Jeff Jarvis and his blog Buzz Machine have created some public relations issues for Dell Inc. From a PR standpoint, Dell did just about everything wrong up until this point. They refused to deal constructively and immediately with the problem and waited until it spiraled dramatically.
Dell made a good PR move recently. They’re going to pay a little more attention to blogs. By using a little Intelliseek Inc. with their morning Factiva, it will allow them to have some proactive input on negative information floating around about them online. Of course it didn’t help much when they totally ditched their forums at the Dell website.
The reason they will pay more attention to bloggers is a particularly unsatisfied customer named Jeff Jarvis decided to take up the anti-Dell cause after he’d had dismal experiences with a company once known for its outstanding customer service. Dell obviously didn’t think much of Jarvis’s “Dell Hell entries and went on about their business. It was unfortunately they didn’t look at Mr. Jarvis’s credentials. They might have paid more attention.
In doing a small amount of research, it turns out Jarvis knows how to deal with the media quite well. He was a TV critic for TV guide and People. He created Entertainment Weekly and he’s the Sunday editor and associate publisher of the NY Daily News and a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner. He also consults for the New York Times. The photo on his website shows him appearing on MSNBC.
So, Dell elected to ignore someone who’s media savvy. He wrote the powers at Dell and nice letter and sent it to them. Then he posted the letter on his blog and pointed out that his entire family now play with Apple AND he’s writing from his Powerbook.
Nearly all of what he discussed was through his blog and he got his licks in. Jennifer Davis, Dell’s PR person told Online Media Daily, “Obviously, Mr. Jarvis experience could’ve been handled better.”
The power of the blog marches on.
John Stith is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
