How NOT to Handle Requests for Review Copies

I've been blogging since 2002 and over the years I've received quite a few review copies of cds, dvds and books, especially for ProHipHop. These days I primarily accept or seek out review copies of books because I'm a book nut and feel like I often have something useful to say and also because reviewing books is not the norm in hip hop web publishing and doing so helps make my blog a bit more unique.

Recently I had the experience of requesting a Web 2.0 marketing book from a man who has a huge number of Twitter followers but who also posts his email and other contact points stating that we should be able to contact him however we feel fits our needs. Apparently he had spent quite a bit of money hiring a publicist and wrote about this expense as an investment in at least one blog post that I encountered. So, given his stated commitment to personal contact, his professional focus on personal branding and his willingness to deploy resources on publicity, I figured it would be easy to get in touch and, perhaps, receive a review copy of his book.

When I wrote an email asking for a review copy I told him that I would post the review at ProHipHop, a relatively high visibility site associated with hip hop marketing, a field that has a long history of cutting edge exploration of social media and related marketing tools. Awareness of my site and the cutting edge nature of many hip hop marketers has meant that I've received a number of marketing books over the years. So, for those in the know regarding web marketing, requesting a review copy for my site is a reasonable request.

I was surprised to then receive a response that basically said thank you for my feedback. Given that I had not offered feedback but had requested a review copy, I assumed that this might be an auto-response and that I would be hearing more later. Such was not the case, my two follow-up emails went unanswered and now I don't know if this fellow was simply not good at what he says he does or couldn't bring himself to say no.

This lack of response leaves me wondering if he has issues with hip hop or if he can't evaluate websites or all sorts of other negative things because I'm human and that means I creatively fill in the blanks. Since I'm very creative, my image of this man, who is focused on social media and personal branding, is now associated with all sorts of negative attributes.

For example, I now think of the clip-art cover of his book as indicative of unprofessional cookie cutter production. When I see his photo on guest blog posts at a blog I respect, I no longer ignore the fact that he looks kind of like a sales guy, the type without substance who is only looking to close the deal. And I realize that, despite the fact that I bookmarked a number of his blog posts at one point when I was investigating social media marketing more closely, I can't remember a single thing he said.

To be honest, if he'd simply said he'd expended all he could on review copies, I would have accepted that response. Other forms of no would have also been acceptable, even if I didn't like them, because they would have created a sense of communication and closure on the issue.

Instead, I will no longer take this guy seriously even though I have gained in the process. In the past I would have called this character out by name at ProHipHop and possibly embarassed him into apologizing and sending a copy because I do quite well in Google and folks often end up dealing iwth me there because they suddenly have negative commentary appearing at the top of results for their name or project.

But I'm done with attack by search engine. Even when it was done in the service of exposing outright fraud, people don't like such attacks, conducting them damaged my brand and they made me the target of unpleasant counter attacks and random slurs from multiple angles that ultimately took away much of my joy in blogging about hip hop business.

So there you have it. Whether or not I've moved to higher ground is certainly debatable but the fact that building one's brand on a particular identity requires one to follow through with appropriate behavior is not. And ignoring requests, even if you think they're inappropriate, can lead to behind the scenes brand damage that may have implications on down the line.

Comments

[Ronnica]

What a great reminder to act professionally online!

[Clyde Smith]

Yeah, I wish I'd learned related lessons a bit earlier on!