Memo to All PR People & Publicists: Stop Being So Dumb and Do Your Flipping Job
April 24, 2008 by Kristen King
Filed under Leadership
In case you missed that day in in PR/publicist school, your job is to make my life EASIER, not more difficult.
Let’s try this another way:
Blogger = Media. Me = Blogger. Therefore, Me = Media.
So if you want if you want me to interview your client, feature your product, review your book, promo your wares, WHATEVER, leading to MEDIA COVERAGE, stop making it hard for me to do that.
These are things you do on a regular basis that make me want to smack you. And I’m not talking slap on the wrist — I’m talking serious whack upside the head.
- Asking me if I want to receive more information about something and then ignoring me when I say yes.
- Asking me if I want to receive more information about something and then sending me something that has nothing to do with what you actually pitched.
- Asking me if I want to interview your client and then ignoring me when I say yes.
- Asking me if I want to interviw your client and then insisting on being the go-between for the whole thing.
- Sending me a product to review and then following up with me every 48 hours (a) to tell me you sent it, (b) to make sure I got it, (c) to make sure I really got it, (d) to see if there’s a problem with it, (e) to see if I tried it yet, (f) to see if I liked it, (g) to see when I’ll post about it, (h) if I posted about it yet, (i) when am I going to post about it, (j) did I post about it yet, (k) when am i going to post about it, ad nauseam.
- Sending me the same press release multiple times in the same day.
- Sending me an automated follow-up message “because you haven’t heard from me” even though we’re already corresponding about your product/client/whatever.
- Forgetting who I am.
- Misspelling my name.
- Associating me with the wrong blog.
Need I go on?
Seriously, people, you do this for a living. But if you keep this stuff up, you won’t be doing it for a living for much longer. Maybe this is what the people running Bridget’s local Curves franchise used to do in their former lives…
For advice on how NOT to be a PR moron, check out Common Sense PR and Buzz Networker in the b5 media Business Channel.
Contents © Copyright 2008 Kristen King
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Tags: women and business, women in business, women, woman, business, advice, PR, public relations, publicity, bad PR practices, annoying PR people, press releases, stupid PR ideas, biz chicks rule, kristen king
Sending pitches for something that has absolutely nothing to do with my blog topic is another one. I’m sure you’ve experienced it too. :)
Yes, yes, yes! TAILOR your pitches, people. Yes, it’s a numbers game, but sheesh!
how are these people getting hired in pr jobs and i am not?
haha
@Nicole - LOL seriously!
Asking (or in one case, demanding) that you review the article before publication. Uh, no. If you have a problem with letting go of control, don’t contact me at all and we’ll both be happier.
@Lori - YES! Control freaks in PR are not a good thing.
This is the best post I’ve read all week. Awesome and funny, but sadly too true. I get PR stuff for stuff like McMansions or bleach at my green blog! Bleach. PR folks saying, “Your readers will love this big foot print house and chemical icky stuff! Oh yeah!” stupid.
AND people who “offer me” an item to sponsor and then want to run the contest for it on their blog, so what I just write a product review for no apparent reason? AND people who want me to send them everyone’s emails, because I guess I need a bunch of readers hating me for sharing personal info. And on and on… it gets old.
@Jen - I’m so glad you loved this post! I had a blast writing it. It was very cathartic as I’m sure you can imagine. ;)
I think the folks sending you those pitches must have selective vision or something. They see one word on your blog, fixate on it, and miss the entire context. I get that a lot.
Now as far as the requests to share personal information, that’s just absurd! Wow. Bad manners to say the least!