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December 27, 2005Nokia Blogger Relations Campaign IV
B.L. Ochman on the ‘What’s Next Blog’, takes a critical look at the Nokia Blogger relations campaign. One of her chief criticisms is that the Nokia blog is merely a bunch of press release posts, and there is a lack of discussion on the blog. B.L. are we reading the same blog, Nokia is actively linking to other blogger posts, both negative and positive. Andy Abramson, the Nokia PR guy or maybe blogger relations expert, did a pretty good job of going down her list of criticisms of the campaign and answering them. He even thanks her for one or two ideas.
As I write in my earlier post, "Nokia Blogger Relations Campaign II," a blogger who receives the phone does not have to write about the phone, they can just ignore the phone. It seems to me that Nokia has been very clueful in responding to blogger criticisms and in getting extra mileage out of their efforts. I would agree that Nokia is running the campaign very much within their rules and goals. The idea of the blog is to promote the telephone by getting feedback from the online community. With limited resources Nokia has targeted a select group of bloggers, typically bloggers who generate income for their blogging efforts. There is no great general discussion about lifestyles, but as the blog only recently launched the blogger relations team is still in the process of responding to the blogosphere's reaction to the blog campaign. I suspect that we will see less coverage on the blog about blogger reviews over time and more discussion about the product and consumer opinions, why because that's were the discussion will probably take the online audience when the hype has died down over the initial launch.
I'd suggest that product development might be one element to throw in the mix for the future on the Nokia blog. As the Backbone Media Corporate blogging survey demonstrated earlier this summer, focusing on your audience’s ideas and thoughts can help you to both develop a better product and mean that your company's blog will receive a lot of additional attention from amongst your customer base. Nokia is already doing some of this with their blog; it would be great to read some interviews with the Nokia cell phone product builders on the blog. And if you can point to examples of where you changed a product based on consumer feedback, I think that will go a long way to demonstrating Nokia's understanding that blogging is not only about promoting but also listening to their audience.
Posted by johncass at December 27, 2005 3:03 PM
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Comments
John,
I have been following the analysis you have provided of the program we are implementing for Nokia and have to compliment you on your fairness and objectivity. You have hit on almost every point we emphasized to Nokia at the start of the program, and how we have operated the "blog" since it went live in November.
Your points about Product Development and comments from Product Managers are also on target.
If you wish to discuss this with us for additional insight (though you have most of it already figured out) please contact me directly.
Posted by: Andy Abramson at December 29, 2005 8:53 AM
