HARO, Profnet, Reporter Connection – there are numerous matchmaking services out there where reporters post queries and PR folks respond. Often the queries are from relatively obscure authors and publications, and occasionally there are queries from more mainstream publications. Many PR folks have success stories where the right query hit at the right time, for the right client, and a great result happened. The services have their value, no question.
But what I really don’t get is – who would respond to an anonymous / “cloaked” query (that is, one where the author and / or source name are obscured)? Under what circumstance would that ever make sense? I don’t care if the subject matter is dead-on with what a company’s product or service does. I can’t think of a single condition where just offering up any information or your precious time makes sense if you don’t even know who you are talking to?
Is anyone so desperate for publicity that they would just haphazardly approach any anonymous stranger?
Can anyone enlighten me on when that would ever make sense?
Posted by Cindy
April 19, 2010 at 11:11 am
Thanks for unveiling this Travis! Often the cloaked carrot is the hint that it is “major media” but generally I avoid these for the reasons you outlined. My very senior clients would have my head if I wasted effort on a cloaked pitch. Interestingly, the media wants us to target them specifically, and this is hard to do when you don’t know the outlet, and all you have are a few vague snippets. I suppose smaller clients can take the risk; large ones not so much. Last, I really don’t like emailing someone I don’t know – there are many web sites being featured that are really newsletters from companies, and you don’t know where your material is going to wind up! There are exceptions to everything, but not so much! I think most of us need more control. I can just see saying to a client, we have to develop a quote, please hurry — and oh yey, I have NO idea who we are working for!!!!Look forward to hearing everyone else’s replies to this.
Posted by Travis Van
April 19, 2010 at 11:19 am
Thanks Cindy, for sharing your reaction. I agree that sometimes the “opportunities” out there are in fact wolves in sheep’s clothing (competitor newsletters, people with hidden motives, etc.). I also think that there are zillions of bloggers / authors whose site traffic is so low that it’s just not worth the time to pursue. People could make the argument that you miss some great opportunities if you are too focused on reach / influence. But time is money, right – and what’s the point of chasing down some placement that only 3 people are going to read (at the expense of perhaps other higher quality placements). Anyway, sounds like I’m preaching to the choir.
On a related note – who the hell applies for jobs where the identity of the company is cloaked? I like to check out job boards for PR and marketing just to stay on top of how healthy / unhealthy the job market is. I find it really strange how many postings don’t specify what the company is. How could anyone possibly justify spending their time applying for a job at an unknown company?
Posted by Cindy
May 10, 2010 at 9:35 am
Talk about preaching to the choir on the job search question, I so agree. :) First, there are some companies that applicants may not wish to apply to, for a range of reasons. Sometimes the opps are cloaked by non-retained search firms who don’t want the world to know their “secret” lead. If I don’t know the firm, or the search firm involved, I don’t send my information there either! High quality firms HR teams are usually posting the lead themselves for legal reasons, and retained firms usually state such and identify the firm, and the company doesn’t play games by undermining the search firm that they have retained, again a sign of a good quality firm. How many times have you seen the same job under three different postings! (The language is usually a dead giveaway.) Again, usually it is tire kickers or non retained search firms usually behind the cloak and dagger stuff. Usually not worth wasting your credibility on. Technically, the search firms are not supposed to pass along your information without checking with you, but you can’t trust that process one bit. The same rules for media relations should apply to PR folks and their own personal branding!