mezzoblue: PR

By Robert Accettura, at 06:19:05 on 2007-04-24.

2007-04-24T06:19:05-08:00

I'm on something similar as well. My personal address gets a few a week.

Seems many of these PR firms buy lists.... lists are gathered on the web from: blogs, and "industry guru's".

My guess is the more addresses, the more it's worth... so they dig deeper and deeper looking for more relevant links. Your likely on anything web or tech.

Some feel that it's not spam if it's targeted... I'd say if it's unsolicited it's spam.

By big_old_geek, at 07:02:57 on 2007-04-24.

2007-04-24T07:02:57-08:00

Check to see if you're in Bacon's. That's the bible of press sources for the PR industry. I have a food site that gets the same treatment.

Of course, I also get free cookbooks out of it, so I'm not complaining too much.

By Stefan Juhl, at 08:18:23 on 2007-04-26.

2007-04-26T08:18:23-08:00

Maybe a PR company decided that bloggers should be considered for press releases too. It wouldn't be a big deal to produce lists of relevant bloggers with name, email, the areas they blog about etc.

Some of the PR systems out there, sends out to tons of recipients based on category/niche, and the emails will appear as sent directly from the company the press release is about. So check if the emails seem to be sent from the same server(s). That might lead you to the source.

By pauldwaite, at 15:44:31 on 2007-04-30.

2007-04-30T15:44:31-08:00

When the revolution comes, senseless PR folks will be second against the wall, right after the spammers.

By Eric Meyer, at 08:33:17 on 2007-05-01.

2007-05-01T08:33:17-08:00

The same guys got me, too, back when they were still called Bacon's MediaMap. I think this was back in 2005. They just added my site and contact information without so much as a by-your-leave.

I found out what had happened when I blasted back at a couple of senders of unsolicited press releases and they said, "Don't blame us; you asked for this". Oh, REALLY? A bit of back and forth revealed that I was listed in Bacon's---which wasn't my idea, of course. I contacted Bacon's and demanded that I be removed. So far as I could tell, they did so, though they protested the whole way that they'd been doing me a favor, that what they'd done was okay, blah blah blah.

I really should dig up those old mails and post about them, if only to warn other bloggers as well those who are considering using the servce and still have some ethics left (a small set, but an important one, I think). Of course, I should probably also check to make sure they haven't re-added me.

By Angela, at 06:50:37 on 2007-05-04.

2007-05-04T06:50:37-08:00

Just hope that no one ever signs up your email address to recieve offers and deals from PR companies or other services that send emails daily.

By Ryan Anderson, at 16:30:34 on 2007-05-05.

2007-05-05T16:30:34-08:00

As a PR person (but not one of the bad ones... I hope), I can vouch for it being a confusing time for PR people. They want you to talk about their products, but they're not sure how to get you to do it. Sometimes, there's a great fit (for instance, I would love to get a pitch on a new PR book or service, as long as it came with a review copy), but usually, the bad PR people just want to fire out the shotgun approach. Some blogs are kinda like news outlets, some are like diaries. Most are a middle ground that make it hard to decide. I suppose the default should be "no" unless there's something on the site that indicates that they're open to pitches.

RE Robert's comment, it's not really a matter of buying lists. Every PR firm has a database of media contacts, usually Cision or Vocus. They also include bloggers... because if you have a tech story, you're going to want to pitch TechCrunch. Problem is, nobody contacts the bloggers to find out how best to pitch them, if at all, so the PR people who don't do the research come off like spammers.

Honestly, the best thing to do is write back to the person and tell them that you're not interested in receiving pitches, and ask where they got your contact info. Then, contact that service and ask to be removed. They should both comply. I don't know any PR people who want to be spammers, even if the bad ones come off that way.

By Marcel Feenstra, at 15:28:15 on 2007-05-27.

2007-05-27T15:28:15-08:00

I'm surprised that reputable PR companies would not include some sort of unsubscribe mechanism in their e-mails --I thought that was legally *required* by the CAN-SPAM act! (However, I am not a lawyer...)

By Rainer, at 09:46:05 on 2007-06-02.

2007-06-02T09:46:05-08:00

The PR mails is like spams thats getting smarter every day. I drive some sites with different topics. One of that is about stock quotes, and guess what... since some weeks I get mails concerning stock signals.
In the end it is just spam. But unfortunately it is not filtered by thunderbird or my MTA system.

Just as a note: In Germany you have to provide one-click unsubscribe mechanisms or else you can get sued.

By Christiane, at 08:26:44 on 2007-06-24.

2007-06-24T08:26:44-08:00

Sorry, I have to correct the above. In Germany you have to give a reason inside the mail why the receiver get's it - and you have to show up the way to unsubscribe. One-Click is currently not necessary.
Anyway, there's no way - also in Germany - to sue unknown senders.