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November 01, 2005
Cluelessness & Bacon's: to finish the story
I hope you all will forgive me for leaving you hanging. My post Is Bacon's Information, Inc. utterly clueless? I'd say it's possible was posted Thursday, and some of you have been waiting breathlessly for the next installment.
[Update: the story continues! Bacon's Information Senior VP admits "error" and forward's staff pleas to "make him stop!"]
Relax, Bacon's is still clueless. And now Phil Gomes has discovered striking similarities between Bacon's blog survey and the recent Edelman/Technorati survey... striking similarities.
So read on!
I wrote Christine Birkner, Special Project Supervisor, Bacon's Information an email in which I noted both my willingness to help and my frustration: Christine,
I'd love to respond to your survey, since I am a PR professional who
happens to blog. But while the document tries to open as a form, it's
impossible to enter any data. Yes, I know how to work around that, but
a) it's a great deal of trouble, b) while I merely don't have patience
to do the work-around, I suspect many recipients will not even know
that much.
Moreover, on all the questions where you've supplied radio buttons, I
suspect I'm one of many who find them frustrating. How often do I blog?
When I'm moved to do so. That can be 10 times one day, and then nothing
for a week. Primary reason I blog? All three, since they are mutually
supportive. I am an expert in my field, so I blog to make my opinions
known AND... so that I might remain an expert in my field ... open up
dialogue.
Do I find a company blog credible? Well, it depends on the company.
Companies are credible. People are credible. Media, as conduits, are
not credible or incredible by themselves.
So... make it easy for me (and not embarassing for Bacon's): Give me a
survey that a) one can actually fill out and b) that makes sense to
fill out.
Oh, and hurry. I and every other PR blogger you sent this train wreck
to can put "Bacon Blog Survey" at the top of Google tomorrow, in the
worst way.
Feel free to contact me at any of the contact points below.
Best regards, Allan Jenkins
To Christine Birkner's credit, she replied within a few hours, cc.ing another Bacon's Information employee whose tasks are not apparent to me (I like to think Birkner was cc:ing the Bacon's Vice President who insisted this thing go out, as a way of saying "told you so"... but she might also just be covering her ass.) Mr.
Jenkins,
Below is a plain
text format of our survey. We apologize for the survey format. We are currently
working on a website link for future surveys. I also apologize for the general
nature of the questions. The survey was sent out in a mass email to all of the
bloggers in our database. Feel free to tailor your responses as they apply to your blog
and industry. Thanks for your participation and feedback. If you have any
further questions or comments, let me know.
Read that one more time, gentle reader. Let it sink in. And let us parse.
Cluetrain derailment #1: "The survey was sent out in a mass email to all of the bloggers in our database."
In other words, they spammed us. Because it was an unsolicited commercial email to people (at least one) who have never consented to receive unsolicited mail from Bacon's Information. Cluetrain derailment #2: "I apologize for the general nature [banality is the word she's groping for] of the questions. Feel free to tailor your responses...."In other words, they are wasting our time. They don't much care about the answers... as long as they get enough answers to collate and bundle into a "report" that they can foist on the unsuspecting. Cluetrain derailment #3: "Below is a plain text format of our survey. We apologize for the survey format. We are currently working on a website link for future surveys."
In other words, they put this together on the fly, with the barest understanding of how surveys are conducted in the 21st century. Not knowing that I know a "website link" [just call it a link, Christine] can be put up in a matter of minutes, Birkner brushes us off with "We are currently working...." Here's a tip: drop "currently", call the web guys down in IT, and you are off to the races. Here's the ironic thing: the plain text version actually works! Had Christine Birkner been quick enough to realize that from the start, she could have avoided a lot of grief. Ok, I'll lay off. Christine Birkner, despite the title, may be a Bacon's Information intern for all I know, and therefore blameless. And she can't help that she's probably required to write "are currently working". What is sinister, and what Bacon's Information should be very quick to either publicly repudiate or issue a mea culpa about is this: Philip Gomes writes that Bacon's Information may have simply copied the recent Edelman/Technorati survey: He writes (in part):
As it turns out, the survey questions in the MS-Word document attached to the email are quite similar to the study my employer, Edelman, undertook with Technorati.
By way of examination... From the Bacon's survey:
11) When looking for product information, which do you consider the most reliable?
- Company press releases
- Company web sites
- Corporate Blog
- Other Bloggers
Compare to a similar question from the Edelman/Technorati study, fielded Sept. 26:
16) When looking for product information, which do you trust most?
- Company press releases
- Company web sites
- Corporate Blog
- Other Bloggers
Here, the Edelman/Technorati survey answers were clearly repurposed, even down to the miscapitalization of the word "blog".
Whoa... I've sent a mail to Christine Birkner asking a) how my information got on their database and what that information is and b) asked for an explanation of the similarity between the Bacon's blog survey and the Edelman/Technorati one. I'll keep you posted.
Technorati tags: Bacon's Information
Bacon's
Bacon's Blog Survey
Posted by Allan Jenkins on November 1, 2005 at 01:37 PM in Bizarre & Amusing, Communication Skills, Is Tedious in the House?, Public Relations | Permalink
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Comments
Poor Christine ... http://www.google.com/search?q=Christine+Birkner&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official
Posted by: david parmet | Nov 1, 2005 3:19:47 PM
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