I was in London and the Thames Valley all of yesterday to see a client
and have a new business meeting. I returned to the usual deluge of
emails (I have several email addresses and only check one of them on
the road, in theory it should only have important mail).
One of these emails, sent to an address that I use on websites and on-line directories, was from
1000heads who are "experts in digital communication".
Every month your clients are being
discussed by millions of customers, potential customers and
shareholders - and we know what is being said.
You may have read in the latest issue of PRWEEK about how blogs and
online communities can rapidly spread discussions across the web. What
does this mean for your clients? How often are they being discussed?
What issues are being raised? What is the impact of your offline
communications activity? How can you influence these opinions to
generate positive word of mouth for your clients?
As the lead article in PRWEEK said, this offers an opportunity and 'the
lesson for agencies is... to monitor what people are saying about
clients' and to 'join the conversation'.
We at 1000heads have the expertise to help you help your clients. We
currently work with many leading PR agencies and some of the world's
largest companies including Nokia, Sony and Tesco. Through our highly
sophisticated tracking systems, we can show you what the marketplace is
saying about your clients and their products and services.
Furthermore, we can help you increase positive word of mouth and shape
conversations to raise the profile of your clients both on and offline.
If you want to hear what is being said about your clients right now,
then please email me on info@1000heads.com or call me on 01235 862590.
You could also visit our website to find out more by clicking HERE.
Kind regards
Adrian Vann
Just how dumb can you get? I don't belong to the 'Marxist' school of
digital communicators who believe that all unsolicited email is spam.
In fact I am against the idea that you face greater restrictions in
what you can send by email, than you do for what you can by traditional
post.
But, it is about targeting. It is about having an intelligent
conversation. Sending me an unsolicited email about a product or
service that is likely to be of interest to me is fine.
But this email was plain rude. No "Dear Stuart..." or even "Mr Bruce..". No prior
research into who they were trying to establish a dialogue with. If
they are experts they should have known that I was one of the UK's
first PR bloggers (I think
Richard Bailey, now of Leeds Metropolitan University, was the first when he still worked in PR consultancy).
Normally this wouldn't have irritated me. But these people claim to be
experts. They work for big brands such as Nokia, Sony, Tesco, Channel 4, Carphone
Warehouse, D&A and Simple.
They do "Brand dialogue to harness the power of internet
communication". They do viral and email marketing (although one does
wonder).
They even "Brand watch.. to find out what is being said about your
business online". So I presume I can expect a comment explaining or
apologising sometime later this morning?
UPDATE: It's even worse. These idiots are sending out HTML email which has just screwed up the layout of my blog.
From what I've seen so far I know PR and marketing students who know
100 times as much as these guys. They obviously don't even half
understand the blogosphere. Concepts like trust, authenticity,
transparency, honesty, listening, understanding and dialogue don't get
much of a look in.
It rather looks like they are simply tying to jump on the bandwagon to
make a quick buck. I pity their first client, it's not fair to learn on
someone elses job. Do it and then you might counsel others.
