @tdefren is right: Bad PR works: [link to post]
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Yes way — here’s some proof! [link to post] RT @KeithTrivitt: You’re kidding, right? No way the BRODY PR apology was cut and paste.
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@chrisabraham I have that same apologize in my blog as well.
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@chrisabraham You’re right about the copy-and-paste of that apology on @TDefren’s blog .. I saw it on the AdAge article earlier yesterday!
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@KeithTrivitt Did I miss something? Show me some examples of “bespoke” heartfelt apologies. Plus, she blamed the recipients! What?
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Bad PR Works [link to post] … that doesn’t make it a good thing tho
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Reading @TDefren – Bad PR can be made to look like it “works” [link to post] – another reason measurement/eval so impt
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Reading @TDefren – Bad PR Works [link to post]
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Bad PR Works | [link to post] van @TDefren – en http://blogs.zdnet.com/feeds/?p=1548 van @mediaphyter
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re: @tdefren & Bad pitch [link to post] – try as you might, bad pitch can’t completely subvert int’g product. Not an endorsement btw
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RT @TDefren Because at some level, “Media Relations” is a “numbers game,” bad PR will never go away completely. [link to post]
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An apology from Brody PR – I created a list of social media experts who might be interested in reviewing a new guide to social media for small biz. I inadvertently put the list name in the cc: box, rather than the bcc: box. A few folks must have hit the “reply all” button, rather than clicking on the “unsubscribe link” at the bottom, which started a stream of spam. Please accept my personal apology, albeit a little late in the day, since I was trying to remove everyone who wanted to be unsubscribed from the list immediately.
Ms. Brody,
While I appreciate the intent of your comment here, it’s pretty much a copy and paste of the email you email-merged everyone on the list — and that I received. However, props for the customization with my name of the email.
While you are responding, it’s still impersonal as the message is the same everywhere. Maybe you see it as the best way to quickly get the message out — but it still seems insincere.
Good luck is all I really can say.
-Mike
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It sucks, it’s on the wane, but because it still works, bad PR will never disappear [link to post] (via @danschawbel)
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OPINON: Bad PR Works by @tdfren [link to post]
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@danschawbel interesting– I was just thinking Brody PR website is probably getting lots of traffic today.
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.@tdefren I have replied to your post with a comment. [link to post] We were not doing bad pr. We got tricked.
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sad but true RT @TDefren: Because at some level, “Media Relations” is a “numbers game,” bad PR will never go away. [link to post]
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RT @tdefren Bad PR Works « PR-Squared [link to post]
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Some agencies never learn… Bad PR Works « PR-Squared [link to post] (via @jtobin via @tdefren)
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RT @tdefren Bad PR Works « PR-Squared [link to post] I got this spam, too… It didn’t work.
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Bad PR Works « PR-Squared [link to post]
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knowing that I am going to get killed here I am going to throw it out there anyway. Why are (really only) technology journos so special about press releases? Other beats, especially all forms of lifestyle, are happy to get the new info, respond if they are interested, don’t respond if they aren’t, unsub or politely update the publicist if it’s way off their beat.
Technology journos have to out you on their blogs, send a snarky note back (yes you the former DVD reviewer who now does tech coverage, if getting my press release says something about my targeting, your rude note says something about you as a person), or otherwise remind you that you are “bad.”
For years and years newspaper and magazine journos with wide readerships got press releases and actually ran the info if it was relevant. Even if the news wasn’t theirs exclusively. Isn’t the idea to distribute information widely? Is that bad PR or just PR? Now a blogger with a small readership needs a personal email and an exclusive story? Really? Whatever.
Of course if/when I have tech or tech related clients I send individual pitches cuz that is how the tech beat is. I also charge tech clients more due to the increased time it takes.
This has been bugging me since Chris Anderson’s outing post. There is always this discussion of pr vs journalists. But really it’s tech publicists vs tech journalists. The rest of us get along pretty fine and in my experience the well written and well targeted press release is seen as a helpful bit of information for journalists who need stuff to cover.
I am sure their are loads of badly written, poorly targeted releases out there, but let’s distinguish varying PR approaches by beat and not tar all mass emailed press releases by the standards of technology journalists.
To get back to your post, my guess is that a book publicist sent the release not realizing that unlike book news reporters and reviewers one needs to approach tech journos one on one. Now they know!
Yes, Susan. A book publicist sent this out to techno journalists, not realizing they would not be happy about the group approach.
Amen.
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@TDefren weighs in on the same PR bad behavior: [link to post]
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RT #shelisrael: @tdefren I have replied to your post with a comment. [link to post] We were not doing bad pr. We got tricked.
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@TDefren It’ll never go away until clients/CEOs refocus on quality over quantity.
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@TDefren: Ugh, it depresses me that U may B right. “Media Relations” is “#s game,” bad PR will never go away completely [link to post]
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@TDefren New PR theme song? ♬ “Blanket pitch. Spray and pray. A blast email. The old way” [link to post]
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PRSquared: Bad PR Works: This morning I received some spam.
It wasn’t the most horrid spam ever, not b.. [link to post]
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Argh .. a double whammy: a bad pitch that generated one of my pet peeves: the ‘reply to all’.
Do people seriously think that the 50 other people on the list want to receive their ‘thank you!’ , ‘congratulations!’ etc type messages that are actually only intended for/useful to the sender?
Seriously people – think before you choose the reply to all option. I’m begging you.
Todd,
How very gracious that you did not mention me, even though every editor in social media may currently think that I–or my publisher–just spammed them. That is not what happened.
This morning I go a request for a book to review by email from an organization called DigitalBrand. I forwarded this to Portfolio’s PR department and he confirmed he would send the book.
This somehow or other triggered a list server to start sending spam offers for the review. It’ still going on until evryone stops entering the stream and demanding to be taken off the list.
People need to toss this snake into their spam buckets and not reply.
This is not how I operate. This is not how Portfolio–my publisher–does business. I do not try to get reviews by spamming and I would guess those askingfor the book right now may not be kind in what they end up writing.
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RT @Narciso17: How Bad PR ‘Works’ – Even Though, as a Long Term Strategy, It’ll Never Help [link to post] Good Read Fm @tdefren
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RT @TDefren: Because at some level, “Media Relations” is a “numbers game,” bad PR will never go away completely. [link to post]
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How Bad PR ‘Works’ – Even Though, as a Long Term Strategy, It’ll Never Help [link to post] Good Read Fm @tdefren
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Sad but true. RT @TDefren Because at some level, Media Relations is a “numbers game,” bad PR won’t go away completel. [link to post]
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Todd,
Being a recipient of that email, I was sad to see a positive reply to the “blast” (or, are they called blitzes?).
Yes, I do agree that the fraction of positive responses do encourage the piss-poor PR activity of mass-emailing, impersonal blasting of a news release.
However, the long-term damage eventually will make an impact as you and I and everyone else saw the many annoyed replies that the media relations person received. If she keeps up her practice, she’ll eventually have no one left to blast.
Hopefully, she and others will learn from their mistakes. If not, hopefully, Darwinism will win.
-Mike
(BTW, I’m impressed with the quick post on the subject.)
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RT @tdefren Bad PR Works « PR-Squared [link to post] – today is bad pitch today on blogs apparently
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