Slashdot Mirror
When Doing PR For Anti-Spam Firm... Don't Spam
netbuzz writes "Rule #1 when doing PR for an antispam vendor: Don't spam. This isn't exactly brain surgery, yet the fellow at a PR agency called Rocket Science managed to violate Rule #1 while attempting to drum up publicity for Singlefin, which provides e-mail, IM and Web filtering services to the likes of Juno and NetZero. He also violated Rules #2 and #3." Given the hundreds of press releases I get in my inbox on a weekly basis, PR folks in general need to learn that lesson regardless of their clients.
I just slam-dunk this all into the bit bin and hit empty.
I'm particularly amused by sp4m which includes [%TO_ADDRESS]
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Parent seems to be on topic -- its spam!
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
Actually if you have an anti-spam product, then advertising it by spamming is the perfect strategy.
You'll only reach the customers that need your product.
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Rocket Science?! Oh, the ironing is delicious...
Dark Reflection
That's great... now the queston is; if you are already a customer would the product block this mail and if so is that blackmail?
I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.
Mark Twain
By the looks of things, only 116 actual mails were sent. In fact... the whole thing is actually just a big chain of fuckups.
When will someone step up and be the hero in this story?
I expected to see an article about a mass-mailing campaign to advertise the firm, but this is just some dope shooting emails randomly at this blogger's company rather than specifically targetting the relevant person.
It's not nearly as bad as the heading and write-up sound. Far from normal connotations of spamming, this falls more under the category of "stupid".
If you haven't foed me yet, what are you waiting for?
Is the second rule "you DO NOT talk about spam"?
I don't see how that would work considering they need to advertise an anti-spam product.
Which inbox... your personal or your business one? Your personal one shouldn't get any PR material. But your business one... well, that's just how the world works. Businesses will get mail targeted for what they are doing. That at least is relevant. I have a tad bit more patience for relevant advertising mail than for "be$t CIA1is softabs!" and Rolex replicas.
Press Releases aren't, they're just tedious. And everyone writes them. Even OSDN and OSTG. And considering you are a news source, consider it a blessing that you get press releases; it confirms your relevance. Plus, every once in a while, you'll find one that's actually interesting.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
while i do not work in pr, my degree *clears throat* is in public relations... and if there's one thing our school taught is... learn to question your bosses/managers/clients. i mean, to be an effective pr person, you have to be able to ask questions like "well, gee, sending a spam might not be the best for our reputation."
now, in the case of this particular story -- the pr person who prepared this is just, i believe, a moron. the other thing we were taught in pr is that every news organization has something akin to a "wall of shame." these are places where stupid/poorly written/misdirected/etc. releases get posted for all (in the newsroom) to laugh at. this fact is always a motivator for a pr person to get it right (at least one who wants to do a good job).
included with this is the knowledge that just about every journalst/editor you come across will, of course, have a superior attitude (which i always found funny - because without pr people, journalists would either not get a story or have to do a significant amount of leg work to get it, and well, journalists, also, by and large, are lazy.)
so, with all that in mind, every release has a lot riding on it, and an effective pr person knows this and just doesn't do a half-assed cluster-fuck of a job in writing or distributing releases. pr people are targets. easy targets. highly mis-understood targets, and therefor its up to the pr people to make damn sure they don't make it any easier.
sad robot making broken music
The submitter is "buzz@nww.com"; the article is at networkworld.com. Of course nww.com is just an alias for networkworld.com. I couldn't immediately tell if buzz == Paul McNamara, but it's at least astroturfing for the site.
I've got a counter of how many times someone says the following:
"Geez, how could this guy fuck up a PR email? It isn't Rocket Science."
Maybe we can get to 50 by lunch.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
It wan't a failure. Remember - "The only thinkg worse than bad publicity is NO publicity."
Look at it this way - with 116 emails, the guy has gotten his story onto slashdot as a front-page article. So, who are the 116 people I have to email to get the same treatment?
This is also a blog. Don't mess with the bloggers; they'll fsck you up.
I would never have heard of these people. Now I have heard of them.
I'd think one of the most important things for a PR firm to do would be to understand who it is they're representing, and what ideals and values the company wants to represent. I mean, come on, this isn't exactly... oh. Nevermind.
-- dR.fuZZo
Remember the Far Side cartoon where the fellow picks up a brick that has been chucked into his front room with the message: "Bricks through your window? Call Al's Glass...."?
I tried using their email forwarding service about a year and a half ago, and then cancelled my account. Since then, I've been getting "Bigfoot Anti-Spam" newsletters and other random ads from them on my cell phone (and I get to pay for the messages!). Their customer service did absolutely nothing when I emailed them.
Oh, and the messages come from randomly generated @news.bigfoot.com addresses, so there's no way to block them with my cell service provider (which only blocks specific addresses). Hmm, could this be... SPAM?