Digital Axle + Jawbone: Lessons to Learn

Ana [last name removed*], an employee of marketing company Digital Axle, apparently sent an email to numerous top bloggers a few days ago, trying to engage them in conversation about a recently released promotional video for Bluetooth’s Jawbone headset.

One of her contacts, Lee Odden at Top Rank Online Marketing Blog, criticized Ana’s methods in a post entitled, “You Make Me Sick - Viral Video Response.” In the post, Leo posted the majority of Ana’s email to him and blasted Digital Axle for their involvement with such a “sick, racist and violent” video.

According to Bruce Carlisle, CEO of Digital Axe, Ana was merely trying to engage fellow bloggers in a discussion of the video, which Digital Axe has no affiliation with, and was doing so for the purpose of promoting the Digital Axe blog. Many commenters at Lee’s blog are still adamant about calling Ana’s email a pitch, despite Bruce’s pretty transparent explanation.

There are definitely lessons to be learned from this minor fiasco. Here are my Top Five:

1. Email Is Not Private

Never assume that an email you send privately to someone will remain private. Emails get forwarded all the time. Emails you send to online media could get posted publicly in part or in whole. It’s happened to me.

Personally, I would never post someone else’s email in entirety without their permission. I’ve seen other bloggers do it and I think it’s an unfair practice. If I did post someone’s email without permission, I wouldn’t include identifying details.

As a side note, never publicly post someone else’s email address without their permission. If you do, be sure to mangle the address to deter spambots.

2. Transparency is Key

In her email, Ana should have immediately disavowed herself and Digital Axle from the Bluetooth video. Furthermore, she should have just stated her purpose for sending the video link to Lee in the first place.

When you’re writing to a blogmaster in order to solicit a review of your book, for example, just be up front about it. Being coy or forging a fake friendship is not the way to go about it. If you exchange a couple of emails then drop the review bomb on them, it is not going to go over as well.

3. Respond to Negativity

I applaud the Digital Axle CEO for commenting on the blog post not once, but twice. By including his explanation on the original blog post, he made sure that all future visitors to the site would see his side of the story. Simply posting an explanation on the Digital Axle blog would not have been as effective.

By the way, I hope someone at Digital Axle is monitoring their Google Alerts in order to properly address any future criticism on this issue, particularly any posts that do not give the full story.

I encourage clients to respond to all online mentions of themselves, even negative ones. In some cases, especially negative ones.

4. Admit You’re Wrong

After Digital Axle’s clarifying comments, the original blogger, Lee, edited his post to draw attention to what Bruce said. In Lee’s own comments on the blog post, he still asserted that Ana’s email was misleading, but did acknowledge that there was new information which made his initial allegations not quite as harsh.

If information comes that changes the sentiment of a blog post, it’s perfectly ok to edit it. Edits should be made as additions to a post, however, not actually deleting things. Always document these edits within the post in some way. Usually, simply adding a line at the top or end of the post like “Edit: blah blah blah” will suffice.

5. Write About It Yourself

I’m not sure why Ana chose to ask other bloggers to write about something in order to promote her own blog. It would have made a lot more sense to write a great blog post about the Bluetooth video herself, then invite her peers to the Digital Axle blog to discuss it.

Why give the traffic to other blogs?

Update 2/25/08: Check out Lee’s additional comment for another good pointer. By the way, Lee took out identifying details from his original post, so I’ve followed suit and removed Ana’s last name from my original post.

[Jawbone video screen cap credit: Lee Odden]