An old PR axiom holds that any publicity is good publicity, as long as they spell your name right.

Like most of conventional “wisdom,” I’m not sure that’s exactly true. Allow me to explain. Last week, I was asked to appear on Cavuto to take an unpopular position. That is, to support the would-be bonus of a Wall Street Executive who was not personally responsible for the economic meltdown.

Believing in the case I was asked to make, I accepted the offer and made my appearance.

And then the “you know what hit the fan.” Viewers found their way to the MSCO website, and to my personal email, lambasting me as a fool, a tool, a threat to decency, a dumb and irresponsible excuse for a human being. I doubt there was anything positive about the publicity, about my appearance on Fox, but that’s not the real issue I am driving at here.

Digital PR is fast, furious and viral. Things deemed to be cool or fun or in cases like mine, truly abhorrent, can quickly develop a life of their own and spread like a wildfire out of control throughout the Internet.

The fact is, when you engage in traditional PR today, such as appearing on a television show, you can inadvertently wind up in the digi world. Not because you place yourself there, but because someone who wants to demonize you or your client, puts you there. And then the chain reaction starts. And you can wish they spell your name wrong.

Or, well, maybe not. There I was, hours after the show and into the next day, reading all of these vitriolic comments about myself. Mark Stevens, Capitalist Pig. The digi PR world lifted me out of the broadcast PR world, and threw darts at me. They spelled my name right, but they did the same with the words “idiot, incompetent, myopic.”

So what do you do when the PR you initiate runs away from you online? Well, I always believe in the importance of trying to control the agenda. So my team and I threw oil on the fire. We placed the entire segment on YouTube and if that wasn’t turning the tables enough, sent the link to every critic who thought it was their duty to diss me.

And I made sure to spell my name right.

The next day an organization interested in reforming corporate boards contacted me about the segment and asked if I would meet with them on corporate governance.

PR is a beautiful thing. And the old axiom about spelling is, after all, right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu9cXXgkGH0