Stalking the stalkers

When you start a blog you get the unusually persistent PR representatives that see it as an opportunity to plug the companies they are working for. As if we are not inundated enough with meaningless press releases about version 5.0 of the latest banking integration application, along comes a PR person (or persons) that have a part-time career in telephone stalking.

Particularly since I invested in caller ID I have managed to identify a regular group of PR stalkers that often ring six times a day at 15 to 30 minute intervals and leave no message.

When pressed as to why they exhibit such stalking tendencies, one PR person said to me that they don't leave messages because journalists never return calls (well they cannot return a call if you don't leave a message, and if they don't return the call, wouldn't that suggest to any sane person that the journalist is not interested)?

Some have also suggested that a number of PR companies encourage their employees to exhibit stalking behaviour until it gets a result; not quite sure what they class as a result though as stalking more often than not is likely to result in a rebuff. Particularly around conference time, the stalking behaviour of PR executives reaches fever pitch.

So for all you banks and IT companies out there trying to get your message across, can I suggest that employing PR executives that moonlight as stalkers is not the way forward. Not only does it have a whiff of desperation about it, but more often than not, it is likely to incur the wrath of said journalist, who instead of listening to your corporate message across is more likely to say f... off!