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Social Media Has Made You Lazy

posted on March 22, 2011

Dear Lazy Agency Worker Bees,

It has come to my attention that as social media has become more popular, that you’ve decided that taking the easy way without doing enough research would be beneficial to your bottom line.

I’d like to inform you just how lazy you’ve become and why you are not doing it right.

Earlier today I received two separate pitch e-mails that were nothing more then a mail merge fail mixed with a generic form letter. I include them here so that you can appreciate their utter laziness and lack of care for the client that you are pitching.

Exhibit A is fairly typical because since I created Digital Dads I’m automatically added to every mommy blogger list out there. Nothing makes me feel more like a warm, cuddly, feminine woman than a form letter written to a man. (Yes, update your spreadsheet because I’m a man not a woman.)

Exhibit B was a new one for me and I’m not sure if you were surfing for casting couch porn just before sending me the e-mail or something else, but I love that I’m more to you than just an XXX.

I’m writing you this letter because nothing upsets me more then watching an agency take a client’s money and then do poor work for them. Sending e-mails like this not only hurts your reputation, but really hurts your client’s as well.

I love being pitched about relevant topics. If you have something to do with travel, photography, technology, parenting, food, drink or a million other topics then I am interested. I love getting e-mails about things that I’m interested in. But, when you come to be about diapers (my kids are 10 & 12), makeup or anything else that as a red blooded male there is no way I’d be using then you’ve wasted my time and your client’s money.

I ran a marketing agency. I’ve planned and executed outreach campaigns for numerous clients. I teach companies and students how to properly use online technology to do their jobs better. I’m only telling you this so that you realize I in fact do know what I’m talking about.

I’m not sure when exactly you got so lazy, but I’m betting it was after you read one too many Top 10 Secrets to Success posts, watched far to many “expert” webinars and probably bought a few too many instant success eBooks. Your on the hunt for a silver bullet and I wanted to inform you that there are none.

If you want to do influencer outreach, then you need to do the work, research and planning that is required to be successful. Banish mail merge from your vocabulary and send out each e-mail pitch to the individual you want to reach. If nothing else spend five minutes going to their blog and Twitter account to learn a little more about them and use basic old school manners to talk to them like a human.

You’ve gotten lazy and no one likes the way you are doing business. If you ever hope to get my attention for your clients new whatever, you’ve got to put in the time too. Play by my rules or go home. There is no other option.

Peace and be wild y’all.

- C.C. Chapman

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Categories: Rants
  • http://amyvernon.net/ AmyVernon

    Honestly, I don’t think this is new. It’s not social media that’s made these folks lazy – they would have done a crappy job anyway. Having worked in newsrooms for nearly 20 years, I can’t tell you how many times we’d get mail or phone calls for people who hadn’t worked in the paper in upwards of 10 years. Sure, newsroom staffs change and it’s easy to fall behind by a reporter – even two, sometimes! – but there’s no excuse at all to fall behind by years. And we got pitches via mail, phone and fax for various reporters for YEARS after they had left the paper.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      VERY true indeed. There has been and always will be lazy people.

      It just feels to me that all the false promises of silver bullet social
      media success has made far too many companies assume that all they need to
      do is hire some interns and blast out e-mails. Part of the problem is that I
      guess enough of these shotgun approaches does mean your going to hit success
      once and a while which just means they get to do it again.

      Part of me feels like I should just forward the bad pitches directly to the
      clients, but on the flip side that just feels like a mean move and not worth
      it. I was very careful to make sure there was no client or agency names in
      the screen shots when I took them.

      • http://amyvernon.net/ AmyVernon

        I had an editor once who used to call the offending PR folks and tell them SO politely what idiots they were. I love listening in on those calls. :-)

      • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

        Those must have been PRICELESS!!!

    • Sarah Wallace

      And, prior to crappy emails, it was crappy faxes. << Having worked in a a newsroom/editor myself.

  • http://www.shouldidrinkthat.com spoon

    you’re still my favorite mommy blogger :)

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Can I get a gold star badge to put on my blog? *smirk*

      • http://www.shouldidrinkthat.com spoon

        I’ll make it a baby bottle filled with stars in a sea of rainbows

      • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

        HA HA HA.

        I think you forgot the unicorn sticker.

  • http://www.briandshelton.com Brian D. Shelton

    Dear XXX – err, C.C. – the bottom line is this: you absolutely cannot take shortcuts and expect to establish meaningful relationships. And, we all know (or should) that relationships are how business gets done.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Thanks YYY. *grin*

      You are dead on right.

  • http://www.brainwads.net/drewhawkins Drew Hawkins

    First, your mommy blogger tweet earlier today made me laugh out loud.

    Second, as I start at a new agency next week, I will definitely be taking your suggestions seriously in whatever sort of outreach I’ll be doing from here on out. It just makes sense to make things as human as possible.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      It does make sense, but be careful because doing it right means more work. No matter what line of work you are in this is true.

      Be sure to budget for that time. After all you need to also get paid for the work.

      Glad I could make you laugh. :)

  • http://brasstackthinking.com Amber Naslund

    What Amy said. I think social media has exacerbated a long-existing issue: crappy practitioners. And the sad part is that they’ll likely not read this post, not recognize themselves in it, nor understand what they’re doing wrong. Which frustrates us to no end and I feel your pain, but you have to want to learn before you can be taught, and I’m guessing these types of folks don’t give it a second thought.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      BINGO.

      I’m actually going to send this post to both of the people who I got the e-mails from above, but I wanted to wait until there were some comments so that HOPEFULLY they would realize that I’m not ranting just to hear myself rant. I’m ranting because I really want people to learn and do better.

    • http://nikkistephan.com Nikki Stephan

      Amber is exactly right. This is a nagging problem in the PR industry. I have no idea where PR pros learned that this method of outreach is acceptable, but all it does is add less credibility to an industry that already gets looked down upon by several bloggers and journalists.

      C.C. – I’m sure you’re aware of this, but there are many of us who are putting in the time and effort to research blogs/media outlets thoroughly and to send relevant story ideas. This isn’t an excuse by any means, but sadly the tools to find and vet relevant bloggers/media are severely lacking (which is why I’m thrilled about David Spinks’ BlogDash). So that requires more digging and research, which those of us who are concerned about doing things right will gladly do. The lazy ones will continue to send the type of pitches you received.

      All we can do is continue educating PR pros about the right way to reach out to bloggers and media. I appreciate when bloggers like yourself share the bad pitches because it teaches a good lesson to less experienced pros who read your blog. But like Amber said, the ones who really need to be reading this probably aren’t.

  • http://www.redheadwriting.com The Redhead

    CC, I wanna hug ya. On a day where I could smack a nun, you have eloquently ranted on the one key thing that has always been hard for people to do: pay attention. When we’re paid for a service or perceived level of expertise, there’s a certain onus that comes with it. And if money can’t make you pay attention to what you’re being paid to do, what can? The root of the problem lies in the easy-peasy work ethic, methinks. Yes, we actually have to work for our clients – because if we won’t, someone else will. And boy – won’t we look like REAL jerks when the client sees what their money SHOULD be getting them?

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      You can hug me anytime!

      I think you are right. There is a certain work ethic that many of us have and yet so many more don’t have and that is why things like this make me so upset.

      Too many people looking to cut corners and always take the easiest route rather then the best route.

  • http://www.jodiontheweb.com/ jodiontheweb

    How embarrassing. All this time, I thought you were a mommy blogger ;)

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      *laugh* Sorry to disappoint you, but obviously as you can see you were not the only one who thinks that.

  • http://twitter.com/courtenayrogers Courtenay Rogers

    So true! Thanks for the blunt honesty, C.C.

    By the way, I am a parent who loves to eat and drink wine so we have lots in common:)

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Who doesn’t like to eat and drink right? The term “foodie” has a lot of baggage with it, but there are few things in this world like a great meal with great friends.

      And I don’t know how to do anything but be blunt and today I HAD to write this.

  • http://twitter.com/shelholtz Shel Holtz

    While I agree with Amy that none of this is new, I will say that social media has enabled those agency folk already inclined to laziness to reach new heights and to be way, way more visible with it.

    • http://www.youintegrate.com Kneale Mann

      They have to pay for the staff client deliverable per diems somehow.

  • http://twitter.com/braddahmike Michael Jensen

    Having started my career in a PR agency, I’ve seen it happen often. It seems that most (not all) of the press releases & subsequent pitches are done by those who are lower on the totem pole and if they get any bites they are directed to senior members of the agency to follow up. It’s treated as busy work…until someone actually responds, and for someone who’s employed as a “PR professional” it is terrible PR! One of the reasons I got out of the agency gig was that too many times the emphasis was less on actual results and more on the appearance or effort put forth and then “spinning” the results. Targeting journalists, reading their articles and preferences for contacting is looked at as simply taking too much time. Funny how they entrust new or less experienced employees to make the first contact/impression…and then when they actually do communicate with someone, they’re referred to a senior member of the team (lack of trust combined with CYA).

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Exactly why I wrote the letter to the “worker bees” because this sort of
      tasks always trickles down because it isn’t deemed worth of a manager’s
      attention.

  • David Lee

    CC,

    Ad age published an interesting article yesterday about agency training. They showed that a Barista at Starbucks got more training than someone at an ad agency. So the question really becomes is this laziness or lack of training? Scary that the company that charges $2 for their service has better trained people than those who charge you thousands or even millions!

    Maybe the title should be Dear Lazy and Money Hungry Agency Ececutives.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Do you have a link to that article? Can you post it here? I’d love to read
      it and you are SO right that training doesn’t seem to be part of the
      equation and it needs to be.

    • http://www.purplestripe.com Lynette Young

      Agreed, I have insider working knowledge of a few current agencies (outside social media) that put interns up to this with *ZERO* training or fear of consequence since they are only in a 3-month rotation at the agency. You get what you pay for… (I’d love that article too!)

  • http://www.youintegrate.com Kneale Mann

    It’s interesting to watch the online chatter about the online world as it’s all grown up and mature and firing on all proverbial cylinders. Brogan blogged this week about the fact that if you are doing your own thing the big social media projects will be lost to the agencies and the wave has crested. http://www.chrisbrogan.com/social-media-jobs-outlook/

    If the agencies all “got it” – and we have yet (and may never) fully define “it” – then a prominent digital marketing person like CC Chapman wouldn’t get crap like that in the email. Before we get fitted for our graduation gown, let’s be sure to grasp the fact we have a long way to go.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      WELL said

  • http://twitter.com/SteveCoulson Steve Coulson

    Should have named them.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      I thought about that, but decided to just e-mail it to them instead.

  • http://www.purplestripe.com Lynette Young

    I call these ‘spray & pray’ when I get them … because that’s what it seems the agency’s are doing – spraying as many crappy emails around and praying one sticks. I do have to give you credit for not disclosing names!

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      I had to fight ever urge to name names with e-mails, but it just didn’t feel
      professional.

  • Anonymous

    Ugh! So true. I always get offers from businesses I currently have accounts with to “Mr. Corey O’Lo.”…I get it, I have a unisex name…but I am in your database! I am a customer! Lazy.

  • http://www.edwingoitia.com Edwin Goitia

    Very well said. I see this everyday in my email inbox as well, with hideous looking email templates, which were obviously poorly thought out and lazily executed. There is no human element in that type of communication exchange. Shame on all of those lazy people. If you really want to be successful and you care, take the time to do it right.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Exactly.

      Business when done right has always been about relationships and treating
      others with respect. If an agency can’t show people the basic respect of
      sending them a personal e-mail, then why in the world will we even take the
      time to pay attention to what they are pitching us.

  • Eric

    They should just keep doing it. It makes it that much easier for those of us who aim high and take our roles seriously.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      *laugh* There is definitely some truth to that for sure!

  • http://twitter.com/JGoldsborough JGoldsborough

    Hey, C.C. I work for Fleishman-Hillard in Kansas City. The examples you shared above are what give the PR industry a bad name. They’re why people like Gini Dietrich have a blog called Spin Sucks. They’re why Klout is getting taken to the cleaners by PR pros who know so many of our peers will take the lazy way and use ONLY that score in their outreach.

    We have a three-pronged influencer outreach process that includes reach, relevancy and tone. It absolutely includes manual research and personalized pitches. That is non-negotiable. It absolutely does NOT include mail merges and irrelevant pitching. We are trying to build relationships here.

    There are a lot of folks doing PR the way you indicated above, so I’m glad you wrote this post. Because those people absolutely need to be called out. I know my end goal as a communicator is to be a strategic counselor for my clients. And there is nothing strategic at all bout an e-mail blast or mail merge in most cases.

    Cheers, Justin.

    • http://mattlacasse.wordpress.com Matt LaCasse

      I was going to write something pretty similar, so I’ll spare your time CC and just jump on Justin’s bandwagon. Just like any other industry, the lazy professionals often get more attention because of just how awful a job they do. Rinse, wash, repeat is certainly not acceptable.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Thanks for chiming in. I wondered who the fist PR company would be and my
      guess was that it would be you guys, Shift or Edelman since the three of you
      seem to be the ones that “get it” based on my personal experience.

      • http://twitter.com/JGoldsborough JGoldsborough

        Thanks for the kind words. I was just talking to a colleague the other day asking if we need to start including the fact that we actually do research in our results reports. I guess we should consider it :) .

    • http://twitter.com/jenzings Jen Zingsheim

      I’m an FH alum (STL-public affairs), but had left before social media entered the picture. I *loved* working there, and it surprises me not one bit that there is an outreach process that includes manual research and personalized pitches.

      I don’t know what it’s like at other agencies, but FH always took training and professional development very seriously. I think it shows.

      C.C. –great post. I’ve railed about laziness in PR myself, although my rant was about the tendency to beg for tools to do the work for them (Justin’s Klout example). What causes this? Is it a training failure, or are people cutting corners because they are stretched for time? Are clients balking at the time and billable hours it takes to do things right? I’m truly mystified.

      • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

        I think it is a combination of them all. As humans we all want to take the
        shortest amount of time to do any tasks. That is why microwaves became so
        popular.

        The problem is that just like nuking some dinner, it isn’t quite the same as
        cooking a fine meal.

        It may not be the perfect analogy but it is the first one that came to mind.
        :)

        Any time you cut corners you have the chance of it not turning out great.
        There are some awesome tools out there to assist with the research and I
        really hope someone makes some even better ones, but at least in this case
        it still takes a lot of human interaction. Clients think it is magic.
        Agencies chase the $$$. It is a vicious circle.

  • http://twitter.com/adriennemay Adrienne May

    Doesn’t even sound like a bad marketing company as much as a scam with as bad as these letters are! horrible! Funny, but horrible.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      I wish it was, but both of them came from legit agencies that I knew.

  • TorontoPR

    Wow, these are horrible examples of the laziness that exists in some PR agencies today but this approach is not limited to PR agencies. When I was running a PR agency, I received these kinds of e-mails from people looking for jobs, photographers, event planners, graphic designers. Basically anyone who had something to sell.

    I’m not sure I would blame social media though. People were blasting out news releases to indiscriminate media lists long by fax and even mail, before social media came along. Anyone who has something to sell, whether it’s consulting services or a PR pitch, needs to take the time to research their audience, identify who might be interested and why and how each person likes to receive information and then get in touch with them on a personal level with a targeted pitch. If this means, 25 separate e-mails then so be it. Yes, it takes a lot more time but it’s about building relationships over the long-term. This philosophy needs to be set from the top-down.

    Having said that, I have one caveat. When new media bloggers come on the scene, it’s really hard to do this research and find out what they’re interested in and how they want to receive it, if they don’t respond to an initial outreach. As part of the research you speak of, we sent many e-mails or posts to new bloggers introducing ourselves and the clients we represent and asking if they would be interested in receiving more information and their preferred method of receiving it. In many cases we got no response.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Yes, I know these problems exist beyond this little fishbowl, but it
      certainly has gotten worse (for me) lately.

      You also raise a VERY valid point about it being hard to find out exactly
      what people are interested in. As someone who has done the research for
      campaigns I know how hard this can be. I like your idea about actually
      reaching out and that sucks that not more responded. Probably some got lost
      in the deluge of e-mail, but some others might have been ignored. Have you
      ever tried reaching out again? Not nagging, but double checking?

      I like the approach.

  • Ruth Bazinet

    I see social media and pr “experts” online who tout themselves as such, and by that virtue, garner clients. This is unfortunate and makes it more difficult for all concerned. I try to stay away from those folks as much as possible online. By meaningfully engaging with them I help validate their “expert” claims. Perhaps if they spent more time on campaign strategy and careful execution instead of trying to find the next unsuspecting client you wouldn’t be receiving these ridiculous pitches. #JustSayin

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      WELL said!

  • Anonymous

    Agree with the comments about laziness all around. The other thing these pitches lack are HUMANITY. The best pitches speak to the person they’re intended for and keep that person’s audience in mind. Why would CC bother writing on something that’s of no use to him and his audience?

    On the other hand, thank God for crappy PR practitioners. It means I’ll always have people coming to me to fix what someone else has royally screwed. Thanks for the post, CC!

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Bingo. The power of the web is the human connection and when they forget
      that no one pays attention.

      Glad it is keeping you in business though! *hugs*

  • Anon

    This coming from a guy who had a stage at SXSW to contribute something of value, and the best you have to offer is “Ask me questions”

    Dude… you need to stop trolling and start contributing. We all know you have written a book. But what have you ACTUALLY done beyond position yourself as an expert?

    Any dude can start a blog and spew obvious shit from every direction. Time to pony up… what have you actually achieved, or what do you plan on achieving?

    yours,
    Anonymous on Madison Ave.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Wow, I haven’t had an anonymous troll in a long time. This made my morning.

      My resume speaks for itself. Me and teams I’ve worked on have run campaigns
      for everyone from Coke, to Warner Brothers, to HBO and Snapple. I’ve run
      more outreach campaigns then I care to remember so when I write something
      like this I speak from the experience of being paid a lot of money to make
      sure that clients get what they ask for.

      So I’m not just spouting, but rather trying to help people do better work.
      Sorry you can’t see the difference.

      Thanks for coming to our book reading at SXSW. Sorry you didn’t like the
      approach, but we liked it better then reading from the book for 10 minutes
      and THEN answering questions as we were instructed to.

      Hope next time you can grow a pair of balls and actually post as yourself
      rather then hiding behind your snark.

      Happy Wednesday to ya!

  • http://twitter.com/CollinDouma Collin Douma

    CC

    I work for Proximity BBDO. Let me add that I agree with your post, and there are many examples of lazy Ad and PR people out there. They are not all bad, and this is still an emerging medium.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      I agree that they are not ALL bad.

      I get relevant, human pitches all the time and when they come in they are a
      VERY welcomed addition to my inbox.

      Keep up the good work.

  • http://twitter.com/Glennengler Glenn Engler

    Ouch. Painful example of problems that can run deep. Good post and a good reminder to clients and agencies. As someone who has spent over 25 years on the services side (consulting, agency), there is a constant need to remain out in front, proactive, and intellectually curious. To your point, that starts with an incredibly focused understanding of the client’s customers, prospects, partners, influencers, and the business itself.
    There will always be mistakes. Clients make them, agencies make them, suppliers/partners make them, we’ve all made them– I certainly have. The key is to make sure you don’t make them again, look hard for root causes, and do everything possible to mitigate future risk. The Groupon/Crispin back-and-forth is interesting — I struggle to take a side because it’s clearly shared. My best client relationships are partnerships. As a client, you want a partner who is there to deliver, push, lead, and defend; as an agency, you want a partner (I shudder whenever I hear the “vendor” word) who wants to spend time with you, will help break down internal walls, and is receptive to ideas. It’s a painfully simple model — good work creates good partnerships creates success for clients and agencies.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Agreed and this is why I did not mention the agency or client in either of
      these examples because that wouldn’t have been fair since mistakes are made
      all the time.

      • http://twitter.com/Glennengler Glenn Engler

        Smart move. Not worth it and it would have distracted from your point (regardless what some anon comments below may try to surface — file that one under “I just may have too much time on my hands”, but that’s a different story). The other incredibly important point in your post is the speed and amplification of any of these issues due to the social world. Perhaps a blinding flash of the obvious to most of your readers, but it is all too often forgotten within long-standing agencies and many marketing departments within brands.

  • http://twitter.com/markrotoole Mark O’Toole

    CC:

    It’s not a social media problem, it’s a performance problem. Too many firms trust junior staff (not that there aren’t rock stars among young staff) to execute without supervision. The recession hit PR firms too, and as a result, work that was once handled by mid-level (e.g. experienced) staff is pushed to junior or intern staff. Quality control is easy to ignore but the ramifications of doing so are obvious, from your to those on Bad Pitch blog to so many others.

    The real impact of social media is that it has eliminated the grace of longer form communication. At least when I see my kid write 10 paragraphs for an essay that requires a minimum of four, I have hope that the written word still has some life left in it.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Well said for sure.

      Whatever level is doing the work I think a big problem too is that there
      isn’t enough value or training placed on making sure it is done right.

      Isn’t it great when your child does that? I had it happen recently and I
      couldn’t stop smiling.

  • Mandy Mladenoff

    I always have a mixed reaction to these types of posts. Part of me revels in the fact that other firms are being called out for clearly doing a terrible job. Another part is frustrated that sweeping generalizations about PR people get so many “atta boys” in the comment sections.

    Here’s the thing: this is *not* a new problem (as folks state below) and there will always be people who don’t understand that every (mommy?) blogger is not interested in the same thing. They don’t understand that social media means that PR has to work harder than ever before because we know SO much more about bloggers and influencers because you/they actually TELL us. They don’t understand that, if we do our job right, we should be engaging with 3 or 4 folks who make the most sense for our clients or projects vs. spamming 100 -200 and hoping someone will spend time trying to find the relevance in a form letter.

    But, there *are* PR people who truly understand how to engage and interact with bloggers, reporters and influencers. Maybe it’s because they have been paying attention to how the industry has shifted. Maybe it’s because they’ve taken the time to build solid relationships. Maybe it’s because of the training they’ve received from their agencies. Or maybe they simply have common sense. Whatever it is, I’d love to see posts that generate this many comments about PR people who are working hard and who get it. It’s obvious that, as an industry, we have some work to do before this happens.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      THANK you for chiming in.

      Your statement of “They don’t understand that social media means that PR has to work harder than ever before because we know SO much more about bloggers and influencers because you/they actually TELL us.” is so dead on correct that I wish I had a way to highlight it for the world to see.

      There are most certainly agencies out there doing it right, but at least from my experience is it the minority. For every one properly done outreach I get, there are easily 25 or more that are horrible. I can’t wait till that shifts.

      I also think a lot of it is a common sense and manners issue. Somehow people in general have lost these things.

      • Mandy

        Re: Common sense and manners. You are dead on. And it’s hard to train people on the emotional intelligence stuff.

  • http://www.pjmullen.com/ PJ Mullen

    You have no idea how bad I’ve wanted to take all of the awful pitches lobbed in my direction and create prfailblog.com.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Yeah there are a lot of them out there and I’m not sure what it was about yesterday that made me finally write this. Guess I hit my own personal tipping point from the constant stream of them.

  • Shannon Mitchell

    As with many of the commenters below, I do agree with a lot in this post – I won’t reiterate everything as I think many of the commenters of done a great job of that already. I also want to applaud all the PR people who have commented here – I too read a lot of blogs with a hate-on for PR people as a generalization, and it’s hard to sometimes deal with the little respect my profession garners from some communities.

    What I mostly wanted to do was thank you for actually replying to the people sending you these messages. They won’t learn unless their mistakes are pointed out. Whether it was laziness or a genuine error (which happens to everyone), I’m sure they appreciated having their mistake pointed out to them so they can avoid it in the future. Some people would rather post this blog entry and complain about it rather than doing anything – something I think is almost as annoying as receiving this kind of mail in the first place.

    So thanks for letting the senders know of their mistake – whether it’s your job or not, you’re helping to cut down on these kind of e-blasts and doing some teaching along the way – something I think everyone on this forum can appreciate.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      You are most welcome. My main goal in writing this post was in the hopes
      that it will help everyone do better work.

      No one likes when this happens and only bitching about it helps no one. That
      is why I sincerely wrote them back and shared this link. I got nice replies
      from both of them so hopefully it helped a bit.

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  • http://www.thejackb.com/ The JackB

    Or maybe they didn’t make a mistake, maybe they think that you are a real mother ;)

    I agree with a number of the other commenters. I remember seeing this sort of sloppiness 20 years ago. Some people do as little work as possible. It doesn’t speak very highly of their work ethic but…

  • http://doughaslam.com Anonymous

    You know, if you keep writing these posts, you’re going to rank higher on searches for “Mommy Blogger.”

    I don;t think social media has made pr lazier, I think it has exposed the laziness to more people. The “mass email merge” pitches, which should be gone-gone-gone, are still here, apparently. The people who don’t read the publications before pitching them. Those who can’t discover (in your case, it’s not toooo difficult) that “CC” is a dude. Even the grayer area of lumping mommies and daddies (but not calling it “parenting” – back to research, anyone should know that’s a sore spot for you).

    Blame? not the folks who pitch you, necessarily- but the managers who are making them pitch out to everyone under the sun, emphasizing numbers over quality and not giving people the training to know and the breathing room to do the proper research. I’ve seen that way too many times- and it has nothing to do with social media.

    • http://nikkistephan.com Nikki Stephan

      Awesome points. The blame often is on the managers who emphasis the importance of numbers versus quality.

  • Bstearns

    Right on CC. Those emails come from the old school mentality…. quantity not quality…reach numbers of people…not the people themselves…. In my opinion, your jjob or your challenge, with an email, tweet, video, blog or any type of content is TO MAKE ME CARE. My life is too busy and my time is too valuable to be wasted on such drivle….. If you want to talk to me then TALK TO ME!…
    Amen CC

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