October 17, 2007
A Case Study in Bad PR...
I recently got an e-mail out of the blue from a PR firm representing a satellite company, saying "So and So would make a great VON Pioneer and would be of interest to your readers" - in other words, he'd make a great cover story.
Didn't know the PR firm. Was familiar with the satellite company (see SkyCache/Cidera/"Satellite Broadband" Magazine). Knew that said satellite company had never-ever been to a VON, either in a direct (exhibit role) or an ancillary (speaker/podium) role.
So, out of the blue, I'm supposed to put this Guy on the cover of VON Magazine when nobody's every seen his company at a show or heard him speak at a show. Yet, he's supposed to be of interest to "your readers."
Point this out to the PR flack. "Well, I wasn't suggesting a cover story," he doeth protest.
This is where I turn to Chris Brogan and go "Hand me the TaZer, Bro.." because the "VON Pioneer" pieces ARE cover stories.
I could use this to rant about how bad PR companies are, but then I'd go into another rant about satellite companies and I'm going to start channeling Kinneson, and it just wouldn't be pretty.
*sigh*
Posted by dmohney at 12:30 AM | Comments (0)
August 06, 2007
New DEFCON Sport - Running of the Reporters...
If you didn't already hear the news, a Dateline NBC producer tried to sneak into DEFCON on Friday. The producer was allegedly looking for something to "shock Kansas," but she might have been better off trying to get into CIA headquarters.
DEFCON organizers knew she was coming and even had her photograph - something that begs the question as to who over at Dateline might have dropped a dime on her and why. DEFCON organizers offered her a press pass four (4) times, two before she got on site, and two when she was on site.
Compounding matters, staffers had her spotted from the minute she came in and trying to sneak around a camera in one of the most paranoid conferences in the world shows, well, lack o' thought and planning.
The producer was hoping to catch the ritual "Spot the Fed" contest on Video tape, but organizers "Outed" her at the opening session. She walked out the door before her picture went up on the big screen projectors, followed by a group of people touting video cameras and shouting questions in a deja vu turn about.
Be interesting to see if Dateline NBC shows a little humility or tries revenge in the future.
Posted by dmohney at 12:18 AM | Comments (0)
August 01, 2007
Some news, isn't.
Do I need to get an e-mail on the most recent blog by the CEO of a company? Or, for that matter, what PR firm is representing firm XYZ.
No.
Let's take these in reverse order. If PR firm is representing firm XYZ, then I expect the PR firm to call me up and start pitching me about firm XYZ, end of story. If not, I don't care, just like I don't care about who is picking up the firm's garbage, catering their meals, or providing their office supplies.
Most recent blog of CEO: Well, if I was following the guy's blog in the first place, I'd care, yes? I'd be RSS-ing it. Or the PR firm would be pitching me the latest philosophical statement of CEO, rather than "Hey, here's the guy's blog, and he says X..."
Hey, if he's saying X, shouldn't the PR firm be lining up interviews, doing a little pitch, etc, rather than this passive/aggressive "Here's his blog opinion."
If it's really cool, I'm going to end up reading it in Jeff Pulver's blog anyway.
Save press release for news. Let blogs be blogs. Thank you.
Posted by dmohney at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)
July 21, 2007
Everyone wants the questions beforehand.
In school, getting the questions to a test beforehand was cheating. PR people seem to think it's quite alright to get interview questions before the interview.
What's the point of being on the phone, then?
Much more often than not, when someone asks me this question, I usually don't have the questions all lined up nice and neatly because I've got twelve other things I have to do and whatever questions I am going to ask on the phone aren't that difficult.
Still, PR flacks HAVE to ask the question, feeling they have themselves covered, but that doesn't prevent me from adding, deleting, or otherwise changing whatever questions I might have jotted down in the first place.
It's not like we're into "60 Minutes" journalism chasing people with cameras, but from the way PR people act, I wonder...
Posted by dmohney at 08:22 PM | Comments (0)
July 03, 2007
(Truck) Driver Management Software???
Just when I think it's safe to stop complaining about PR firms...
I get a call from a rep from a two-name firm. Wants to know if we cover driver management software. As in vehicle driver.
"Uh, what's that have to do with IP Communications?" I ask, perplexed.
"Well, the software is being used by Time Warner Cable and the company wants to reach telecommunications firms..."
"OK, driver as in, truck driver?"
"Yes, is that something your magazine covers?" (OK, I'm simplifying here, but you get it).
*sigh*
If we were in the business of covering telematics, I might be able to stretch things such that it might fit. But we don't, it doesn't.
*sigh*
Posted by dmohney at 12:17 PM | Comments (0)
June 06, 2007
Connect your website and your press releases...
If you send out a press release...
1) It should have a unique place on YOUR website
2) It should go up on YOUR website at the same time it is sent out
3) It should be in HTML format, not Word, not Acrobat.
4) People should be able to find it in three clicks or less
I'm amazed at the number of companies that send out releases and it takes them DAYS for the release to appear on their website.
A few companies don't even put their releases on their website and that just drives me completely nuts. Why do you not want to tout your own news on our own site?
A few companies put their releases on someone else's website, like the PR firm's, a practice that is baffling. You want people to come to YOUR website, not your agency's. It's all about eyeballs and repetition and getting a boost to the mystical Google rankings. If the release is sitting on someone else's website, you won't get Google brownie points...
I've ranted before about HTML vs DOC and PDF. Yesterday, I got a "release" that was a web link to a PDF or DOC file on a third-party website. Guess what I didn't do? .DOC and .PDF files have been known to carry viruses and spyware. Do a Google search on "NY Times," spyware" and "civil suit" and see what might come up....not to mention that you can't read .DOC and .PDF files (easily) on a cell phone or PDA.
Good web site organization and/or design means someone should be able to pull up something in a few clicks --- not 5 or 6. I prefer 3 clicks...
Yes, I sound like a broken record, but there are too many people doing too many of the wrong things.
Posted by dmohney at 04:37 PM | Comments (0)
June 01, 2007
Falling Short on Meeting Pitches - And shooting yourself in the foot
SuperComm 3.0, er NXTComm is coming up and I've been getting a steady stream of meeting requests for the event. I expect that to ramp upward in the next two weeks as PR agencies feed their clients the delusion that I have plenty of time at the last minute to wedge in a face-to-face.
NOT.
The pitches started back about 2.5 weeks ago -- that give you an idea about how people are viewing NXTComm?
Nearly three fourths of the meeting pitches I receive can be boiled down to:
"Hi, we would like a meeting. We have some great news."
To this, the agency adds descriptives such as revolutionary, game-changing, industry-leading. Stuff I see every day.
The agency neglects two basics: 1) What the company does, units shipped, revenues, 2) How the company fits into the market, through amount of captured market share, key/big name customers. Most of them assume that I know who their client is, despite never having met with their client.
Then there's the old bait-and-switch. "Yes, we've scheduled you with our CEO." Get to the meeting and you get the marketing or product manager. A surprising number of people pull the Big Lie and expect to get away with it.
If your PR agency is going to lie to me about who I am going to meet with, why should I trust the press releases they send me or anything else they tell me?
Posted by dmohney at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)
May 14, 2007
Should I just stop taking embargoed news?
Three times in the past week, I've received "Please say you will accept the Embargo and then I will send you the press release" from PR firms, the latest being.... oh, I'd better not say. Should I say the firms representing Citel, Optimum Lightpath... I forget the third?
Actually, it's worse than that, since two of them used "If you agree to this NDA"... which is just f***ing WRONG. NDAs are formal agreements threatening bad legal things, not temporary e-mail exchanges like air kisses at a bad party. What crap.
Unfortunately, the embargo/NDA abuse seems to be happening more often than less often.
I don't get what the game is, other than to rack up billable hours for PR firms. Either you trust "us" (VON Magazine) to responsibly handle an embargoed press release (Which is NOT an NDA) or you don't. Not this "Well, I sort of trust you, but send me an e-mail, so I can really trust you."
If you don't trust us, why are you contacting us in the first place?
Instead, there's the cutesy, time-wasting exchange of e-mail. Reminds me of the passed notes in grade-school with the multiple choice check boxes.
For the (gasp) first time, I'm going to leave comments open.
Should I stop accepting embargoed press releases? Should I just delete every piece of mail that uses the phrase "embargo" and the abused phrase "NDA" and move along? I've NEVER received an embargoed press release that was as actually important as the pretend-important effort that went into protecting it for 24 hours.
Besides, if I really wanted to burn somebody's rear, I could do it anonymously on a blog and nobody'd be the wiser -- what, going to do a witch hunt on a list of a couple hundred PR people?
Posted by dmohney at 03:56 PM | Comments (0)
May 09, 2007
Last night at the ball park
I spent last night at Camden Yards swapping stories with Glenn Bischoff of Mobile Radio Technology and watching a most excellent ball game.
Between plays, we were shooting the breeze about PR firms and how most of them are Evil and Lazy, as well as the bad things companies do to shoot themselves in the foot. Things like "If you write about us, we'll advertise in your magazine." (Riiight). Or turning down a request for a meeting or an interview because the company is "too busy."
Let's think through Scenario A. I write about Company XYZ. We send over sales rep with a contract the next month. And then they don't buy. Or they say "Well, if you write a little more, we'll buy." And then more... and then more... and 12 months later the verbal promise is worthless.
I know when I put in an interview request with a company I'm alternatively shocked and annoyed when the process gets dragged out for over a week. Remember, Microsoft has a rapid response team ready to go and gave me a 2 hour turnaround time.
Not everyone has the deep pockets of Microsoft, but seriously, if I ask to talk to you, and you don't get back to me in a reasonable fashion... why should I come back the next time I have an opportunity? Might as well call your competitors and see what they have to say.
Posted by dmohney at 11:34 PM | Comments (0)
May 03, 2007
PR agencies get in the way - really....
Where'd I put the aspirin? If high-tech companies knew of the headaches PR firms ended up causing, they wouldn't be so quick to write a check.
Case #1 today: "Well, if you say you'll honor embargo, I'll send you the release...." Same PR firm, different representative. Homey don't play that. [reaching for the stuffed sock]. Guy sends the same thing twice.
Thanks for wasting my time. Just send me the release and dispense with the stupid games. Either VON Magazine is a trusted source to send press releases under embargo or we aren't. If we aren't, why are we playing the embargo game in the first place?
FYI, I get embargoed releases every week. PR agencies just send them. Most of them don't jerk my chain with the whole "Say you'll honor the embargo and I'll send it." Twice.
Case #2: Trying to set up an interview with QUALCOMM for a different topic.
Request for interview sent on Monday morning, 8:45 AM ET
Responding e-mail from PR firm on Tuesday, 7:45 PM ET says "Maybe Wednesday or Friday." (This is TWO BUSINESS DAYS later!)
E-mail at 1:45 PM ET on Wednesday says "Sorry, QUALCOMM spokesperson too busy today, I can get you person on Friday."
E-mail at 12:45 PM ET today (Thursday) says "Oops, rep handing this request is out of town, has asked me to reschedule, because spokesperson is unavailable on Friday and she is on travel."
How much money do you think QUALCOMM pays their PR agency per month for this type of "service"?
So, allegedly, supposedly, I may speak to someone on Monday. Allegedly.
This reminds me of how I spent over a week getting jerked around by TI's PR agency-of-record before I just said "Forget it, I can go interview someone else, and hey, the folks at BroadCom don't have a problem setting up an interview."
It's times like this that I look at my Dialogic baseball bat and have evil thoughts...
Posted by dmohney at 09:35 PM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2007
Psst - Your PR firm doesn't read VON Magazine!
Got a call from one "name" PR firm and an an e-mail from another firm asking all about what was going on with the June issue of VON Magazine.
The "Name" PR firm wanted to know more about the deadlines for the June edition and did we accept vendor-written articles.
The e-mail was asking about opportunities for two (2) clients about all the "interesting things" we were covering.
*sigh*
We have run half page ads in the last few editions of VON Magazine clearly stating that we DO NOT ACCEPT vendor-written material. It's also on our website.
We have an editorial calendar on-line here There's a column that says "Editorial Deadline" in it. For June, had anyone bothered to read it, the deadline was April 10th.
Now, I don't expect PR firms to worship and memorize every page of VON Magazine, but if they're going to pitch their clients to us, they should at least browse our website for a couple of clues before they pick up the phone or e-mail us.
"Oh no, we can't read all the magazines out there, there are too many of them---" cry the PR flacks.
If you are billing your customers thousands of dollars per month to promote them, how can you afford not to do your homework?
Posted by dmohney at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2007
Ambulance Chasing PR!
"Look! RIM and Blackberry have an outage! Let's exploit it for our gain!"
Does that sound like a PR strategy or a quick way to generate a couple of hits off of someone else's misery? Look at this recent pitch...
"As enterprises and service providers roll out new video, voice and data services and applications, they are relying more heavily on Gigabit and 10 Gig Ethernet. A breakdown in performance or interoperability can have far reaching effects -- as recently demonstrated by the failure with Blackberry."
The e-mail goes on to suggest a conversation with a testing firm because -- harumph-harumph -- Blackberry didn't do enough testing so we'd like you to tell you how testing would avoid such a scenario to avoid being like Blackberry.
Is this a good idea?
It strikes me as taking advantage of someone else's misfortune, rather than trying to make a case upon the merits of one's own products and value proposition.
Posted by dmohney at 06:29 PM | Comments (0)
April 21, 2007
Left out of an article? Why? - Ask your PR/Marketing staff
Every month or so, I get an e-mail that basically says:
"Why weren't we in this article? We should be in this article! We are the leader in [fill-in-the-blank] and we exhibit with VON. We should have been included!!!"
For variety, people sometimes drop hints that they know Jeff Pulver from Way Back When (Please, don't play that game; I was at his first VoIP event in the Puck Building in NYC, if memory serves, followed by the first "official" VON event at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco...where I rode into town sharing a cab with Peggy Miles, met William Mutual for the first time, and ate one fine fine piece of salmon at lunch).
When I get these sort of letters, my general response goes something like this--
1) Have you directed this question to your PR staff (internal or external)? We have the VON Magazine editorial calendar on-line. If nobody queries us, how do/should we know you are interested in contributing?
2) Are you sending out press releases on a regular basis?
3) Have you tried to brief one of our editors in the past year?
The sheer number of exhibitors at VON events (between 500 to 600 spread out among multiple events, depending upon location, mergers/acquisitions, etc.) make it unreasonable for any contributor to VON Magazine to sort through exhibit lists each time they want to start work on an article.
Besides, this sort of thinking leads down a slippery slope of placing importance upon talking to you based upon the square footage of exhibit space -- something that I don't track/don't want to track/don't desire to track.
Think about it: if you've got a 10x10 booth and your competitor is shelling out for a 10x20, I should be talking to the guy with the 10x20 booth first, riiight? You may have a more interesting story, but...
Bottom line #1: Exhibiting at a VON Event does not guarantee you ink in VON Magazine.
Bottom line #2: Your PR/marketing people should be proactive in understanding our editorial processes, calendar, and deadlines. If they haven't articulated a strategy and process to get you in print...
Posted by dmohney at 04:01 PM | Comments (0)
April 13, 2007
Too many wires, not enough time
Wire services are, for the most part, overrated.
At last count, there were at least a half dozen "wire services" that want to be my friend and that's about a half dozen too many.
I like wire services that directly e-mail press releases to an e-mail address. Period. None of this "log in and manage your account" or "customize your e-mail" or "We have signed you up and all you have to do is ..." junk.
PRNewswire and BusinessWire have mastered the direct e-mail trick without breaking a sweat. They are Good.
I have given up on even trying to review the daily press release summaries that wires put out because there's too much noise, too many releases that have no/little relevance to the news we cover, and too many people that game the system with multiple key word listings. Can't blame 'em for trying.
Smaller wire firms insist upon "subscribers"/writers logging in and updating/filling out profiles. I just don't have the time for that overhead, especially when it's a half dozen different services. Worse is when they sign ya up without permission then expect you to update your profile... to a service you haven't asked for...
Once upon a time, I got a call from a wire service representative that said one of their customers was complaining they weren't getting enough coverage in VON Magazine. It was, shall we say a bizarre conversation, because:
1) Either the PR agency or the company should have been complaining.
2) We had run the company's press releases over the past six months.
3) One of the founders of the company had been profiled on the FRONT COVER within the last six months.
On the front cover of VON Magazine, and they are complaining?? Uh hum.
Turns out the wire service in agitation had been dumped by the PR firm and was telling big whoppers to both sides -- Yes, I called the PR firm working with the company and asked them "Hey, are your customers really concerned about how we cover them?" [Answer: No problems, loved the cover, you guys are doing good by them].
Now the PR firm is putting all of their customers on BusinessWire and living happily ever after.
Posted by dmohney at 03:22 PM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2007
The Floundering PR Waif - STOP THE COLD CALLS!
"Well, I'm not pitching anything, but I want to find out what you think about IPTV...Do you think IPTV will be successful? ... Our firm is thinking about expanding their practice into IPTV..."
[Yes, IPTV will be successful, AT&T is deploying it to deliver video, along with firms around the globe... but that's not the point]
I hate cold calls, especially cold calls fishing for information on subjects when there are websites and The Google.
In lieu of e-mail or some time with The Google, the waif picks up the phone and starts making phone calls to editors, stumbling through a script and jotting down answers.
It wouldn't be so bad if he or she had done some basic homework, like read our magazine or visit our website, but that's NEVER the case.
Instead, they want an instant education on a cold call; in this particular case: Will IPTV be successful and what firms are worth watching in the space?
When I get a phone call from some waif out of college with a set of fishing questions -- and this has happened at least two or three times over the past month -- I'm disinclined to think very highly of either the PR firm or the individual making them.
I don't know if this is something to keep the interns busy, a bizarre hazing ritual, or an actual methodology to base/build future business plans. Unfortunately, this particular firm will likely find someone in the IPTV space that buys their pitch and suck money out of them for six months, gaining further education at the client's expense. (Big Law Firms also do this).
It's not like the firm couldn't have sent the kid to a VON or something, right? Heaven forbid that $3000 be invested in walking around at a trade show to gather information and maybe even stumble across a couple of potential clients.
It's times like these that I wish we could have selective billing on our inbound phone lines (Jeff Pulver, are you listening?) The minute I get one of these calls, I can press a button and hear...
Be more than happy to have a nice 10-20 minute chat under those circumstances, looking up things on The Google and reading them off on the phone...
I know a few PR firms that NEVER EVER let their waifs make unsupervised cold calls. The principals know better than to let the inexperienced loose without adult supervision and a little seasoning.
Posted by dmohney at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)
April 09, 2007
Stupid Embargo Tricks
I can sum this up in two parts--
1) If you can't trust a news outlet with an embargoed press release, why are you talking to them in the first place?
2) There's no such thing as a "verbal NDA." And NDA <> Embargo.
Given the total flow of e-mail per day I have, I don't like embargoed (i.e. press releases sent out a couple of days before they actually are "published") releases. I've seen companies send out releases, then turn around and say they have "retracted" them. Or they send out a release, don't even label it as embargoed, then turn around and say "Wait, we didn't want that information going out until next week."
There are some PR firms (ALWAYS PR firms, never actual company communications people) who e-mail "We'll send you the release, but I need to get you to say you'll honor the embargo." Not, "What is your embargo policy?" but it's a little game where you have to say the magic words "yes, we honor embargo" before they'll send out a press release that is going out in 24 hours anyways and nearly always turns out to be mundane. Or better yet, a venture capital funding announcement... do you know how much VC talk?
Thank you for the little game, because you've wasted my time and racked up some more billable hours for your firm. Sooo, I should reward this behavior, because...?
My other pet peeve here is the casual way that (typically young, barely out of college, ill-trained) PR people throw around the phrase "NDA" in "We can give you this under NDA until Tuesday." It's just so cool to use the phrase, like wearing all-black or smoking clove cigarettes.
NDA is short for Non Disclosure Agreement. I've read and signed a number of NDAs back in The Day. NDAs have nothing to do with embargos.
You SIGN a NDA when you want to protect company trade secrets. They are long legal documents that threaten onerous action should you violate them (i.e. blab about company trade secrets).
You DO NOT sign an embargo. An embargo, when applied to press releases, implies that an editor or writer will not disclose information in a press release until the date/time of the release comes up. So if a company has a press release it is putting out on Tuesday, it could send out an embargoed press release on Monday with the reasonable expectation that it wouldn't show up until Tuesday.
Note that embargo and press release have nothing to do with company trade secrets or signing documents threatening legal action.
Therefore, a "verbal NDA" is an oxymoron, worth the paper it is written on...
Posted by dmohney at 02:51 PM
April 05, 2007
ATTACHMENTS ARE EVIL! EVIL! AHH AHHH....
Every time I get an attachment for/on a press release, I start channeling Sam Kinison.
"OOOAHOAHHOOHH...why are you doing this? Haven'tyoueverheardofVirusesorspywareorPDAsorcrappynetworksOHAHAOAH!!!"
Why do people insist on .PDFs? or .DOC files??
Two big reasons why I hate them are as follows--
1) Bandwidth. I travel. Believe it or not, when people travel, they don't have fat pipes like they do at home or in the office. Hotel networks, be they wired or wireless, just freaking COLLAPSE when the techies come to town, because when everyone leaves the show floor at 5 PM, 75 percent of them run back to their hotel rooms to check e-mail... thereby dragging everything to a crawl.
I saw this happen at the Sheraton Hotel in Boston during a Fall VON a couple of years ago. It was the major event that moved me into getting an EVDO phone and data service from Sprint. (Well, that and a crappy Wi-Fi connection at the Imperial Palace during CES, but I digress).
Since I get tons of e-mail (57 before breakfast, Tuesday, Spring 2007 VON, no joke, most press releases), every attachment, every 300K to 1MB .PDF adds up. Even with the speeds I get from EVDO, it takes a while to download mail, so I curse every large attachment that comes through.
2) Viruses, spy-ware.
The security problems with MS Word .DOC files are, shall we say, well documented. Adobe Acrobat .PDF files have been used in at least one documented instance to carry a payload of spyware and it's one of the "flavors of the month" for mischief in the future.
You could add on a third "Why on here?"
3) Portable devices. Sure you CAN (with great difficulty) read a .PDF or .DOC file on some portable devices, but on every cell phone? On a Blackberry?
That's just from the client/receiver side -- i.e. the guy that's got to read it when/if it arrives.
Consider what sending all this stuff through a mass mailer might do to your network connection and/or hitting a flag on a third-party spam filter somewhere in the network.
Stick to plain text or HTML in the BODY of an e-mail message. Everyone can read it on most all devices and it arrives much faster when we're not jacked into the cable modem at home.
Posted by dmohney at 02:32 PM | Comments (0)