I have to admit that Beth Brody’s comment on my blog and the multitude of other blogs about starting a blog of her own and learning from the mistakes is kind of pat. She obviously copied and pasted the same response to multiple blogs. And her lack of genuineness is really showing through. Her opening line of her first and only blog post is “I appreciate all the many wonderful and wise people who have offered me good advice and tactics for being a better communicator.”

The last thing I would do is call the people who responded “wonderful.” She’s obviously smiling as she grits her teeth.

With all that said, she does have a lot to learn. But that still doesn’t excuse the onslaught of cruelty that the bloggers and journalists gave her.

One other mistake she made that nobody mentioned (including myself) is that none of her links in her email actually pointed to the book she was promoting. They simply went to the business site. And on the business site there was no mention of the book.

I cannot tell you enough how much I agree with you. As Blas said above, the outrage is definitely selective. DJ? Hey, you’re cool. Way to “engage”. PR person? No way, dude, you’re a flack!

Here’s how I replied on Chris Abraham’s post over on socialmediabiz (http://www.socialmedia.biz/2009/08/19/i-would-have-appreciated-an-apology/). Good on you for calling him and others on it.

“Funny how Brody PR has done exactly what all the so-called A-listers and social media “experts” say they should do — cry “mea culpa!” and apologize — and yet are not getting any sort of “Good for them for apologizing” kind of messaging. I guess it’s far easier to be snarky and cackle over someone’s honest mistake instead of being a decent human being and saying, “Good for you for correcting the problem.”

Remind me who is calling the pot and kettle black again?

Disclaimer: I work for Empower MediaMarketing and this is my own opinion.

I agree with you 100 percent. This was a “reply to all” fiasco, nothing less, nothing more.

The irony was this: some of the very same people who were upset about receiving these “reply to all” messages ended up fueling the very problem that so infuriated them.

It’s sort of like complaining about someone who forgets to put a new role of toilet paper in the toilet paper dispenser … and then not replacing the toilet paper yourself.

FWIW, I blogged about this myself over on TechPrGems.com.

You’re right though that you have to send a personal message when you want to unsubscribe. But honestly, I just hit reply with the word “UNSUBSCRIBE” and nothing else. I think people get it.

And blas:

Your situation seems so much worse. We had about 50 replies. 300 is insane. But I like that it spun out positively. I love the image of your gmail thread. :)