Do Spam Filters Hate PR?
As co-founder and publisher of BoomerCafé — the online magazine for baby boomers with active lifestyles — I have gotten on so darn many media lists of PR agencies that send an endless string of press releases. But, here’s the interesting thing … my spam filter, it’s called SpamSieve, catches every press release and dumps them into the trash! For some reason, SpamSieve automatically recognizes the dozens of releases sent to me each day as spam rather than as legitimate messages.
Doesn’t say a lot for the effectiveness of emailing unsolicited press releases, does it?!
By the way, I highly recommend SpamSieve for anyone who uses a Mac.
About the Author: David is a veteran communications strategist ... writer ... blogger ... online publisher ... and Emmy Award winning former CBS Network News correspondent. He lives in Washington, D. C., area and works worldwide.
Michael Tsai | Sep 15, 2007 | Reply
Press releases can look a lot like spam, both in the words they use and in the formating. I also run an online magazine, and when I was developing SpamSieve one of the best tests was to make sure it could tell the difference between legitimate press releases and spam. In my experience, that works well so long as you train it to correct any mistakes–so that it knows which types of messages you want to see. If catching the press releases as spam is a problem for you, please feel free to contact me.
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