Edelman--The Missing Linker

I enjoy Richard Edelman's 6 a.m. blog and I admire the ethics he espouses in leading the world's largest PR firm. We had a great interview with him, then wrote favorably about him in Naked's Chapter on Direct Access.

But  find it appalling that he is ether too lazy or too self-centered to bother to link to other bloggers.  Most recently, he reports on having lunch with the UK's Suw Charman, one of England's top-ranked bloggers.  He doesn't even bother to link to her.

Any blogger soon learns that links are the blogophere's currency. Why is he so damned cheap?

Comments

[Ephraim Cohen]

Calling Richard Edelman's lack of linking appalling, lazy or self-centered seems a bit strong and almost like convicting without a trial. If asking this question in public, why not just ask the question and get him to answer (with a quick email)?

I had the chance to work for Richard Edelman many times during my years at Edelman. I never would have accused him of being lazy or self-centered (if anything, it's the opposite). I've also never found it difficult for him to give credit to others. If he's not linking, he probably has a reason unrelated to the descriptions in his post (even if it's simply that he hasn't thought it through from the angle you mentioned).

[shel israel]

Ephraim,

Since you worked for him, you know Edelman much better than I do. have a great deal of respect for him, which I think I ave conveyed several previous times. But his failure to use links, gives e the impression of a top-down approach to blogging and it damages what would otherwise be considered a truly top-notch PR blog. He's been blogging for more than a year now, and it's time for him to join the conversation.

[/pd]

Epiphram, I am not into PR but I do blog. Shel, actually points out a good thing. If markets are conversations on a two way street, then why is the most prominent pr person not linking on the blog posts ? How can we the blogsphere fact check ? Send him an email ?? Really you must be crazy to suggest that in todays blogsphere. Email forked ages ago into rss and comments !!

[Trevor Cook]

Edelman spends a lot of time trotting out the cluetrain ideas about conversations etc but he virtually never links to another blogger. So does he get it?

[Trevor Cook]

And if he doesn't get it, why have so many lauded him so strongly

[Ephraim Cohen]

Yes. Send him an email. It's not outdated. My appreciation for the blogosphere grows but I'm still not convinced that everything needs to be out in the open.

In other words, if we are all at the dinner table no whispering (generally speaking, no emails as part of a blog conversation). But after the conversation, I don't see anything wrong with a little one to one suggestion to a dinner guest that should modify conversation behaviour.

[Lance Dutson]

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Having Shel blast him like this is probably something he has warned clients about by the boatload over the last couple of years.
"Markets are conversations" - Edelman's product is his reputation, and an angry customer just complained about his edelman360 not working.

Don't email, let's wait to see if he's listening...

[Eric Eggertson]

Arrogance or ignorance? I've dealt with lots of people of all ages who don't know *how* to create a hyperlink. It's an incredibly simple thing to do, but one can accomplish many things in this world without mastering that task.

Of course, in today's environment, admitting you don't know how to create a link while running a major company might be bad for the firm's reputation.

Better to appear arrogant than ignorant. ;-)

However, Edelman has a lot of staff at his disposal. If know-how is the problem, I don't think anyone would feel slighted if he delegated some linking to a staffer.

[Dennis Howlett]

A clue might come from the title of the post where the first few words are 'His master's voice...'

[Jeremy Pepper]

I can think of a few other bloggers who often seem to forget to link to other blogs - and they should know better, since they've positioned themselves as the top PR bloggers. Might be because they are insecure, or some other issue.

I would be interested to know if the other large agency PR bloggers link to others, like MWW or B-M or Ketchum. For you to just point out Edelman without looking at the other large agencies' blogs could also be called laziness. Why just point out Richard's lack of links?

At least Richard responds to all comments on his blogs - from professionals, from other PR people, from students. I can think of others that just comment when people say nice things about them, but cannot when people challenge them.

[scott]

I agree, Shel. You may have noticed that most newspaper blogs do the same thing. Not fully getting it.

I also agree with Jeremy -- quite a commitment for Richard to respond to all blog comments. It's the thing I've been most impressed by re: his blog.

[John Cass]

Jeremy,

You have a great point about reviewing other agency sites. Makes sense to me.

Scott,

I think the newspaper issue of not linking is actually a bigger issue. Not surprising but definately an issue. I think we will see changes over time, Business week is already linking.

John

[Richard Edelman]

Shel, you are right. I should have included a link to Suw's blog. No excuse other than that I was in a rush and on vacation in London with my family. Since I began my blog, I have focused on writing at least once a week and responding to every comment. My New Year's resolution is to join the conversation more regularly and to be sure to insert links in each of my blogs. I take your criticism constructively and hope that you, Trevor Cook and others will observe a change in 2006.

[Suw]

Co-incidentally, I only came across this post today, just before Richard commented, actually.

I agree that the blogosphere's currency is linking, but I also know that blogging is habit-forming and we don't always fall into the best habits. I've written posts that haven't had links in the past because I've been too busy to dig the links up, and I've been called on it too. I'm only human, after all, and fallible like anyone else.

Personally, I'm gonna cut Richard some slack. You can tell from the tone of his post that we had a great conversation and that the lack of a link wasn't a slight. I admire that he's posted a comment here taking your criticism on board - that is the blogger way.

But we've all forgotten things, or gotten into bad habits ourselves in the past. Let's not make a mountain out of a molehill.

[Jeremy Pepper]

Too late Suw. :)

And, sorry, the currency of the blogosphere is NOT linking. It's the quality of the conversation. That's what it should be, at least, and that degrades a lot of top blogs to the true crap that they are.

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