Poll: Should Tech PR Agents Vote For Their Clients in Polls?
One of the many philosophical questions that came up in this year's fabulous Gnomedex conference was whether PR agents should vote for their clients in anonymous online polls or not. We argue that they should not due to conflict of interest, others argue that anyone should feel free to vote in such polls and tiny startups would be crazy not to rally all the support they can get.
Maybe it's no big deal, but we think it's an interesting question. What do you think? Let us know in the poll below, even if you work in PR yourself.
RSS readers can click here to view or participate in the poll.
Earlier this month we asked whether good tech even needs PR. In that post we discuss some important things PR agencies do for their clients - things that make voting for them in polls look downright silly. That's our take on it, anyway, what's yours?
Photo: raise your hands for jesus by Flickr user johny hunter.
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Seems like if a poll is anonymous and doesn't have a disclaimer such as "please do not vote if you have financial ties to any of the companies in the poll," then it's ok for PR companies to vote for their clients... not overvote, not organize a campaign of ballot stuffing, just put in one vote.
Anonymous polls are like anonymous apartment and restaurant reviews. Smart people take them with a grain of salt.
I'm betting that more people will vote "yes" than "no." Why? PR people are pretty sensitive these days and anything that smacks of anti-PR (even if it really isn't) is going to get a response. PR people are also very active on social networks and know how to mobilize large numbers of friends/followers.
They should vote if they sincerely consider the client to be worthy of a vote.
A valid opinion is still a valid opinion - even if there is a degree of bias.
However, they should acknowledge their relationship in the comments
I've voted for clients in surveys. I've also *not* voted for clients or voted for other nominees. For me, I go with who I feel honestly deserves the prize. We do "get out the vote" with an email campaign but stress that people only vote if they have used the service and feel it deserves a win.
What about the inverse? Should a company vote for their PR person??