Advice For PR Folks: Use Google, Get Used To Calls From Bloggers

The vast majority of the communications/external relations/PR folks that I talk to are great -- responsive, knowledgeable, quick, etc. Then there's the one I ran into at Columbia University's Campaign for Educational Equity yesterday morning

I called him yesterday to try and track down whether a rebuttal to Fordham Foundation's weighted student funding initiative (that I'd gotten from Fordham) was legitimate. I think that's what they'd have told me to do in journalism school, had I gone.

Instead of help, what I got instead was a lot of crap about "who I was" and "what this was for" -- you know the drill. Even after I sent the requested email (granted, with a few chiding remarks), I never got a response. Nice work.

So here's some unsolicited advice for PR folks: Be prepared to take calls if your name is listed on the website. Get used to getting calls from bloggers as well as reporters. Maybe think about putting some bloggers on your media list. That old "will you email me with this request" gambit is annoying (and sorta paranoid) when you can just Google me while we're talking.