Case study: The elegant social engineering design of Strumpette wreaks havoc in the PR BlogoSphere

By Tom Foremski - March 29, 2006

Amanda Chapel is a real character if not a real person, and the content on Strumpette is real. In an inaugural post, Ms Chapel baited the top PR blogger Steve Rubel who works at Edelman.

This is becoming an interesting case study on how to react to negative news/opinions, especially if one or more of the participants are fictional. Usually, the strategy would be to focus on the source (Strumpette) and correct any inaccuracies, address any negative comments right there at the source through comments and trackbacks.

Edelman's people have tried to do that but so far, have failed to do much that isn't fueling things the wrong way. And that is largely because of the marvelous social engineering design of Strumpette. Take a look at "Edelman Gang Gets Rough with Strumpette"

We could get some best practices out of this very interesting situation, one that has an array of moral and ethical high grounds occupied and fought over with zest and extra-hardened fingernail polish...:-) In which some of the participants could be of questionable gender and questionable morals. Let the questions continue--it is marvelously entertaining--but is anybody working in PR?


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By Tom Foremski - March 29, 2006 | Permalink | Category: PR Watch
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Comments (1)

I've been enjoying the living case study too... The site seems to be down this morning (4-30-6) and I wonder if they're just getting hammered or if it's a ddos.

Edelman's disimpressing me with its response thus far.

Here's a quick PR response that blew my mind with its audacity and simplicity. I'm not sure what the effects were internally...
http://www.adrants.com/2006/03/agency-makes-joke-out-of-nasty-internal-e.php


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