From my point of view, however, when I started seeing bloggers show up in my Vocus database alongside regular media outlets, I naturally assumed that they were vetted, asked if they wanted to be a part of the database and that they had provided the information in the database.

Understandable; but now you know better, and I think it’s important that all PR folks hear about this so that they know better. And it would be really nice if the various database maintainers were pressured to make their databases confirmed opt-in, not just simple sign-up. That way your initial assumption would be correct, and you wouldn’t be an unwitting party to spamming.

I think there also has to be a distinction between sending a press release to someone who hasn’t opted in and contacting a blogger to ask if they want to be part of a campaign – a product sample, review, whatever.

I agree with you on that. The former is spam; the latter is asking if someone would like to opt in to a mailing list. Of course, the latter can get awfully close to spammishness if someone buys a list of a gazillion addresses and auto-mails them all to ask if they’d like to opt in.

Anyway, I’d be happy with the outcome if it became widely known in the PR industry that PR databases can (and do) contain people who never asked to be in the databse, and that PR folks should closely question database providers on their inclusion policies to make sure they won’t become unwitting spammers.

PR has to move away from this scattergun approach of hoping for a small percentage uptake regardless of the impact on the larger proportion who delete or ignore your communications.

We should focus more on quality than quantity – especially when it comes to bloggers and other online influencers. We have to earn the right to engage in the conversation – and you don’t do that by sending unsolicited, unfocused press release-style communications.

Thing is, it’s almost impossible to do media relations without such a database of media people – it’s just one of the tools of the trade, like email or a blog.

I think there also has to be a distinction between sending a press release to someone who hasn’t opted in and contacting a blogger to ask if they want to be part of a campaign – a product sample, review, whatever. I get press releases too (mostly from hip hop promoters, for some reason) and they bug the hell out of me. I also get asked to review books and things every once and a while, and I have no problem with it because it’s a personal communication. Yes, it’s unsolicited and commercial, but I don’t consider it spam.

That said, spam is in the eye of the beholder, and it’s an important thing to remember before hitting send.

Now, were I to sign myself up with MediaMap or Cision or whatever, then no, it isn’t spam. In such a case, I’ve asked for the material, at least indirectly. The point is that I hadn’t.

And that’s something that PR folks need to be aware of and think hard about when they consider using services like Cision. Unless a service is relentlessly opt-in, by which I mean they not only require people listed in their database to sign up but also to confirm via e-mail that they want to be signed up, there is a non-zero chance that you’ll end up sending commerical e-mail to someone who never asked for it. And that’s spamming. The service itself is very much to blame, but the people who keep them in business by paying them and using their data despite their questionable tactics share the blame.