PR firm Reverb Communications has been under fire by MobileCrunch for allegedly gaming, aka astroturfing, the iTunes app store. In the article, MobileCrunch criticizes Reverb for what it deems as unethical practices).
Here’s the short version: Reverb supposedly has interns to write positive reviews of games (just after launching) to garner additional sales in the iTunes app store. When MobileCrunch (MC) researched several reviews and the users who posted them, they found that the users had also posted positive reviews for other apps who were also represented by Reverb. In fact, the users had only reviewed products that Reverb represented. Additionally, …read more

Eric Eggertson who blogs at CommonSensePR.com has a review of Inside Spin: The dark underbelly of the PR industry. Written by Australian Bob Burton, the book takes a hard look at research that is presented as un-biased but, in fact, is funded and influenced by politics and corporate interests.
Since we freelance writers are often called on to write PR pieces, we are actually in a position to be of influence. The real question is what kind of influence do we want to be?
Write well and often,

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