Michael Arrington is being raked over the coals because he does not like Tello. Well, he does not like the marketing of the service thus far.
And, well, that’s his perogative (he can do what he wants to do).
After a ton of comments, though, let’s take a look at this.
First, Jeff Pulver is on the board, and he has been blogging for quite a long, long time. If there is someone that understands the value of blogging, it is Jeff and I would hope that he would have shared that belief with the company. Does that mean the company needs to blog? No – that just goes back to “not every company needs to blog, but needs to be aware of blogs” argument that I like to have with PR bloggers that only get blogs.
But, it might not be Tello acting with less than common sense, but its PR firm that might not know or understand the blogosphere. That is quite a possibility. Or, they might have just been under orders to concentrate on MSM moreso than blogs – and that is the right of the client, and does not mean the client needs to listen to the agency’s counsel.
Yes, presence is an issue that has been written about quite a bit. I have even written an article about it from a video conferencing angle. If presence does work, it is going to be either amazing or intrusive. Or, likely, both. And, well, the biggest competitors are going to be Cisco and Microsoft, among others.
The best way to get on the radar screen for presence – which is a tricky thing to explain, really – is to go with the hardcore, main business press. That is what the strategy looks like so far. And, they did land some good press.
I wish Tello luck – but hope the company and its PR firm are not behind the comments on this blog. Whether you like Arrington or not should not be the issue, but discussing the post on its own merits should be.
Jeremy Pepper is the CEO and founder of POP! Public Relations, a public relations firm based in Arizona, USA.
He authors the popular Musings from POP! Public Relations blog which offers Jeremy’s opinions and views – on public relations, publicity and other things.
