By Darren Leroux

[First and foremost - in an effort to be transparent, H&K Canada represents HP Canada and I work on this business so I have a built in favoritism toward HP.]

Well, it looks like an overzealous PR intern over at GCI Group made an attempt to defend his client against some strong criticism made by Jeff Jarvis, among others regarding Dell’s initially weak foray into blogging.

And, not surprisingly, Jeff bit back and rightfully so – when someone makes derogatory remarks that are personal and not the least bit constructive, its fair game to fire back with a howitzer to mute their ignorance.

Now, beside the fact that Dell has entered into the blogsphere and has been rightly or wrongly criticized, I’ll give them their ‘props’ for making the attempt and take the high road by withholding judgment. But that brings us to the more pressing question:

What was GCI’s ‘Chris’ thinking!? There are times and places for immature comment rants and doing them on company time, on company PCs at your desk is not one of them.

What ‘Chris’ has done is set-back the work many PR firms have been doing with regard to engaging the blogsphere by a light year, particularly for GCI and their newly formed Digital Media Practice.

There has been many a time where a PR professional has seen something that irks them as it relates to bad press or commentary about a client. As well, there have been many instances where clients see something and demand their agency blacklist the offending outlet or journalist – which is not something we condone. A constructive conversation with the journalist or editor goes much further and maintains the relationship far more effectively.

Regardless, as contracted representatives of our clients, we are in turn an extension of their voice and their ‘public’ face. ‘Chris’ should have learned this in school in PR 101 class and that how he acts and behaves on company time, while doing company business is a directly reflection of who he works for and who he represents. In making his comments, he basically commented on behalf of Dell, like it or not.

As I said, there have been times where we’ve wanted to snipe back at someone for something they’ve said or written, the best option is to think about what you want to say, provide a constructive argument and begin or continue a dialogue. Ranting and behaving like a 14-year-old involved in a BBS flame war is not the answer.

There’s a reason why companies that promote corporate blogging and participation have a set of rules and guidelines – or should have – in place to ensure mature and appropriate interaction on behalf of companies and clients. Everyone that blogs on Collective Conversation knows this, has to read them and agree to them before they can even sign-on to do so. It’s a best practice all companies should do if they haven’t done so already.

There will always be someone that goes outside of the ‘proper’ rules but having guidelines in place beforehand goes a long way to curb any renegade commentators.

For those that want to rant and do personal attacks on bloggers regarding a client – they can do so by going to an internet café or going home, logging on and doing it on their own free time when they aren’t representing their company. But even that can be risky in the days of 24/7 business… perhaps we’re ‘always on’ regardless of what time it is.

NOTE: GCI Group is a WPP Company, as is Hill & Knowlton.