Friend or foe?
Silicon Valley buzz maker Tom Foremski (formerly of Financial Times, now prominent SV blogger) made some news of his own today with this post in which he states that he will only receive PR pitches through FaceBook.
The switch up is really an experiment to try and ensure pitches are more customized, personalized and fit with what Foremski normally covers. But it isn’t all virtual, all the time. He says that face-to-face communications still trumps all other channels.
Something tells me he might be receiving a few friend requests this afternoon.
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After reading this post regarding Tom Foremski and only accepting PR pitches via FaceBook, I began to speculate a couple of reasons why this might be.
1. Foremski can see the merit of the individual contacting him:
He can look at your profile details, pictures, friends (or lack thereof) and then make his own judgements on whether or not the person is of caliber.
2. Foremski can see if the person is up-to-date:
To prove this point, I use my dear Grandmother as an example. Meet Helen, a 75 year old grandmother living in Ancaster, Ontario. A retiree and avid gardener, EVEN SHE HAS EMAIL NOW! However, she does not have FaceBook. (yet...)
3. Foremski is addicted to FB and would like to mix business with pleasure;
?Crack? book, as I have come to know it, offers an individual to voyeuristically peek into lives of their friends. Maybe Foremski is in a poke war with someone and refuses to give up. He needs to go on regularly to ensure his victory, doesn’t he?
Ultimately, here is what I like about the FaceBook hype (and think we all need to embrace this a bit more) is that we allow for this. By nature, we thrive on interaction, and for a while there, many were saying that the internet is very impersonal and making us distant and alien to one another. Well, now I argue that the web is extremely personal and can open more doors then windows.
By Miranda Mc Curlie on Feb 03, 2008Thanks Miranda for your comment.
I believe the main reason he is doing it is to help weed out some of the less relevant ?pitches? he receives (i.e. if someone has him on their friends list, chances are they have spent some time reading his blog.
Although not a guarantee, this should help PR people better understand the types of stories he is interested in and tailor their communications to him). I am sure he receives hundreds of unsolicited pitches every day, so anything he can do to have PR people self-edit to reduce the clutter is a big win.
By Justin Creally on Feb 04, 2008