the(new)mediaslut

Following on from this article, PR O’s country manager called Smartbrain today and apologised for the mix-up, taking full responsiblity for providing his name for the Dellli (no, that is not a typo) trip to their client and for the late invitation.

Apparently O provided D with Smartbrain’s name for the invitation, not as confirmation that Smartbrain had accepted to go. Not that Smartbrain ever got an invitation with the junket details, late or otherwise, but still, apology accepted and he does appreciate someone having the guts to apologise rather than disappear and get someone else to manage the account which happens once in a while after big mishaps in this industry.

Meanwhile, the start of the Olympics brings back some sour memories. Smartbrain never got an apology from the other, er, episode he had, the Atos-Origin “people like you” incident where the country manger of Atos Origin said he personally withdrew Smartbrain’s name from a junket to the Olympic venue in Beijing as he didn’t want his precious games associated with “people like you”. He also had the nerve to CC Atos’ VP for communications and neither of them sent me a reply afterwards.

Smartbrain is still trying to figure out what “people like you means” and he can only assume that the Atos country manager does not want any investigative reporters on the trip, especially ones who might ask why he married the daughter of an arms dealer and, through his father in law, won a big payphone contract with the state owned Telco TOT that was being investigated by the (now defunct) Assets Examination Committee set up post-coup to prosecute corrupt politicians. Of course, it is probably just a coincidence but it would have been nice to ask the question in person. But, after deep thought (read: burning hatred), Smartbrain is taking it as a compliment.

All of that has left Atos Origin, who have done the RFID ticketing system for the Genocide Games, sorry, Olympic Games, with zero coverage in Smartbrain’s paper for now, or forever, as long as he writes there.

Yes, Atos Origin does the ticketing for the Genocide games.
Atos Origin does the ticketing for the Genocide games.
Atos Origin does the ticketing for the Genocide games.

Ok. Perhaps Smartbrain is being a bit silly today.

Last week Smartbrain got an email from a certain computer maker thanking him for agreeing to go to a PC launch in Delhi and asking for passport particulars and further details so they could expedite the visa documents.

A trip to Delhi would be nice (sure beats Singapore) if it weren’t for the fact that up until then, nobody from company D or their PR, O, had contacted Smartbrain at all. In fact, Smartbrain has not done a piece on D (they can be a bit boring and generic) for many, many months.

“Perhaps there’s a mix-up”, Smartbrain’s reply began.

D’s internal PR sent Smartbrain the email from O as an attachment which clearly put down Smartbrain’s name, position and contact details as one of the two journalists going to Delhi. D was profusely apologetic and offered an invitation on the spot, unfortunately it clashed with another interview. D also cc’d O asking for clarification as they needed to get the letters out as soon as possible.

No communication was received from the PR company since. No email, no phone call, no invitation, no clarification, or as they say in the US of A, “no nothing”.

So, dear PR people, please check with a journalist and at least ask him at least verbally if he wants to go on a trip to India first before telling your client that the journalist is going.

Methinks that O was under pressure to provide names and sent their client Smartbrain’s name in panic to pretend that they were on the job doing the work that they were charging D big bucks for. Bad PR! Bad!

Quite why D, a tech company, would hire O is beyond me. O has no other tech clients here and their only regional one they represent, Novell, is barely active in this country.

This week has been a pretty torrid week for Smartbrain when it comes to his love/hate relationship with the spawn of the devil, sorry, cute PR consultants, who vie for his attention, but often not in the way they should.

Early this week, an anonymous PR company, hereafter known as H contacted Smartbrain asking him to do a freelance job for one of their clients, client R. Smartbrain ignored the email as the last time he did the job for R, he was not paid any of the five hundred pounds promised. Plus, the job was far from amicable as R-R was, how shall one put it, very slow to respond to email for the months leading up to the deadline and then suddenly very, very demanding when they noticed that the deadline for the story was imminent.

Also this week, H managed to really upset Smartbrain (well, their other half did - all annoying PR companies have another hat to wear when they need to avoid “conflicts of interest” on paper) when they insisted on a one on one interview with their client.

Smartbrain declined the one on one, saying that he would prefer the general session later that day alongside the other journos. The saccharine sweet PR called his phone (note to self, change number and keep it secret) and insisted it was special and worth Smartbrain getting up at the crack of dawn for an early morning interview.

“It’s not that bad, high fuel costs mean that traffic is much less clogged up these days,” the sweet voice of the devil said, reassuringly.

The last time PR H did this was for a certain IT company, known anonymously as “the Evil Empire” (wonder who they could be?) which had a very interesting topic, mice, which obviously demanded a one on one interview arrangement.

It was an evening interview and Smartbrain got there early, in time for the last 10 minutes of the general press conference and Q&A. After firing off a few pointed questions to the acolytes of the Evil Empire, he was led off to the one on one where his questions were rebutted with the comment, “If you weren’t late you would have heard that….” from an annoyed spokesperson who was under the impression that Smartbrain was late for the previous session rather than early for his.

“I was not late. I was told to be here at 4.30 by H,” he replied.

Next Wednesday, Smartbrain hopes that their client, a certain chip company that is being sued left right and centre on anti-trust grounds known only as I corporation, had better have something that’s worth it or Smartbrain will unveil who this PR H is on this blog.

Next episode: Company O and how they told their client Smartbrain was going to Delhi without telling Smartbrain, or his editor.

I was reading R. Chandrasekar’s contributed piece on the “Social media marketing myths debunked” and sad to say the article is nowhere near original.

Wrote Chandrasekar,

Myth no. 1: “Social media is free”

This is true, but only to a certain extent. Anyone or company can join Facebook or Flickr, but in order to promote your company and still do so for free, you would have to do it after company hours. For some smaller companies, this may still be possible but as your set up gets bigger, you may not be able to find the time to keep up with task Also, how would you know which site is better than the others?

Wrote The SEM Blog on December 4, 2007,

Myth 1 - Social Media is Free

This is true, to a point. Anyone or company can join Facebook or Flickr but in order to promote your company and still remain free you would have to do it after company hours. For some of the more smaller companies out there this is possible but as your company gets bigger and bigger you may not have the time. Also, how do you know which site is better than the others?

Wrote Chandrasekar,

Myth no. 3: “Only tech-related stories stand a chance”
Websites such as Digg have started out with such stories as a main focus, but that was a long time ago. However, the one question at the back of many marketers’ minds is whether there really is no room for other types of content.

At the beginning, most stories on Digg, one of the most well-known social media websites, were tech-related. But despite its shift in focus, such sites are still receiving a lot of exposure at this point. Nonetheless, the sites’ early success has led some webmasters to assume that there is no room for other types of stories.

Wrote theratingblog on Jan 30, 2008,

Myth#7: “Only tech-related stories stand a chance”

Websites such as Digg have started out with such stories as a main focus, but that was a long time ago. Is there really no room for other types of content?

Origin: At the beginning, most stories on Digg, the most well-known social media website, were tech-related and actually, these are still receiving a lot of exposure at this point so that some webmasters assume that there is no room for other types of stories.

Reality check: Things have changed and any type of story can make the frontpage nowadays (it was even possible in the past, with a little work), as long as it is appreciated by the community and as long as people vote for it.

In the rules of Social Media, when you come across an interesting post and would like to post it up, the blogger copies a piece of the quote and links it back to the original blog post.

Give credit where credit is due!

It is very easy to check for plagiarism with Google, just copy the whole phrase and see if it turns up on an another site.

The problem with plagiarism is that now I wonder if R.Chandrasekar, one of the founder of Velvet Penguin, really understands the social media space.

However, if Chandrasekar can prove that he is a victim of plagiarism, I will gladly remove this post!

When a blogger sees comments for a post, he/she would most appreciate it as it shows that somebody has taken the time to  read it, to think of a comments that deem fit and to post it up on the blog.

If the comments are positive, the blogger will go over the hill, but what if the comments are negative?

Most bloggers will react to all three.

In communications, a company’s product or new initiative might get commented on.

It could be positive or it could be negative.

However, if it is negative ones, most companies might think that the person making such a comment has a personal agenda against them.

When a negative comment appears, these companies will even go silent, avoid them like the plague and hope that it will be long forgotten.

Actress-Signaer Heidi Montag, however, feels that negative comments should also be appreciated.

Said Heidi,

Do you know how much effort it really takes to sit down and write a comment?

You have to have a lot of passion and thought to write any comment, so thank you!

You can give thanks by responding to their comments for action speaks louder than words.