Comments on: Online PR Mistakes: Spamming Wired

By: Soli

Soli — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:55:09 +0000

I’m sorry to say this, spam means unsolicited email (not bulk email), at least that is what we are being fed with, it is hard nowadays to even know which is which. An example is the case of the editor, to him all unsolicited email is spam.

By: Mihaela Lica

Mihaela Lica — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 02:06:04 +0000

Yes Martin. You are right. I get similar messages every day - sure, my list doesn’t sum 300, but nevertheless it is a big list. I will not go around publishing people’s emails on the web. Some of them might be private. Honestly, I hope that Mr. Anderson realizes his mistake and apologizes to these people.

By: Martin Welch

Martin Welch — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 01:56:10 +0000

I understand why he gets mad for those kinds of emails, but unfortunately, that was a wrong move for Mr. Anderson to publish those “spam emails” that he receive. He can do it in nice way.

By: Mihaela Lica

Mihaela Lica — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 16:59:29 +0000

Welcome to eWritings, Johan. You are right. We all make mistakes after all. Politeness can be the solution for many problems.

By: Johan

Johan — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 00:49:21 +0000

I agree, a polite/tactful message to the PR people should be the first thing that should be done. If they continue, then lay the hammer down.

By: Mihaela Lica

Mihaela Lica — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 21:57:52 +0000

You said it girl! The man is simply “too important.” Let’s just ignore him from now on. He forgot where he comes from really. That’s the worse kind.

By: Alina Popescu

Alina Popescu — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 20:29:26 +0000

Hey Mig,

I read his post and all the comments…It still is blurry to me…I still think publishing the emails was wrong. Not necessarily because it will harm those people, simply because it is unethical. The eye for an eye thing does not have such a good return on investment.

Yes, you should try finding the person covering a beat. Still, what if that person has never written anything on a product or service similar to yours. Who would you write to?

Plus, I remember once finding discrepancies in what was written to be a journalist’s beat and what his/her beat actually was. I did email to the right one when his colleague was nice enough to tell me it was a mistake…

Another issue: freelancers. I see it in every magazine. You contact them, because they are covering your beat and get redirected to the editor in chief or someone else because the decision is not theirs.

There are lots of shades of gray out there. Trying to see it all in black and white simply does not work.

By: Mihaela Lica

Mihaela Lica — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 19:21:46 +0000

Well, basically he said that the PR people are spamming the editor-in-chief with press releases. LMAO!

By: Alina Popescu

Alina Popescu — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 19:06:56 +0000

I wanted to say - build a relationship with the editorial staff and are most likely to use those email addresses?

By: Alina Popescu

Alina Popescu — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 19:06:12 +0000

Seriously? They are spammers? Well, the next thing I expect right now is someone to say that PR people are spamming email addresses listed for press releases to be sent. Editorial staff’s emails are public on most magazine sites. Yes, some spam will flood such email accounts. But emails from PR people seen as spam? From the same PR people who are supposed to try to build a relationship with the editorial sites and are most likely to use those email addresses?

I won’t even start to comment on the fact that those email addresses were published! I get a few hundreds spam messages on a daily basis. I’d triple that in such a case…