Comments on: Stupid PR Tricks: RSA Conference Edition

By: I may work for a competitor | liv-lust

I may work for a competitor | liv-lust — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:24:57 +0000

[...] But it’s a very fine line I have to walk sometimes; I’ve been getting a lot of invitations to talk to companies who will be at RSA, which isn’t surprising given that I have a press pass for the third year in a row. The majority of these companies have products that aren’t related to my day job or are only tangentially related. If their products or services interest me, which is the minority, I’ll talk to them. There’s another group who make products and have services that are PCI-related; many of these are direct competitors of Trustwave, either because they also do PCI assessments or because they offer tools that are similar to what Trustwave offers. After one such offer, I consulted with my friend Mediaphyter to get a second opinion on the tact I should take with competitors. And being the good blogger she is, she immediately turned it into a blog post. [...]

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:27:34 +0000

Bloggers don’t have to be impartial – that is the problem. Some journalists are bloggers, but not all bloggers are journalists. Blogs authored by journalists rank high on the credibility meter for a reason – those are the ones that executives and decision-makers are reading.

By: Garrett Gee

Garrett Gee — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:59:10 +0000

Also, where did you find this list of 14 bloggers?

By: Garrett Gee

Garrett Gee — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:58:32 +0000

I think they are sending them to everyone. And this is where the lines are blurred between traditional press and bloggers. If a corporate blog only talks about their stuff, and not general issues they see, news, etc, I think they shouldn’t qualify as press.

Most likely, the press people will be working for someone, and that someone can have their own agenda. Thats the nature of press, and don’t get me started on TV news.

For security bloggers, I think its best to keep posts to your own opinion, and try to stay as neutral as possible. Thoughts?

By: Anton Chuvakin

Anton Chuvakin — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:25:30 +0000

I am getting the same due to the same reason: RSA press pass, but so far the requests were kinda boring.

Do you guys feel that the PR flood is filtered or they just send everything to everybody?

By: amritw

amritw — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:16:37 +0000

I talk about my company on my blog all the time. The reason is simple – I believe in what we do, if I didn’t I wouldn’t work for them. But as a former Gartner analyst and blogger I would receive a lot of requests. They have died down a bit since most of the folks that would want to talk with me know who I am and who I work for, but this is an interesting aspect of PR not doing their homework. Not surprising in the least ;-)

By: Jack Daniel

Jack Daniel — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:26:22 +0000

I’ve been pondering this one myself. I don’t advertise my employer on my blog. I did mention it once when changing jobs, but where I work is not central to my opinions or my blog. So as the inbox fills up with RSA invites from competitors I have been considering the options. I don’t think I’ll hang my press pass over an Astaro shirt to advertise my day job, but I will be upfront with anyone who wants to have a deeper conversation than a simple sales pitch.

I don’t really mind the barrage of email, but the ones who appear to have a clue will certainly be more likely to get my attention while at RSA.

By: Network Security Blog » I may work for a competitor

Network Security Blog » I may work for a competitor — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:19:02 +0000