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PR Fuel: Odds and Ends, Rights and WrongsPart of protecting your company's brand is ferreting out public relations opportunities presented by questionable companies or people. Such was the case earlier this year when I turned down the opportunity for one of our analysts to give an interview to MN1.com, an online video company that covers the stock market."We got a call from a representative of MN1.com. They wanted someone from our organization to come on their show and talk about teen clothing retailers (per our press release). I passed on the opportunity," I wrote to my co-workers in a June email. "I did a little digging into [MN1.com] and found that it was just some [guys] in Dallas hyping stocks under the guise of daily market commentary. One of their businesses is getting paid to write, distribute and promote research reports for micro cap companies." I continued: "We want to avoid having our brands attached to names like this, even if the exposure could possibly bring in traffic/subscriptions. Feel free, of course, to speak to members of the mainstream and trade media about whatever topics you feel comfortable. If, however, you get requests from media outlets that you're unfamiliar with or you feel may not be on the up-and-up, please let me know before saying 'yes' to an interview." I had forgotten about MN1.com until a friend in Dallas forwarded me two articles from Tuesday's Dallas Morning News (http://tinyurl.com/25936x and http://tinyurl.com/2x33vz). "MN1's 33-year-old founder and top executive, self-made millionaire Joshua Lankford, was recently barred from the securities industry. His companies have also been major shareholders in several of the stocks the site has spotlighted over the years. Some featured stocks have been tied to his friends and business partners," wrote Brendan Case and Michael Gabrell. "In one instance, a stock rated a 'strong buy' on MN1 was the focus of a lawsuit in which investors accused [MN1's founder] of manipulating the share price." Looks like my concerns were warranted. ___ A friend of mine called me a few weeks ago seeking some advice. He is on the board of directors of a public company and his company's shares were plunging because a Wall Street analyst had downgraded the stock. After reading the analyst's report, I figured out why. The analyst, and this is debatable, was correct in his assessment. The company, however, did nothing to get its side of the story out. There was no press release regarding the matter that the analyst brought up and the company refused to answer the media's questions. A simple press release explaining the issue may not have stopped the stock's decline (it would have slowed it, in my opinion), but it would have at least appeased investors who wanted to get information directly from the company, not from a third party. To my friend, I pointed out the comments that shareholders were making about the company on some message boards. Even when you ignored the typical message board weirdos, it was clear that there were some unhappy shareholders who were questioning the actions of the company, its management and its board. My friend agreed that the company handled the issue poorly (he called seeking confirmation of this) and said he would raise the issue at the next board meeting and make sure that the PR department worked more closely with the investor relations department. The company could have saved itself some grief had it done so beforehand. ___ I erred last week when I said that Wired's public relations firm had spammed me in the past. This was brought to my attention by Jason Chupick, who writes MediaBistro's PRNewser blog and who worked the Wired account when I was a journalist. "The firm where I worked at the time is hardly one filled with spammers. The work we did for Wired was innovative and extremely targeted. You have to be when you rep a media property to other media. In the 18 months I worked on the Wired account, I bet I sent you at the very most, 5 emails custom tailored for [you]," Chupick wrote via email. (He gave me permission to reprint his comments.) Chupick also remembered pitching me via instant messenger on the one story I did write about Wired, and I do recall speaking to him a number of times via IM. My apologies to Jason and his former firm. While we're on the subject, I'm still confused as to why more PR people don't reach out to reporters via instant messenger. I use it daily and I've scored plenty of press by just being online at the right time. It also helps break down the social barrier between journalist and flack.
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