Public (Relations) Humiliation

There are many times when I'm very happy to not be working in PR anymore. So much of the business is busy work that drains the soul to do, pisses off the editors and analysts you're trying to cultivate and really just blows chunks.

One of the very worst parts of the job are the call downs. A call down is, basically, war dialing editors from a huge list of contacts that have already been emailed to request an interview to try and garner some client coverage or interest.

Why do call downs suck? Because you know the editor (most editors) absolutely hates the interuption of a ringing phone. And jeebus do they hate, hate, hate a call to ask them if they got your email. Rest assured, they did and if they didn't respond immediately its because they are a) busy with a deadline, b) busy with other interviews, c) uninterested or d) it isn't their beat.

I can't tell you how many times I've had to make the call down only to find out that the editor no longer covers the security space or the insurance technology space. Most editors are pretty nice about it but I have had some really lay into me for the off target contact. I've had one who went one step further and, when he ran into my client at a show, told them what a terrible job of PR my team had done for them. Yes, I know exactly who he is and no, I will not out him here. He knows he's a dick and he doesn't care in the least. And no, I never contacted him for anything again. I wouldn't stop to piss on him if he was on fire. And its been seven years or more. Not that I'm one to hold a grudge or anything.

I know enough editors well enough to have a tiny idea of how inundated they get with emails, phone calls, interview requests, conference briefings, product reviews and, now, Twitter and other new media networking tools.

No job is perfect and no job is a perfect fit but I could feel myself increasingly becoming a worse and worse fit for the grunt work side of the PR game. I loathed the call downs and it probably came through in my pitches. Suffice it to say that I rather enjoy the work I do now even if the pay is quite a bit less, I don't have an integral part of my work that entails pestering and interrupting busy editors and analysts.

Vocus PR: Publicity Bottomfeeders

I told them I would if they didn't stop, they didn't stop so now I'm doing it.

Vocus PR has decided to ignore my repeated requests for removal from their mailing lists and continue to send me totally un-targeted press releases for products and companies I wouldn't do business with even if I could.

I've now taken to contacting the clients directly from the press releases to tell them what an annoying and bad PR agency they have hired. I'm sure there are some lines I'm crossing but I really do not care anymore. If Vocus PR wants me to stop informing their clients of their piss-poor public relations practices then they should honor my request to be removed from their stupid database.

Since they have not and, apparently, refuse to then I am forced to make good on my promise.

Bad PR sticks around much longer than any good PR. And Vocus Public Relations is the bottom feeder worst scenario PR agency that you do NOT want representing your company.

Why would they add me to their lists when I'm not an editor, reviewer or analyst? To fluff up their end of month numbers for the packet of info they send to their clients. Its a standard practice in PR to make your efforts look better than they are by adding contacts, touches (outreach via phone or email to specific editors) and coverage.

If they'd honor removal requests then we wouldn't be having a problem. But they ignore them and keep sending garbage releases to me. So I'm going to jab them with a pointy stick and see how they like it.

[Update: Not a PR agency, a PR services company. They still need to honor opt-outs and not continue to sell my email address as a legitimate contact for their customers. But thanks for the heads-up, Conner.]

It Isn't PR That's Bad, Its the Lazy Flack That's Bad

For some reason or another I've been getting emailed press releases from an agency that decided I needed to find out about their client's BIG, BIG, BIG news.

Being a reformed flack myself, I understand little bit about the pressure put on flacks. The pressure for coverage, the pressure for outreach, the pressure to score big for your clients every day because what you did yesterday doesn't mean jackshit today.

But, having been a flack myself, I also know that there are flacks who take shortcuts where ever they can, they puff up mailing lists with inappropriate contacts (like me), they wardial for meetings caring little for the editor's actual editorial beat and are tenacious once they've gotten a live body on the other end.

War dialing, in case you didn't know, is when a flack or team of flacks divide up a list of contacts that are supposed to be highly targeted, a script is put together and then each flack goes down their list calling each editor and spinning their spiel.

The trouble with war dialing as a fundamental public relations practice is that that vast, vast, vast majority of editors HATE getting phone calls, they absolutely loathe their phones because all they are is sources of distraction. And an editor's phone? NEVER STOPS RINGING. And an editor's email in-box? NEVER STOPS FILLING UP.

Have I mentioned how thrilled I am to have moved away from a career in PR? It is a soul-sucking, pride-swallowing and mind-numbing exercise in near futility. And, at the end of even a fantastic day, I always knew that it meant almost nothing for the next day. I miss some aspects of PR but I do not miss the workload, stress or constant client stroking.

Oh, and if the PR agency in question doesn't remove me from their lists as I've now asked twice then I will happily skewer them by name and will also take to emailing their clients directly from the unwanted and totally off-base press releases they refuse to stop sending me. Because there's one absolutely guaranteed way of getting an agency's attention and that's to get their client pissed off at them for spamming completely inappropriate contacts in order to inflate end-of-month reports.

Bad flacks make the job harder for all the other flacks and it is already pretty damned tough.