You wanna put stuff here? Well, to start with, who are you?

Over the past few weeks I’ve received another few offers from PR folks. They periodically seek to place content for their clients on this site. They see what’s here, find some similarity to their clients product or service, and make some nondescript offer of collaboration.

While I remain open to offers of collaboration, even sponsorship, to date I’ve rejected every such advance. This is largely because the approaches have been poorly conceived.

This most recent time the email comes from someone in the UK. While they claim to be “working with” a company in the telephony space, it originates at a GMail address. It bears the senders name, but no company name, nor the name of their client. It’s mysterious.

Curious, I tried to look up the sender on Linkedin, but found nothing useful. Puzzled, I am reminded of a classic song by The Who.

“Well, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
Tell me, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
‘Cause I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)”

Who Are You by Pete Townsend, The Who

How am I supposed to take such people seriously? I don’t know why they even bother to craft the offer message.

When I write an email it always contains a standard signature block that includes my name and various contact details. I’m readily found on various social media platforms. It’s quite easy to find out enough about me to determine if further conversation has merit.

The failure to properly introduce one’s self to a complete stranger seems to me a critical failure in etiquette. It’s the height of discourtesy and most unexpected from someone who purports to be engaged in marketing and PR. It’s the kind of unprofessional that I shall not up with put.