Comments on: Blog Wars: the Social Media Library

By: James Fitzgerald

James Fitzgerald — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:25:50 +0000

Fair point Craig, I didn't want to be presumptuous as to Stuart being happy about us posting a lengthy response. However, as requested I'm happy to share.

In short I mainly wanted to let Stuart know that we are in complete agreement with regards to social media engagement strategies and outreach etiquette. Prior to launching Social Media Library/ Affairs my business partner and I, Graham Lee, founded and sold the online PR agency, onlinefire, to the Eulogy! Group. onlinefire looks after the online PR and social media engagement for companies such as Panasonic, Virgin Mobile, Post Office, BBC Radio 5 Live and MTV, so it is an area we know well.

As a matter of course all Social Media Library/ Affairs directory subscribers receive free best practise guidelines, as part of their welcome pack. We also offer subsided training for our clients to help them better understand how to engage social media effectively, either on behalf of their clients or their own brand. We go to great lengths to advise all of our clients not to spam bloggers or social media users as not only is it lazy but it quite simply won’t work. We launched Social Media Library in October/ November last year (always a good idea to launch a new business just as a global recession bites) and have seen few examples of our clients getting themselves into hot water, so I can only assume that they are taking our guidance to heart.

I hope this sheds a bit more light on how we operate, more than happy to discuss further if anyone would like to contact me directly.

Cheers,

James
James.fitzgerald@socialmedialibrary.co.uk

By: Craig McGill

Craig McGill — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:52:13 +0000

James, given the comments are being made publicly about you, it's a good part of PR strategy to post your riposte publicly too. After all, as it stands, people will see Stuart's comments and what others have said - but nothing from you...

By: James Fitzgerald

James Fitzgerald — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:00:47 +0000

Hi Stuart, I've just dropped you a quick email in response to your blog post. Thanks for the feedback!

James Fitzgerald
Director
Social Media Library/ Affairs

By: Stuart Bruce - Wolfstar

Stuart Bruce - Wolfstar — Sun, 31 May 2009 19:54:13 +0000

@Guido Yep, you and me both I was a regular frequenter of Usenet and email lists back in the 90s when most of the folk who run things like Social Media Library were probably still in nappies. That's almost 15 years of learning how not to spam people.

By: Guido Fawkes

Guido Fawkes — Sun, 31 May 2009 09:37:45 +0000

I got sent that waste of disk space report. We may not agree on much but, it was rubbish.

Incidentally I too was blogging back in March 2003 and before. Many right-wing bloggers started out on Samizdata, the grand-daddy of right-wing blogs.

In fact I was pontificating online in the 90s on Compuserve at 14.4k dial-up speed.

Over night success takes years.

By: Robin Grant

Robin Grant — Sun, 31 May 2009 01:14:16 +0000

Here here…

By: Craig McGill

Craig McGill — Sat, 30 May 2009 20:01:13 +0000

Well said Stuart. At the end of the day – and as I said to a CIPR group the other night – nothing beats doing the legwork yourself instead of hitting databases.