Blogger Teaches Netflix a Tough Lesson in Weblog PR

PR pros, please try to keep in mind that often times bloggers can be your greatest ally. They are powerful customer evangelists who often want to help you drive awareness. They are usually not a threat. Unfortunately, Netflix doesn't seem to get this.

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting the blogger behind the awesome HackingNetflix blog. A former PR pro, he approached the online DVD service's PR team twice since he started the site. The first time was to ask if I could be added to the press list. The second time he requested an interview for a new "Ask Netflix" story. He was declined.

So, what's a blogger to do? Take this exchange all public of course. This is an episode every PR professional should follow closely. Hopefully, Netflix will wake up and smell the opportunity before them.

When I worked in public relations I tried hard to answer every phone or e-mail request, no matter how small the publication. I spoke at user groups at every opportunity (and public speaking used to make me physically ill!). Blogs are a small online community, just like a journal or user group.

I think most companies don’t get blogs yet. I know Netflix public relations is concerned with making USA Today and the New York Times happy, but how can you ignore a community that has tens of thousands of your customers? I had 1,000 people visit my site today, plus an untold number that read my site through RSS and Atom feeds. If you do the math it’s easily 20 – 30,000 readers a month (and growing!).

I know I’m not alone. It’s hard to get companies to take bloggers seriously. I really like Netflix, but they are slowly withdrawing, closing themselves off from their customers (they recently removed their phone numbers from the site). Instead, companies should be embracing these online communities, comprised mostly of the highly desired “early adopters” that evangelize products to the general population.