Inspired Freelancer

Was this the worst "constructive" critique ever?

I hate to have my first post after a long hiatus be a negative one, but I was recently exposed to what I consider a public relations faux pas. When recruiting for a position, as I'm sure many people have over the course of their career, you often receive cover letters and resumés that range from "needed a little more attention" to "laughable." If you have the time and feel you can assist someone, it can be a great act of mentorship to write someone back and offer them a meeting for constructive feedback on their cover letter. 

What I wouldn't suggest as a great plan of action for assisting a new member of the workforce is the following:

1. Laugh at their letter - a lot. In fact, post it on the wall of your office for a year.

2. Decide to post it on the internet a year later (with all potential identifiers removed of course).

3. Ridicule the person within an inch of their life, within the context of faux pity, of course.

4. Be proud enough of this mean-spirited critique to leave it posted after many commenters point out its unprofessional nature.

5. Make ridiculous generalizations like "How full of themselves most young people are..."

Hopefully you are thinking, "gee Julie, who on Earth would do that?" Well, I'll tell you who: Ragan.com. I recommend reading the full letter in its entirety here: "Is this the worst cover letter ever?", so I can explain my disappointment in the letter and the author after you've had a chance to experience it for yourself.

Commence with my "constructive critique" (ha) of this post:

1. I hate to tell you this Ragan, but I had never heard of you before I read this piece. You had a wonderful opportunity to win me over with what you knew would be a strong PR piece because of its controversial nature. You failed. I do not think highly of your company based on this one piece, and if I was an average consumer, I would probably intentionally memorize your name so as not to do business with you, and never look at your page again.

2. You tell the letter writer "Excellent, except we don't do PR or Speechwriting." I'm not sure if you would be good speechwriters, but I think we can safely classify the "we don't do PR" statement under "duh." Nothing about this piece is good PR for your company, especially if you are hoping to attract nice people who value professionalism.

3. I was curious to see how the student got confused, so I went to your homepage. Frankly, I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly what it is you do. There's a publishing aspect, clearly, a consulting aspect that offers social media services (among others) and a "My Ragan." And then there's all those links on the left hand side bar. As a potential client, I find your page completely confusing. I don't blame this poor grad for not knowing exactly what it is that your company does. 

4. I don't intend to address each and every poorly planned and insulting comment you made to this young lady, who was obviously extremely eager for a position without the guidance to position herself well. If you are a successful writer with a good career, in my opinion, you owe it to the world and to recent grads to offer mentorship and truly constructive advice. In this too, you have failed miserably.

Required Viewing: Gary Vaynerchuk's "Ego Searching or Caring?"

Earlier today, my husband caught me googling myself. Not just my name, but my business name, my blog name and even then names of a few friends. Oh, and apparently, there's another Julie Ann Cajigas in the Philippines. I don't know much about her, but she's 27 years old. She and I should meet up one day to commiserate. Anyway, he caught me, and pretended to be interested in the fact that I found a church bulletin from three or four months ago on page seven of my google search.

Then, a lightbulb went on - in my husband's head. He excitedly asked me if I had seen Gary Vaynerchuk's latest video post. Don't know who Gary is? Well, if you're a wine connoisseur, a fan of Conan O'Brien or just someone interested in learning more about branding, the Internet and your business, I recommend keeping up with Gary Vaynerchuk's latest (and archived) videos and blog posts (that means you current clients, prospective clients, friends and family). Gary Vaynerchuk is definitely required reading/viewing for any business owner in 2008.

Anyway, I digress. Hubby immediately insisted that I navigate over to the video and educate myself. In Ego Searching or Caring? Vaynerchuk explains the difference between "ego searching" (or searching google for your name because you want to know how important/awesome/interesting you are) and caring (or, well, caring). So, before I continue, I would like you to watch the video now:

An Open Letter to Company ABC on PR Best Practices

or ("The Biggest, Most Important Secret to PR Success")

Dear Company ABC,

I just called you to interview you for an exciting, 2-page spread because I thought your product line was perfect for the feature. I checked your website first to find the number of your PR person, but all that I could find was a general number. Maybe you don't get a lot of press and don't have a PR person? I called the general number, and instead of talking to a person, I talked to your high-tech phone menu. I couldn't figure out which number to push as there was no marketing or PR option, so I pushed "0" for the operator.

Could you find someone a little more personable to be your operator? First, they assumed I was calling about selling you something and hung up. The second time, I got past the point where I introduced myself by blurting out "I'm a reporter from XYZ publication looking to interview your marketing person" faster than an assumption could be made. Expecting better, more responsive treatment, I was disappointed when this person said, "please hold" and put me directly to someone's voicemail. She didn't tell me who the person was, she didn't tell me when they would be in, all I got was "hi, this is Bob, I'm not in - leave a message!"

I could have been a little more diligent, since I really liked your product, but time was of the essence, so I moved to the next person on my list and called them, hoping to get a live person. Someone friendly answered the phone and now their products are featured in my article. What's wrong with this picture? Well, Company ABC, a whole lot - you missed out on free PR! How did this happen? Let's start at the beginning.

(Read on to learn the biggest, most important secret of PR Success.)