In follow-up to my
previous post,
in which the phrase "google for gerri bird cambridge" (which turned up a rather poor
lack of
reply to a survey) was printed on some campain leaflets, I've come across a
slightly different example of how traditional PR ideas may not work online if the people who are doing it don't understand the technology.
The
Cambridgeshire County Council have placed on their transport page a link inviting people to view some videos of their new mis^WGuided Busway on YouTube. They've even gone so far as to create a
YouTube account for the purpose. Unfortunately, the
comments on their first video aren't too favourable, with the vast majority of people hating the idea. Not content with this, a
second video was also posted, with exactly the same effect. In retaliation, it seems that their PR department has
tried to fake some good reviews, but have been caught out.
So, some simple lessons:
- Don't trust user generated content to do your job for you
- Don't trust sites you have little control over
- Don't try and stuff the ballot by writing like a PR person
