Outing “clueless” PR people
May 5th, 2008 |
An alarmingly frequent practice in our profession is the “outing” by bloggers of the poor, clueless PR person who dares to commit the gaffe of the poorly targeted pitch, or the imprecisely worded e-mail. Bloggers publish names, email addresses and even complete copies of correspondence in an attempt to vent their displeasure and “educate” the profession.
Is this practice helpful to the profession? Is it indicative of PR’s failure to understand the changes in the communications landscape? Or is it just an outgrowth of the superiority complexes and mean spiritedness of some bloggers? My May column on Talent Zoo takes a closer look.
Tags: outing, PR, professionals, bloggers
| Sphere This |
Most of the time, it is an exercise in frustration. Often, it’s the blogger stroking his or her own ego.
It rarely works, because the PR person in question probably will never see it. (If they were regular readers or commenters, they wouldn’t have made the gaffe to begin with.)
Comment by Ike — May 5, 2008 @ 10:11 am
I loathe this particular tactic. It’s not like PR people aren’t human beings, too. Maybe taking a moment to educate the “offender” individually via a quick email might be better. Or maybe just block the sender and go on about your business. It just seems like a colossal waste of time and like Ike said a big ego stroke for the blogger. It’s also a great way to burn bridges unnecessarily.
Comment by Matt Staggs — May 5, 2008 @ 10:49 am
I agree. There seem to be a whole lot of egos out there blogging about themselves. If your blog is not providing an instructive solution than it’s just a rant.
Comment by Jason — May 5, 2008 @ 5:14 pm