Paul Gillin on Social Media and the Open Enterprise. Update Nov. 21: Social Rebate’s PR agency took issue with my opinions below, stating: For a journalist of your caliber, I would have expected you to do more than just ‘scour the website pretty thoroughly.’ If you were interested in a story—even a story critical of Social Rebate—I would have expected you to reach out, interview a Social Rebate representative, and perhaps even interview some of the company’s small business clients. Perhaps your perspective would have changed, perhaps not. But, at the very least, you would have fairly, accurately, and properly REPORTED the story.” The company’s founder and CEO submitted a response, which I have appended, in its entirety, to the end of this post.
The PR agency for a startup called Social Rebate has been asking bloggers to comment on the company’s somewhat novel approach to brand ambassadorship. I’m sure the folks at Social Rebate researched their concept exhaustively. Does full disclosure resolve the issue? Social Rebate responds: Paul, Best, Lifehacker. Gizmodo.
Howfuckedismydatabase.com. Engadget.