Comments on: Doing PR the Wrong Way

By: Ken

Ken — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:24:08 +0000

I didn’t intend, nor do I wish to provide a forum for disgruntled former SSPR employees to vent. I no longer deal with this firm, and am happy to leave it at that. I’m closing comments on this post.

Ken

By: K

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 21:54:28 +0000

I know I’m a bit late on this — or perhaps I should use SSPR speak and “apologize for the delay” — but I also am a former employee of this spam factory and felt the need to comment.

M, it’s too bad I don’t know your true identity. Would love to trade stories of the executive stupidity that takes place daily at this “public relations” firm. Stupidity which is exemplified by Heather’s comment on this post.

John, you are absolutely correct when you say SSPR’s management concentrates power and does not tolerate dissenting voices. The same three people (most of whom have never had PR experience outside of SSPR) have been running the company for years, led by the trainwreck CEO, Steve Simon. Steve is the worst kind of asshole — an unrepentant asshole who considers himself a PR genius.

I do feel bad for Dana, as she most likely is a naive intern who didn’t know better and was simply following Steve’s tactic of favoriting quantity of pitches over quality pitches.

That place is a joke — Steve and Heather, especially. Would love to hear how the mass exodus went.

By: M

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 03:10:18 +0000

John–you are absolutely correct. As a former employee, your statements are dead on and it’s too bad that a company like this identifies itself as public relations.

By: John

John — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:21:37 +0000

I have been contacted by this company numerous times and a friend of mine is a current employee there, from what I have been told, most of the employees are aware that they are basically a glorified spamming company. SS|PR sounds like it is run by a very small group of people who have little experience outside of SSPR and think that the way things are done is just fine. It sounds like management concentrates power in an effort to ensure that no dissenting voices are heard, hence the attempt to push all blame off of the company in ‘Heather’s’ most recent response. Turnover at this place is out of control (and I know of a mass exodus is being planned) and that every employee is basically biding their time until they can get out of the place. I’d advise anyone reading to blacklist this place and avoid them like the plague. unless you like getting spammed all day long and then blamed when you have a problem with it.

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:30:43 +0000

I am the president of SSPR and I feel it is important that I chime in regarding your post about Dana’s tactics. Dana received a list of contacts from an employee at the end of his tenure with us and he indicated to her they were all active interests. She took him on his word and wanted to make sure each contact received a follow up note as not to let anyone drop off the radar. I assure you it was not a PR stunt or subversive tactic.

By: luca

luca — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 07:53:42 +0000

I received the same email. These guys have much to learn on how to do PR properly.The best part is this one:

“I apologize for the delay in getting back to you..”

Very bad.

Luca

By: techsyslonghorn

techsyslonghorn — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:21:09 +0000

typical… I have the same issue going on with an IBM training company right now. I’ve sent no less than 10 emails asking them to remove any and all of my work email addresses, this has been going on for over a year now… in fact I have a message in my box from them right now, maybe I’ll spam them back (just kidding).

By: SSPR? Blackholed.

SSPR? Blackholed. — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:18:15 +0000

[...] SSPR pulled the same stunt on me as they did on Ken, for exactly the same company that Ken got spammed, I might add. I am not going to bother reprinting the email–it’s the same as Ken’s for the most part–sending them an email about it, nor give the company they emailed about any bits on my page. Or any other company they represent for that matter. At least not any more. Pity, because VoSKY, a.k.a. ActionTec has some decent products. [...]

By: PhoneBoy

PhoneBoy — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:54:45 +0000

Hah, I got that email today, too.