all posts tagged “rant”
Dear SSPR,
You have been sending me emails for months now, apparently from someone named Sarah who always has a "Story Idea:" for me. Since then I have asked three times (including a voicemail) to be removed from your distribution list. What happened today? I received another email from Sarah about another awesome "STORY IDEA".
I've given up trying to stop your emails. You obviously don't care about my requests, or care that you're proving to me and a lot of others that you accomplish the opposite effect of PR - you demean your clients in front of the very people you're trying to reach. I would never write a story after receiving a pitch from you.
I know that stories from bloggers mean a lot to your clients. Do they know your tactics? Do they know that you don't respect requests from the very people you are asking to write stories? Do they know people like me consider you spammers?
I think the PR industry has a place in the online world and there are hordes of smart people in PR who have found the right ways to work with bloggers. I just received a pitch today from someone who had read this site and personalized their message. I respect them for taking the time.
You, SSPR, have a very long way to go. Like any relationship, your efforts must be built on honesty and respect. It has to be built on personal connections. Every time you send an unwanted email and ignore removal requests, you are insulting me, yourselves and PR industry as a whole. It's called spam and no one wants more of it.
What I want is for you to understand what is wrong with what you're doing. Here are a number of resources and perspectives for understanding how to pitch bloggers.
Matt Haughey: How to Pitch Bloggers
Getting to First Base: Social Media Marketing Playbook (e-book)
Pro Blogger: 21 Tips on Pitching Bloggers
Stowe Boyd: The Growing Backlash Against PR Spam
I suppose I should be thankful in some ways, you've suceeded in giving me a "STORY IDEA", though I doubt it's what you wanted.
PS - I see you've made it onto the PR Spammers wiki. Congrats on that.
Updated:
Just after posting this entry, I was contacted by Belinda Banks, Executive Vice President at SSPR, who was apologetic and said that change is happening in the company. From her message:
We have addressed this situation internally, not only with Sarah but with our entire staff, especially all of our new team members. Inaccurate pitching is a personal pet peeve of mine and we are striving for each staff member to resonate that same theme.
I appreciate Belinda's response, but at the same time, the proof is in the pudding. I hope we'll see real change from them and others in the industry.
How fun. Imagine my delight to wake up the last couple of days to find thousands of bounced emails - all with my address in the From: line. It's such an honor to see my address associated with other legitimate brands that are so proven in the fields of appendage enlargement.
Here's what happens...
A spammer needs to send spam emails and they don't want to use an address associated with them. So, they add someone else's address to the From: field of the email. When the email bounces, it comes to the person's address. In this case, me.
Spoofing is a pretty common problem, but still painful. Apparently, there is little that can be done aside from filtering the incoming messages and hoping that people don't think you're sending the spam. I'm looking into adding an SPF (Sender Policy Framework) record, which can also help, I hear. Any other tips?
Looking back over my posts recently, I might call the theme "Off-topic and Rant-y". This being the case, I'll continue the theme for one more post.
In listening to my friends who have Macs, I was under the impression that they heal the sick, feed the poor, turn water to wine and help you get laid all at once. The truth is I tire so quickly of all the Apple adoration. I love their designs, I want an iPhone, I own a Mac, love Final Cut, I respect Steve Jobs and know that OS X is better than Windows. But c'mon, it's a closed, highly secretive, for-profit company run by a dictator with good taste. It's not a religion.
The reason I'm upset right now is because our two-month old Macbook is broken - and apparently came that way. The superdrive (DVD reader, etc), is sucking right now. Actually, it's the opposite of sucking - it's blowing - as in not accepting blank DVDs. Insert a blank DVD and it blows it right back at you.
We went to the Genius bar at the Apple store and found that it will require a new superdrive (3-5 days for parts) and then repair (1-3 days). We'll only have to give up the machine for installation - which is good. What is bad, is that we were shipped a defective product. If we can't trust a Mac to be a reliable centerpiece of our creative business, then what can we trust?
Apparently we should feel lucky that our battery still works, unlike everyone else filling the queue at the Genius bar.
All the lickable icons, wet floor effects, cute commericals and iPhones in the world aren't gonna make me switch if a plain old Macbook won't accept a blank DVD. I've had 4 previous laptops and have never been shipped a defect - and to have my first be a Mac? Not so good.
Meanwhile, I'll keep typing on a Sony that survived a solid year of international backpack travel without a single stutter.
Thanks Apple!
PS - You want to know what else? I challenge Apple to respond to this post. In my business we talk so much about the power of blogs and the "conversation" - we all see how the business world is changing and how it's all about being honest and working on relationships. Yet, I would never expect Apple to succumb to speaking with a lowly blogger such as myself. Why do I matter anyway? Have you seen the iPhone?
/rant
Sean O'Driscoll unravels a long chain mishandled and unfortunate situations within the bowels of T-Mobile customer service. Sean's experience is sadly not unique, but his perspective is. He manages the community support services team at Microsoft and is tightly focused on the future of customer support. It appears that T-Mobile has provided him a great worst case scenario - he left the service because of it.
“sean, can I just have the agent call you back so we can handle this? Me: “NO! I won’t do that. This is not my problem, this is your problem. Now you want to take time from my family on another call. NO.�? Supervisor: “I understand, what do you want me to do? You don’t really have any other option here.�? Me: “Don’t have an option? Hah. I can drop you as a service provider.�? Supervisor: “Yes, you could do that.�? This was maybe the most depressing part of the call. She really didn’t care. And it was clearly not because she’s a bad person but because she has given up on her own employer. I actually felt sorry for her. I couldn’t yell at her. I said goodbye.
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