I think instead of over analyzing the release and parsing its contents i.e., there is no URL. Just take it for what it’s worth. A news release with tongue planted firmly in cheek.

BTW, a shorter version appeared on Silicon Alley Insider. Does anybody need the SAI URL or you can Google it.

Cheers,
Steven Blinn
BlinnPR
http://www.blinnpr.com/blog

I also disagree with wrk about the purpose of the press release – if you don’t consider traffic an important part of making it easy in a “Web 2.0″ world, then I wouldn’t consider the agency. “Cutting through the clutter” requires allowing propsective reporters/bloggers to find your client information.

Now here’s the interesting question, if they are going to tell me the top lies and I’m a current client – would you fire BlinnPR if you’ve heard of one of these lies? =)

The other reason is that the PR agency is clueless about how to drive conversations and capture leads. I wrote an article about this called – Fire Your PR Firm? http://www.capturetheconversation.com/fire-your-pr-firm.pdf

I would be willing to bet that most PR firms have no idea how to access their clients’ websites, analyze and traffic data and set up systems to ensure the offline visibilty they get captures leads online.

like i said, driving people to their site probably wasn’t one of their top-3 objectives for the release. the PR agency business, at least when it comes to courting new clients, tends to be fairly high-touch, and involves a lot of face time. typically you can go to an agency’s site to get some additional information, see a client roster or their basic mission statement, but they aren’t destinations. it’s changing some with most agencies incorporating blogs and more timely and updated information, but most agencies are too busy trying to drive traffic to their clients’ sites than to worry about their own.

“blinn probably isn’t overly concerned with driving tons of visitors to their site”

Why bother sending out a press release? Heck, why even have a web site?

I agree with you about not suggesting a better way to do things.

Heh. Browse to there ../job.html page and it says Copyright 2000-2006

Solid.

Frankly, I don’t think this was meant as linkbait because there is every indication that they have no clue about anything related to linkbaiting (Lie #5) Either that or they relegated the release to an junior AE (Lie #2)

Now in their defense, raise your hand if you had ever heard of BlinnPR before today…I didn’t think so. So while not doing themselves any favors they sure are getting a lot of attention. Certainly more than if they issued the standard “We are the best PR Firm” release. In fact this could turn out to be a pretty effective non-intentional linkbaiting effort…second hand of course;)

The good news is that I am sure they are experts on reputation monitoring and will be able to navigate successfully through that…er…uh…oh wait that’s Lie #5 again.

I surely wouldn’t equate web 2.0 as remembering to put a link in your article

That is just PR failure at its simplest.

It’s kind of funny since this list seems to be designed as a form of linkbait given the top 10 list nature of the release and what I assume is meant to be humor. Granted it’s not really linkbait as it’s a press release, but if it’s hosted on the company site wouldn’t you see it as a linkbait post?

I personally would NOT hire a company that makes a huge mistake like that.

Isn’t that one of points behind PR? Make it easy to find information about your site.