Because this is a business blog, I have to be careful to mind my manners and not say anything\u00a0that I wouldn’t say in the executive suite of the same CEO who might be reading what I write here.<\/p>\n
I just learned another lesson about manners and good business.\u00a0Respond thoughtfully and professionally when other bloggers or people who comment at this blog or other blogs post negative comments about me, my producsts or services, or what I’ve written.<\/p>\n
Kudos to Steve Blinn, head of BlinnPR,<\/a> the agency of record for KeepYouSafe.com<\/a>, who was brave enough to explain what in the world he was thinking\u00a0when he wrote a press release tying his client’s product, an online safe deposit box, to\u00a0the death of Anna Nicole Smith.<\/p>\n The headline:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n You can read the entire release here.<\/a> The bloggers went berserk and publicly chastized Blinn.\u00a0Rather than blog about it, blogger Dave Taylor\u00a0emailed Steve\u00a0privately and said he thought the headline was terrible, the tie-in missed the mark, and it was just bad PR.<\/p>\n Steve replied with what Dave calls “a superb<\/em> example of the very best of PR writing” that\u00a0“demonstrates exactly how you can take a negative \u2014 a thought leader in your market sending you a blunt criticism \u2014 and turn it into an apology and explanation of the benefits of the product and why it\u2019s not as bad as it seems.”\u00a0<\/p>\n He got Steve’s permission to post the entire response<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dave is right.\u00a0I replied\u00a0and said that\u00a0I\u00a0give Steve credit for explaining his thoughts:<\/p>\n “I\u2019ll bet 9 out of 10 other agencies wouldn\u2019t have had the courage to do what he did. They\u2019d just write a crappy release, then look the other way while the bloggers pummel them.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I know because I read lots of crappy releases—the kind the bloggers love to hate. And seldom if ever do the writers either explain their thinking,\u00a0or apologize, or even come out of hiding.<\/p>\n Bottom line: All of us—bloggers, PR folks and others—need to be mature enough to answer criticism with a thoughtful explanation and, if necessary, apologize.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Because this is a business blog, I have to be careful to mind my manners and not say anything\u00a0that I wouldn’t say in the executive suite of the same CEO who might be reading what I write here. I just learned another lesson about manners and good business.\u00a0Respond thoughtfully and professionally when other bloggers or\u2026 Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":2,"wds_primary_category":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[168,605,13,614],"class_list":{"0":"post-850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-marketing","7":"tag-crisis-communications","8":"tag-news-events","9":"tag-press-releases","10":"tag-publicity-stunt","11":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41126,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions\/41126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong><\/div>\n