Having your name added to PR lists from vendors like Vocus and Cision is one of the unfortunate outcomes of having a successful blog. The resulting amount of spam and bad pitches can be quite astounding.
This is not to complain. It’s just part of the gig, a result of success, and bloggers like Gina Trapani and Robert Scoble who have complained in the past are simply wrong. If you don’t want the attention of being a successful voice online, then stop writing/podcasting/creating.
I’m not interested in reinvigorating the PR Sucks meme, or trying to brow beat crappy PR practitioners into better ways. Instead, I’ve resigned to the situation, accepting it as the nature of the business. Nothing typifies PR’s ill health more than the appearance of a familiar spammer.
I used to work at an agency where I was a mid-level account supervisor reporting to the president, but also indirectly to a vice president. I worked with this vice president for three years, and kept a distant, but friendly acquaintance after our mutual departures from the firm. Recently, she’s been appearing in my life again vis-a-vis spammed press releases.
Every week or two I get a press release from xxx in my email box. It’s pretty funny actually. Here’s someone who knows me, worked with me for three years, and doesn’t have the courtesy to call me or even send a personal email requesting that I consider her story. Instead, I get the worst form of spam possible: An unrelated, unwanted press release.
How pathetic. And humbling. I’m just a guy on a list.
I’m not putting myself or my agency on a pedestal. It’s likely there are individuals in my company who do this. We’ve had transgressions on my team over the past few years, too, and we’ve handled them privately. But nothing like this recent appearance of familiar, but unwanted spam rang home to me how hopeless the PR profession really is. For every good practitioner, there will always be five like my old VP. It’s the continuing sad state of PR.
This posts really highlights, far beyond bad PR pitches, the need for human relationships — and valuing them, rather than submitting, pitching in a robotic way.
Half the people in every profession are below average.
PR is a mirror reflecting what is going on in the world. How can it be any more elevated than the corporations it purports to promote? Sad… and humbling indeed.
Well, I hate to say “Welcome to the Crap Email Club,” because no one should have to put up with massive digital inanity, but don’t some people have any sense?
I’m on a massive unsubscribe/Block kick against spam PR, but doubt that it will do much good in the long run. Hope springs eternal, though….
How well said. Over the past year, I tell clients I’ll never use a media-list service. I’ll build a media list for them from scratch, no matter how long it takes, by rolling up my sleeves, going to every news outlet that I think should write/report, finding the exact right person, reading/watching what else they’ve done, then crafting very personal pitches. It’s time consuming and tedious. But it’s not dumb.
hey there,
Kudos to you for getting your name added to the spam lists! Definitely speaks volumes about your content and insights that agencies now consider you a target for clients. Remember Chris Anderson’s post a couple years back? He ousted 300 e-mails of agency spammers. It got him a lot of attention and hate mail, but I bet he doesn’t see half the crap he used to.
Thanks for the post,
Maria
Geoff- This must be a very disappointing, strange feeling indeed. But I continue to believe that this widespread perception is an exaggerated version of reality. Is the ratio really one good practitioner for every five spammers, or is it just that the spammy lot makes so much noise it seems like those doing it right must be in the minority? Unfortunately there’s no way to know for sure, but one person with an automated email system can certainly do a lot of damage.
The sad truth is, I doubt your former boss reads your blog, and she’ll probably never realize her offensive behavior. I know too many people doing PR correctly to think the profession as a whole is “hopeless,” but here’s hoping those that use the lazy approach go the way of the dinosaur sooner rather than later.
Unfortunately, the few bad PR apples are defining our profession. The good apples need to have a louder voice!
Media lists are the crack cocaine of PR. Unfortunately, as was the case of your old VP, many rarely even read them to see who is ON the list.
What causes this? There are MANY constraints.
1) Money: Billable hours model means that you have to get as much done in as little time as possible to meet client budget
2) Time: It’s a lot faster than building a list and crafting pitches. Many times there are very tight deadlines on these things
3) Relationships: If you don’t have a list is an easy place to start; unfortunately, it has become an ending point vs. a starting point.
We need to have more training focused on the skill of building relationships over time – something no PR graduate learned in school and few learn on the job.
It’s easy to say it is hopeless laziness (and there is plenty of that) but it also is a training and learning problem, not to mention a management problem. If you measure the volume of mentions vs. the quality of mentions then you will get volume. In other words, you get what you measure.
With AVEs and clients, volume still trumps quality every time. This is the main problem.
As for your VP, how sad that she actually had a real relationship with someone on the list and didn’t leverage or nurture that. She is addicted to her crack and so are many others.
Right on target Geoff! I was a radio news director and reporter for years and still cringe when I teach classes for PR practitioners and people sending out releases who hav NO idea what they are doing. Relationship-building, targeting audiences and timely, fresh “real” news are key.
Susan
Geoff, at least you aren’t “that guy.” (Kidding!)
It was not my intention to start a “PR sucks meme” because anyone who knows me knows I don’t believe that. But, bad PR does suck and you gave a perfect example of it.
I agree with Kellye, I am sure (or at least hopeful) that there are more people doing it right than wrong. They are the smart ones that understand it takes a relationship (and relationships that scale beyond the niceties of getting a story placed).
I also agree with Kami’s brilliant assessment that media lists are crack for PR people.
It doesn’t take time to build a credible and worthwhile media list because there just aren’t that many outlets these days (as compared to 10 years ago). Even at an F500 I think our list never topped 100 media folks…who we knew and had relationships with. 100 people! Are PR folks (internal and agency) *that* busy that they can’t focus on 100 people that are influencers versus 1000 or more people who could care less?
We know the answer, unfortunately, it’s easier to fire off an email than actually care enough to build a relationship. And Kami’s right…relationship building isn’t something that’s taught. That said, back in the late 90s there was a known aspect in PR that relationships were VERY important and there was a push to head in that direction. (Journalists/editors fought back with the “Whack a Flack” game.) Was that forgotten? If so, it’s too bad because now…they just out you on their blog.
Quality, not quantity. Google News makes it far too easy to find journalists who actually write on your topic for there to be any excuse for irrelevant pitches.
My question, though, is: Was it a good story the VP was pitching? Maybe not for you, but for someone? Pitching bad or non-stories can ruin any relationship with a journalist.
Smart post Geoff. @ipressroom and @ericschwartzman encourage PR pros to get off the media list crack and into the engaging, relevant and multimedia driven content creation business. Then, if your story is good (and worth being re-told), and you make your story available (beyond just a press release) on your website, in your company branded online newsroom and share that story (in multiple content types and across all appropriate channels (the places where your audiences are; search, social media, etc.) journalists and non-traditional media (e.g. bloggers and other influencers) will find it and write about it, discuss it, comment on it and share it.
..and now you are THAT guy on a list. ;)
I, for one, get excited when I know I have a personal connection with someone I’m pitching. I like the opportunity to touch base and see how they can help me…and how I can help them.
Good PR in general needs to take a cue from “social media” — it’s all about the SOCIAL and the NETWORKING aspect. The relationship is more important than the pitch itself. At least, that’s my experience.
At least when I get pitched, I know it’s not from a list. That’s what happens when you become a social media sensei. ;)
~ Larissa
@LYF108