Good move, SHIFT

New media consultant and blogger Marshall Kirkpatrick recently called out some PR professionals for their poor pitches (I'm digging the alliteration). There is a lot to be learned from his advice. One of the most relevant pieces is how the blogsphere makes the learning process more public. But, maybe that is a good thing. I definitely know that I will think more critically about any pitch I'm sending out.

My main point however, is to compliment SHIFT on a good PR move. Just like I was recently saying in my post about The Daily Show, one of the best popularity-enhancing moves you can make is to laugh at yourself. And SHIFT definitely did this by not only posting on Marshall's blog but by publishing their own post on PR Squared. The post openly admitted to a mistake with no attempt at excuses. The post was full of good-natured humor as well as a screen shot of the offending PR professional's original post.

Not only did this strategy paint SHIFT in a more human and transparent light, get them some extra buzz, and more traffic to their blog but it got them an in with Marshall from now on. He writes in response to the comments from SHIFT

"thanks for being such a good sport, you drop me a line any time."

If PR is all about building relationships, SHIFT sure found a great way to form one with Marshall. As I said before, good move.