November 17 2005

November 17, 2005
Common Sense and Blogging... what next?
Nothing makes one's heart sing more than finding some common sense among the blogging fraternity. It happens so rarely that when it occurs I find my shoulders becoming less tense and there's even a chance of warm smile invading my grumpy facade... you get the idea.
I, like many others, have grown tired and weary of the self-satisfied, holier than thou, "A-list bloggers" who believe they hold disproportionate sway on the matters of the day. This isn't everyone of course but the sooner we call time on this endless circle of self-gratification the better.
Jeremy Zawodny (no link I'm sick of this cross-linking nonsense - you'll find him on MSN :-) originally proposed a black list of PR firms (yawn) and now he's launched an invective against SixAparts's (Think MoveableType, Typepad etc.) PR firm because they pitched him a story.... jaysus. [Aside: He's a little bit precious isn't he?] Of course while he could have just deleted it, he instead wasted time writing a post on it... clearly a much better use of his time.
Anyhow... in the comments section of the post, Mena Trott of SixApart fame wrote the following:
I usually try to stay out of these sort of debates, but since you mention Six Apart in this post and because I'm sick and tired of the mob mentality that blogging sometimes brings out, I'm taking the time to comment.
I find the title of your post to not only be inaccurate but intentionally damaging. We've worked with KTA for almost three years and the principals and staff are professionals who have been involved in the Valley for twenty plus years. In the three years we have worked with them, they have never suggested anything that borders on spamming and have worked hard to understand how public relations works well with blogging. To link them with spammers is just ridiculous and really self-indulgent.
I asked someone involved with KTA what happened and it was the address being on the wrong distribution list. These things unfortunately happen sometimes and Barbara (a real person!) apologized.
Blogging is a lot like the game of telephone. We can expect that as more people link and offer commentary, the original message or facts can get distorted. I have to constantly defend blogging because of this reason. And posts like yours make it harder to do so.
Fantastic, well done Mena.
Don't get me wrong there's a lot of PR muppets out there throwing ill-advised, poorly crafted and irrelevant pitches around. That's wrong, but the beauty of online communication is that quality is self-regulating. The muppets will be ignored, those who research, prepare and understand will succeed in the end.
Blog spam is the hundred trackbacks and comments linking to Pr0n sites that I have to delete every single day. A couple of e-mails from a PR firm - some of which may be relevant to your blog - isn't exactly life threatening, even in the rarified atmosphere of the "gurus".
Well done Mena Trott, the scarcity of common sense makes your contribution all the more valuable.
Thanks to Stuart Bruce for the link. [You see I do link when it's justified - hopefully my selective linking won't lead to a disciplinary hearing with the Z-list blogging fraternity.]
Posted by Tom Murphy at 01:11 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
The PR blog sloth
Hello. Well later today I'll be jumping on a plane to Sunderland to participate in the University of Sunderland's seminar "Making the News – Blogging, Really Simple Syndication and the New PR" - which is of course being organized by Philip Young.
There are a number of other PR bloggers participating at the conference including Elizabeth, Neville and Stuart (and of course Philip) so it should be a great day. Unfortunately the vagaries of the Dublin-Sunderland flight schedule means that I'll miss this evening's speakers dinner.
PR Opinions posts continue to be light, but then as my mother used to say, a little is better than nothing :-) (RSS is a very useful tool for the lazier blogger). I'll post some thoughts from the conference tomorrow.
Posted by Tom Murphy
Sincerely yours Rodrigo González F, consultajuridica.blogspot.com, santiago chile