Media Orchard: Media News, Marketing Views, Celebrity Culture, Political Spin

Monday, April 23, 2007

Obvious PR Tip of the Day: Don't Ask Someone to Take Down a Blog Post

We just had a call from someone from a company that did not like what we said about them in an earlier post. The company representative was very gracious in acknowledging our criticism, even offering a service discount as a way of making amends.

Then ..... HE ASKED IF WE WOULD TAKE DOWN OUR BLOG POST.

When we explained this wasn't possible, he was genuinely mystified: "I don't understand why. I mean, we apologized."

Folks, it just doesn't work that way. If you're unaware of this, you need some serious PR counsel -- stat.

Labels: media relations, media training, public relations

9 Comments:

oh comeon.. name names dammit!!

By david parmet, at 4/23/2007
Can't say who it is, but it rhymes with bee-are-dot-bomb.

By Ike, at 4/23/2007
you people r joking right? where is it written that you can't request for a post to be taken down? and do you have nothing better to do than to try to use your meager platform to embarras others? also, why would you mess with a company who could possibly help you in the future. smart move.

By Anonymous, at 4/23/2007
If I wanted to embarrass you, I would have used your name. Don't push it.

By Scott Baradell, at 4/23/2007
You have to smile at the innocence of it.

My unsolicited PR advice, pitch some positive stories to bloggers who cover your industry. Google assumes that the freashest post is why people are looking for, so it is more likely that the new results will come up in any search.

If any blogger does oblige you with a positive post, pimp their post around blogosphere until you get some more positive posts. That way the negative post will be buried.

That really is the best you can hope for.

By Alice, at 4/23/2007
"why would you mess with a company who could possibly help you in the future. smart move."

Wow! You mean ... non-clients might bribe me to remove the truth and possibly promote them instead? Gee, I never thought of that, er ... I mean ... oh, darn those ethics!

Well done, Scott. I see a potential post for tomorrow here to share some similar experiences that might point these fine folks in the right direction.

By Rich, at 4/23/2007
Hmmm, I'll have to go poke about your archives ;)

But in general, I don't remove posts. I may add an update or create a new post linking to the old one (and post that link in the comments section), but just as an apology doesn't wipe away the mistake, neither do I think one should remove the history.

By Marketing Whore, at 4/23/2007
Can one really wipe away history on the web? Archived pages and whatnot are great at archiving, especially text. Anyone hear of archive.org, or google's cached pages? Sheeesh.

By caff, at 4/26/2007
While blogs might not be the NYT, removing posts is universially frowned upon since updating and/or correcting posts is the route normally taken in this easy-to-update-and-fix format. Hells, that's the charm!

By Åsk, at 4/27/2007