DANGER: Using digital PR tactics to hype digital expertise

UPDATE: Craig Kallin, Senior Vice President of Marketing Services for Acsys Interactive commented on the blog post. Thanks, Craig.

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Using digital communications tools (such as an emailed press release pitch) to hype how wonderful your organization is at digital communications is fraught with danger.

I've written about this before in my post Creating a Social Media Monster about Lady Gaga’s digital agency of record.

Yesterday I received a press release via email from a representative of Acsys Interactive, "a Connecticut-based firm specializing in digital media consulting."

The subject line of the email shouted in nearly all caps: New Survey: MARKETERS ANTICIPATE 400 PERCENT INCREASE IN USE OF DIGITAL MEDIA.

The body of the pitch contained the text of the press release which can be found here.

Really?

A press release sent via email to talk about the use of digital media by marketers? And in all capital letters? Why not use digital media to talk about this instead of an emailed press release?

Normally I just let this kind of thing pass without notice. Delete the email. No harm done.

But this time I wanted to talk about it because the email itself was sent with a major flaw that no self-proclaimed "expert" should ever make. The email was addressed to 219 people all in the "To" field.

In other words, all 200+ email addresses of the members of the media that this so-called digital media consulting firm pitched were exposed for all to see. There is no other way to describe this than the worst form of email spam. Not only am I sent an unsolicited email from a company I do not know from a list I did not opt-in to, but anyone on the "to" list could see the other email addresses and potentially harvest them.

If you're a self-proclaimed expert, you need to show it.

Yes, mistakes happen. It is likely this error was made because the release was sent in haste or a junior person was assigned to send the release and nobody explained to the representative how to use email correctly to send a press release. We all make mistakes. Like the time I tweeted an unauthorized offer and had to scramble for a full day to stop the damage. I certainly do understand that errors occur. It's likely that Acsys Interactive is a good firm that simply made an error.

Lesson learned

You need to be very, very careful touting your digital media chops using traditional and digital forms of communications. Everything you do reflects on your level of expertise.

In fact, this advice is true of any person or company. Whatever your expertise, you need to be extra careful how you promote it.

People naturally say: "How good can they be if they can't even do it for themselves?"

Comments

[Mike Hale]

Then you get the people who Reply-All with "Remove"!

[Mongoosemetrics]

The really juicy tidbit you left out was the list of addressees!

[Mattshawblog]

So when should we expect your review of their "award-winnning, full-service interactive agency focused on delivering quantifiable results for clients"? ;)

[Jennifer]

One thing they did do though--was have you mention their name-- ;)

[Deb]

When I read this it was OUCH!
Feel for the inexperienced person who sent that email. Talk about a Learning Experience / Opportunity!
You have been such an inspiration and Great Advisor to countless people, us included and it gives one more example of how you are willing to go take the time to insure we all learn.
Hope they take your ASVICE (from yournformer Blog Posts and your Books) and RESPOND immediately and address the Error they made and how they plan to correct it.
Great Lesson!

[David Meerman Scott]

Mike - Someone actually did that in this case!

Mongoosemetrics - wouldn't that be fun.

Mattshawblog - Ha! I've given them enough exposure.

Jennifer -- It is sort of ironic that they got me to write about them and got an inbound link from my blog which is good for SEO purposes...

Deb - If it was an intern, it wasn't that person's fault. Glad that my work has helped you.

[Craig Kallin]

Totally agree, David. This was a mistake... on many fronts (not only in execution, but in approach as well). (And our intern had nothing to do with it.) We can do better. And usually do. We did learn more than one lesson here – and we’ve engaged w/some really good people as a result (though not our preferred path to engagement). Thanks for the fair/balanced treatment (e.g., "It's likely that Acsys Interactive is a good firm that simply made an error"). I’m hopeful that we have the opportunity to make a better impression in the future.

[Peter St Onge]

The internet may not know you're a dog, but it sure as heck knows when you screw up.

[Bradley H Smith]

Odd. I blogged about outreach I received from a SoMe firm today as well. Same point... proof your work as it affects prospects' impressions.

http://bhsmith.typepad.com/ibradleyblog/

Cheers!

[David Meerman Scott]

Craig - thanks very much for commenting. Glad that you learned from this.

[Raul]

Craig,

I applaud you. I had a very uncomfortable situation with Sears in which some employees retaliated thankfully I was able to catch that they connected from a server inside sears on my analytics.

It is great when a company learns from an experience like this and is able to say we made a mistake. It really makes you look a lot better than if you run and hide like sears is actually doing.

[mantonellis33]

Really shouldn't be giving a junior person this responsibility. Should be building relationships by sending individual emails with compelling pitches, or use something like Vocus to hide email addresses. But, even that approach is too robotic. Better to Tweet to community and include link to news.

[Tyler]

Frustrating, but I bet the chances are much higher that a senior, not a junior, employee made this mistake.

Most of us under 35 understand the CC versus BCC fields. That's not easily explainable to everyone.

[John Pohl]

Disclosing the email addresses was a major faux pas and maybe enough of a red flag about their attention to detail (or lack thereof) to merit never considering hiring this agency. However, I would like to defend at least one legitimate use of non-digital media by a digital media agency: if they're targeting potential clients who are not yet using digital media (with a message saying, "Hey--You need to start using digital media!"), email is a good medium for them to use. Of course, that rationale doesn't apply if you're targeting digital media mavens as they were in the email they sent to you.

[David Meerman Scott]

mantonellis33 - Craig did say it was not an junior person.

John - I'm not saying that digital agencies should avoid non-digital ways of communicating. However I am adamant that if a digital agency cannot handle digital correctly, then potential clients need to take a very hard look.

[David Spark]

I had the exact same thing happen to me before. It was an honest mistake, but definitely the PR person didn't know what they were doing. But that was not the real problem. The real problem was the obnoxious response by all the "gurus" and journalists that knowingly hit Reply All and told the woman what an idiot she was. It was wrong, rude, and the broadcasting was malicious.

I wrote a whole piece about the story here:

Social media "gurus" and bloggers are egotistical jerks
http://www.sparkminute.com/2009/08/20/social-media-gurus-and-bloggers-are-egotistical-jerks/

[Eric Wittlake]

Ouch. You closed with "Everything you do reflects on your level of expertise" and "How good can they be if they can't even do it for themselves?"

That tells it all. In this case, a poor practice reflects worse than no practice at all. Unfortunately, when marketing companies apply their own discipline to themselves, too often it seems they make it a secondary priority and put the B-team on it.

Thanks for sharing this.

-- @wittlake