Google has entered the arena of social media outreach and is engaged in directly contacting publishers about Google products and offerings, asking people to write about them.
In a nut shell, they are link building now. It is through a third party, but they are doing it.
I received an email a couple of days ago that asked me if I was interested in doing a story about the new Google search stories tool.
Upon initially reading this email I was very suspicious to be completely truthful. Suspicious enough that I did some investigating. Here is what I learned…
This appears to actually be someone acting on the behalf of Google.
After speaking with several people (all of whom were notably professional and nice) I wanted to share what occurred because it is a great example of communication. Social media is people, and these are some professionals who know how to interact with people.
Even though I have some critiques about the initial email I received, they impressed me very much with their open communication as I was investigating this.
I am going to describe this in three parts.
- 1. I will share the email I received and note the things I liked and didn’t like about it.
2. I will explain why I was suspicious of the email
3. I will describe how the communication went when I contacted them, and why I was left with such a great overall impression.
The Email
I have highlighted what I think was good about it and what I thought was bad about it. Here is the entire email with my critiques in red and my compliments in green…
Hey Patrick (<–They got my name right, good way to start),
How’s everything? My name is [name], I’m a digital Marketing consultant that works with Horizon Media. (they identified themselves)(but they did not identify that they were working with Google)
I love the site. (compliments will get you everywhere)
I really liked your articles “Facebook fan requests make me want to projectile vomit” and “Google translate for animals”. I thought the Google translate for Animals video was pretty hilarious. (they mentioned by name my posts and commented specifically about them)(they probably shouldn’t just reference the last two posts I did, would be more real if they mentioned a new post and an older post)I’m reaching out to you today about Google’s new Search Story campaign. (they explain why they are contacting me)
You may remember Google¹s Parisian Love ad that aired during the 2010 Super Bowl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnsSUqgkDwU .This was Google’s first Super Bowl ad, and the response was so positive, that Google decided to share this opportunity with all of its users. (they used a great reference that most people would know about)Google’s brand new Search Stories tool has gone live yesterday. You can check the below blog posting to read more about it
(http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/make-your-own-search-story-video-in.html). This tool allows you to create and publish your own personalized Search Story that you can share with your readers, fans and friends. To view the Search Stories Creator template, and build your own story, please visit the YouTube channel @ http://www.youtube.com/searchstories I have also attached a PDF on how to create your own search story.You can also reference the below link on youtube if you would prefer. (a good solid but brief description of product)If you could check out the tool, create your own story and post on your site that would be greatly appreciated. (very specific and real request, no confusion here) If you could encourage your readers to do the same and share with their friends and family that would also be a huge help. Lastly, if you could let me know when you do create your own search story that would be great because I would love to see and read all about it. (these are very specific requests as well, which I think is good, they are contacting me, might as well not beat around the bush about what you want. The request for further communication is a good thing. It also is a pretty good idea for a blog post.)
One last thing I wanted to mention was that many videos that stand out as creative and fun will be posted on the official YouTube Search Stories Channel. In order to meet those requirements, you must publish a story that meets Google’s terms and conditions, which you can find on the Terms and Conditions page of the You Tube Search Stories Channel (http://www.gstatic.com/sst0/static/terms.html). Thanks a lot and I look forward to seeing what you create and publish on your site.
Thank you! (politeness rocks.)
~[name]
(the following FTC rule warning was a big red flag because it says to disclose I was directly contacted by Google, but I was not informed in the email that it was Google making the request. This did not add up to me.)
IMPORTANT NOTEIn keeping with recent FTC rule changes, we request that you provide full disclosure to your audience in regards to your relationship with our brand.
Please make clear that you were contacted directly by Google, who asked for your participation in the ways outlined above. In addition, please disclose fully any materials and/or products we have shared with you as part of this initiative. Your honest and transparent participation is truly valued by Google. We look forward to working with you again on future initiatives.”
That was the email I received and now I want to describe what made me suspicious of it.
Smells Fishy
As I noted I was a bit suspicious of this email when I first looked at it. I am a pretty big fan of Google and I am somewhat familiar with how important their brand is to them. When I first read the email I was never told that it was from Google (or someone directly acting on the behalf of Google) so when I got to the end of it and read that FTC warning stating “I was directly contacted by Google” it didn’t add up for me.
Worse still, I went to the domain name that the email was sent from and…
There was nothing there.
This convinced me at that moment that this could not be a Google contact as I felt that they would not send emails from a domain that didn’t have anything on it.
The Communication
Since I am a bit protective of Google because I am sorta a fanboy, I replied to the email with this…
“explain more of who you are to me please and what your relationship with Google is. If you do not, the only story I am writing is about your misrepresentation.”
Nice aren’t I?
I received a prompt reply. It was professional, it explained what was up, and it offered me solutions. (wow)
Here it the reply I got….
“Patrick,
Google is one of the advertising accounts that Horizon Media represents. The current campaign we are working on in generating awareness and encouraging people to try out this new Search Story software Google has created.
If you would like I could send you my supervisors email so you can discuss further with him.
Hope this helps.
Thanks,
name of person”
I was impressed by the prompt reply, but I wanted to put on my reporter hat and dig deeper, so I replied that I wanted the email. I also said in part…
“The email seems sneaky to me, it is not sent from horizon media, and the domain the email is from is non existent.
Thank you”
I was again given a prompt reply within minutes..
“Patrick,
Not a problem at all. My supervisors information is below. I apologize if the email came off as sneaky, that was not my intentions.
[name of supervisor, email of supervisor, and phone number of supervisor was provided here]
I hope to hear from you soon.
Thanks,
Name of person”
Wow. A nice, apologetic reply with actual contact info. I was again impressed, but I wanted to get to the bottom of this so I called the contact.
I had a conversation with the supervisor on the phone, and he explained to that there was a relationship between Horizon Media and Google.
I then spoke to the director of social media & relationship marketing of Horizon Media and we had quite a friendly chat. I have had my share of overseeing outreach efforts, and he was a very nice open person who actually wanted to hear my critiques.
The bottom line of this is that Google has hired someone to do social media outreach and are actively engaging in reaching out to publishers.
I appreciated the transparency of the conversation I had, and my impression went from suspicion to support. Nice job.
They found me, and I am one of the right guys to find if you are Google and are wanting to reach out to publishers.
I think there are two main things a social media outreach plan needs to do in order to be successful.
- 1. Find the right people
2. Communicate with them well
They seem to have done that. If your communications were published by a rogue blogger, would your outreach fare as well?
(notes: I am not a rogue blogger, and do not normally publish email communications on my blog without discussing it first with those I have communicated with. I told them I would do this story, and that it would include critiques on their initial email.)
If they ask you to create a related blog post on this subject, why did they ask you to email them when you post the new blog post?
They could at the very least, take the time to add you to their feed-reader (good grief)!
I would still ask for a google[dot]com email, to verify.
Their website claims millions in billings, yet they have a couple dead links on their sitemap. If they are pulling in that type of money, I would think they could afford a full time web-dev (that site isn’t that big to be having any dead links).
http://www.horizonmedia.com/pages/23-sitemap
Good luck,
It still seems phishy to me. I do not understand why Google itself has to farm out an important job of getting attention to its new product? Don’t they have enough employees or talent to do the job themselves? Why go to Horizon and make it look like someone else is promoting Google?
The fact that they didn’t use an email address for a website that resolved and told who they were is the dumbest part to me. That’s 101. Frankly contacting people of your caliber with that simple mistake just makes Horizon Media look like “Not the Company to Choose for your Marketing”.
Good lookin’ out Pat
Glad to hear it’s real
Pam,
Yeah, that was my main critique to them. They should have had at least a splash page that answered who they were and why they are contacting you and such.
Slim,
I have sent a request to Google press contact, haven’t received response yet, but they seem to be the real thing.
Has anyone else received these?
Pat, what you have here is a better than average media relations effort common to virtually all companies that engage in public relations.
I’ve owned a PR firm and a SEO agency. Media Relations and link building are very similar and that shouldn’t be any surprise.
I might be getting this wrong, but the statement: “The bottom line of this is that Google has hired someone to do social media outreach and are actively engaging in reaching out to publishers.” is presented as if there’s something wrong with Google doing outreach.
If so, it’s like someone saying, “SEOs put keywords in title tags and links to increase visibility in search engines.” Gasp!
Regardless of how common the practice is for PR and the linkbait title in the post, I think your critical description and analysis does shine an informative light on how these kinds of outreach efforts can be perceived – especially the transparency issue which could easily be solved by the PR firm.
Thanks for a great post.
Interesting post, Pat.
Would never have thought Google would be interested in marketing their product that way… However it just goes to show that even the ‘big boys’ have to play fair sometimes…
Good Sleuthing too, Gumshoe!!
Lee –
I didn’t mean it to seem critical to Google that they are engaged in this common practice, I just found it damn interesting.
I also know ‘(as you do) that things like initial emails can be tweaked upon and improved, but what is harder for outreach campaigns to accomplish is to have professional and friendly people behind them. Too often the initial email is the “whole game”, rather than the first step. I respect people who communicate. I honestly was very pleased with my communications with them. I found the whole thing rather impressive.
Patrick, I think that your post was really well done….never have I seen someone provide a view of the experience. It was very informative and we all learn from it. No one is perfect,especially in the social world..or any other world for that matter. So thank you for the overview.
We invest around $2billion dollars annually for all of our clients in all forms of media and many many companies leverage third parties to conduct outreach on their behalf..Google is experimenting in lots of areas ( the superbowl for one..a big first) and get credit for reaching out to a bigger net for ideas. And you are right we should have aknowledged earlier on that we were representing Google.
The gentleman who talked about our website was right ..did not know about the deadlinks and we will correct asap..it is a pretty good site..always a work in progress and we should have caught that.
Bill Koenigsberg
President CEO
Horizon Media
Bkoenigs@hmi-inc.com
Nice Post! Thanks for sharing. You should get paid by Horizon for teaching them how to establish trust and get better results the next time they cold email publishers.
Wow! This was the only word I could think of after reading your post…
All along while reading the post I was convinced that Google actually cannot be behind this affair. So you can imagine how surprised I am of your conclusion.
Btw, I came across your site and this post by accident. And after reading this investigative article I can tell that it was a nice accident. Thanks Patrick, and I hope to read more of your posts.
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very intersting post thanks for sharing this Would never have thought Google would be interested in marketing their product that way… However it just goes to show that even the ‘big boys’ have to play fair sometimes…
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Posts like this remind me why i spend so many hours on reading articles like this.
Thankyou for writing on a topic like this.