PR by playground shoving
Holy cats, people, get ahold of yourselves.
As of the time of this post, there are 91 comments on Mike Arrington's review of Tello yesterday. Most of them are flat-out poison and probably a result of "astroturfing," or the practice of one or a few jumping around trying to look like many with an opposing view (see Shel Israel's post on it here). I hope, really hope, that neither Tello nor anyone affiliated with them is doing this.
Tello's firm, Lewis PR, is active in the discussion via Shel's comment section. Good to see them involved though I disagree with about half of Morgan's position. Right now, I'd stay away from a debate over my own PR methods and get everyone refocused on the product. I hope that's what Tello expects a PR firm to do.
Whoever is behind the comment flame is/are beyond reasonable -- let's call it for what it is: cowardly, stupid, immature. Do they think they can sway Mike, his readers and anyone else by trying to shove him around?
Okay, past that irritation with the behavior and to the PR point -- it's this, yet again: Tactics have changed. PR, or relating with your publics, is the same as before. You want good stuff said about you so people will consider buying your product?
Find out what people need, build it great, make it available, tell influencers about it, have a discussion, learn back from the market, change things if necessary, make it available again, offer it up to people with authority opinions, jump up and down if they like it and say good things, take your lumps and improve it again if they don't, keep learning from your market and refining.
Don't get pissed off when someone says, "Well, geez, I like the product, and I agree there's a need for the product, so I give that endorsement, but I don't really care for the launch strategy." You should be so frigging lucky when someone does you that favor. Instead, these idiots are ripping Mike a new one with personal attacks and nitpicks.
More intelligence:
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