How NOT to do Public Relations on the Web

Over the last couple of months I have read a few posts on Ideas on Ideas, in which Eric discusses the unprofessional and annoying behavior of some public relations companies. He was receiving these emails because he is a blogger and has received a level of authority as a result. I too have found myself in a similar situation.

Over the past few weeks I have seen my inbox steadily fill with these unsolicited email messages, and have rightfully sent them straight to the trash folder. However it was not until I was reviewing the comments on my recent article “30 Holiday Gift Ideas for Creatives and Geeks” that I saw the first example of a PR firm so clueless that I was just frankly disappointed.

What Don’t These People Get?

Press Releases are from another era, they may still work for traditional media but not social media. It is plain and simple bloggers don’t care. At least not if they haven’t ever spoke with you before, and especially not if you didn’t at least take the time to introduce yourself and your company. Bloggers get hit up with offers daily. Their email becomes flooded with them. But all it really takes to get my attention (and I’m sure everyone else’s) is some genuine language and evidence that you actually have read my blog. Not an unsolicited email that I have no interest in, and is in all honesty a piece of spam. But none of this is as bad as what I have witnessed today.

Comment Spamming Press Releases?

I thought comment spam was for the Viagra peddlers and porn companies, not PR firms. I can understand when a firm thinks they are sending you information you may be interested in via email. But posting a full release in the comments of a blog article? Not only am I going to just delete the comment, but you even go so far as to include your email address, an email address that is also your company’s URL. Talk about negative PR, you are showing the world that you participate in unethical ways of gaining exposure on the behalf of your clients. Hopefully this is just some sort of one off mistake that is not actually representative of how the company handles their client’s accounts.

Someone Needs to Let the Clients Know

Ultimately it is the client that is being harmed here, their money is being taken for services that will not only be ineffective, but also associate their brand with shady business practices. No matter if the company is placing press releases in blog comments, forum posts, or sending out spam emails, these firms need to do something to really catch up with the times. Selling clients on these horrible tactics will only eventually result in a bad PR problem for the company itself.