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.
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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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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.)
Twitter Comment
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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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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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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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.
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.
Twitter Comment
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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Twitter Comment
@TDefren New PR theme song? ♬ “Blanket pitch. Spray and pray. A blast email. The old way” [link to post]
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