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Tesla dissolves its PR department

electrek.co

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Re: Tesla dissolves its PR department

#81

Post by chrisseaton »

michaelt wrote: post #79
chrisseaton wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the same thought, why do politicians talk to journalists either? For example Trump doesn't trust them... so why does he talk to them at all? Why not just stop inviting the press in? Why not just present your own releases direct to consumer/elector via your website and social media?

> Why not just present your own releases direct to consumer/elector via your website and social media? 1. You can't do without some press coverage, because you want to sell to people who aren't already superfans. Toyota sold 10.7 million cars in 2019 and has 803,000 Twitter followers. If their message only appears on Twitter, the vast majority of their customers and potential customers will not see it. Of course, the…

Can't you advertise? Put your own message out on your own terms. Why work with journalists who may turn against you?

Re: Tesla dissolves its PR department

#83

Post by dawnerd »

mapgrep wrote: post #74

"There are obviously still people arranging test-drive promotions for YouTubers but their role isn’t in a traditional public relations capacity. " That's absolutely traditional PR for an automaker. "Arranging test-drive promotions" means deciding who is eligible for test drives, viewing what is published on YouTube, and deciding if the person will be eligible next time. Even if no words are spoken/written to the YouT…

I can't imagine they like responding to every request for comment on everything Elon tweets from every blogger out there.

Re: Tesla dissolves its PR department

#84

Post by me_me_me »

hef19898 wrote: post #64
hnracer wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit has a lot of anti-Elon users, I'm not sure that on net the users of that site support him/Tesla.

Every PR is good PR, as long as your name is written correct. Or something along these lines.

Sure that's why we hold murderers, rapist and pedophiles in such high regards.

Re: Tesla dissolves its PR department

#85

Post by tibbydudeza »

Recall one youtuber trading in his Model X for a hybrid Honda Accord (he had a valid issue with long family trips and the supercharger network in his locale) and it got 1.5m views and lots of dislikes and some really crappy comments.

Outsourcing PR to the "fans" ... nope.

Re: Tesla dissolves its PR department

#86

Post by barumi »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #52
drannex wrote: post #40

Are we just going to ignore that they have an 'External Relations' department? And that their own jobs board has positions posted two weeks ago for "Marketing & Communications", PR positions all across China, and for "Community Relations Partner"? This "news" is pure fabrication. https://www.tesla.com/careers/search#/?keyword=Communication...

The definite news is that they have stopped responding to emails from Jalopnik and Electrek and other news organizations. The article explicitly explained that personnel from PR moved into External Relations. The headline is far more sensational than the article. But that's been standard practice for centuries, not "pure fabrication"

> The article explicitly explained that personnel from PR moved into External Relations.

What's the difference between Public Relations and External Relations?

Re: Tesla dissolves its PR department

#89

Post by gamblor956 »

AtlasBarfed wrote: post #73
bryanlarsen wrote: post #8

Also read the linked jalopnik post that sparked the top elecktrek post. It's informative and funny. https://jalopnik.com/teslas-pr-department-hasnt-responded-to...

[flagged]

It's full of the usual anti-Tesla cherrypicking, sarcastic one-liners, fumbling for clickbait headlines that zombie gawker Jalopnik has to use every day to eke out any engagement possible.

Clearly you are unfamiliar with Jalopnik. All of their posts are full of cherry-picking, sarcastic one-liners, and clickbait headlines.

They don't single out Tesla for special treatment (good or bad), nor should they.

Re: Tesla dissolves its PR department

#90

Post by sosborn »

modeless wrote: post #66
netsharc wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"A Tesla rep just called me racial slur.". Tweet goes viral. There you go, do you need a PR deparment now? If it's your CEO doing that job, that's a bad use of the CEO's time.

Why, so they can put out a limply worded two sentence denial for every news outlet in the country to dunk on? Bad press happens. I'm sure journalists love it when companies engage directly with them but I'm not sure that it results in more favorable coverage on average. They still have a blog and a Twitter account. If they want to make statements they can tell the public directly instead of favoring specific journali…

> If they want to make statements they can tell the public directly instead of favoring specific journalists with private communications.

Who is going to do that when you get rid of the PR department? I mean sure, someone can do it, but then they are doing PR work on top of whatever other work is on their plate.

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