so.there.we.were

Alternate title: Should I Be Flattered By All The Attention?

This blog used to reside under the Google umbrella over on a blogspot domain before I shifted it over to my own domain, and I still get email directed to that account every once in a while. Most recently, I received an email from Wikio asking if I would insert an RSS button for their blog feed service into my site. Here is a quick overview of what it entails:

The Wikio button allows your visitors to subscribe for free to your news feed on Wikio. Once installed, you need simply test the button out. Clicking on it should bring up a Wikio page with the option to add either a new or existing page.

So, basically, visitors to my site would be taken to a Wikio page to subscribe to my feed, giving them brand impressions and possible retention of visitors if my readers decide to stay on their page and click around.

Anyway, the problem with the email was the subject:

Subject: Wikio RSS button for .::.

I immediately trashed the original email based on this alone. You see, the “.::.” is what I had in the “Blog Title” field under the blogspot CMS because I had hacked the layout and used a custom thing with a logo but the CMS wouldn’t let me leave the title field blank, so I used this stupid little text thing to take up the space and satisfy that requirement.

This made it blatantly obvious that the gentleman, who shall remain nameless, had just used a data scraper of some sort to get my email and prefill the subject with whatever was in the “Blog Title” field in the blogspot CMS. This is the wrong way to go about this type of campaign for several reasons:

1. It shows an obvious lack of personal attention and blatant spam mass emailing, something that no blogger or human being enjoys receiving.

2. It would have taken literally five seconds to visit my actual site to grab the real name, nobody would look at that “.::.” and think that it was the actual title of my blog.

3. It would also have taken literally five seconds to visit my site and grad my real name, or at least my nom de plume. I would be cool with either.

4. Doing either #2 or #3 would have made it obvious that my site has moved and an email to the contact info on my new site would have been a lot more productive, since that’s where I would actually put a Wikio button anyway.

Moral of the story: If you are going to take the time to execute a “community outreach” program to generate traffic, introduce a new product or pitch a story, take the time to make sure that you get your information right.

I understand that you don’t always have the time to “build a relationship” with each individual blogger. Despite what the leading industry experts are repeating ad nauseam when it comes to blog outreach, that’s not always a realistic goal. Ideally, you would build a rapport with the influencer blogs in your niche with the long term goal of introducing ideas, stories and suggestions that could be mutually beneficial without coming off really spammy. But if it’s a quick hit to introduce something (like an RSS button) that has no specific niche, at least take the extra 10 seconds to make sure that your effort does not go to waste. That can go a long way.

I may have just left this whole thing alone if I had not received a follow-up email from the same person with the same subject asking if I had any questions. I do: Why?

To honor this, here’s the song Impossible Outcome by The Get Up Kids because approaching community outreach like this makes positive outcomes almost impossible. Clever? Not really, but it gave me an excuse to post a good song…

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Oh, and while I’m at it, don’t comment spam my blog. Or, if you do, at least don’t be so stupid as to use the name “Link Building Staff” on your comment. That makes it really, really obvious.