How to Be a Campaign Blogger, Part 3: Discuss (no, really)
I thought that I would continue the series on “How to Be a Campaign Blogger” with this little case study that I blundered into this week. Nokia is doing something very interesting with their latest product launch and there is a lot that campaign bloggers can learn from their strategy.
A couple of days ago, I pointed to the Nokia N90 PR Blog. So far (a week after launch) they have 28 Technorati links.
That certainly shows that you can make some headway with a PR blog, if you do it right - and I must say that I am impressed so far.
You may be asking yourself how they built up this traffic so quickly. Well, sending out phones to bloggers probably didn’t hurt.
But more importantly, they linked back to people posting about them. They saw that I linked to them and dropped a friendly comment on the post:
Thank you for your kind words. This is a first effort for Nokia in the USA and we have spent a lot of time working to make it bloggercentric.
Bloggers in the review program will have access to the site, not just commenting ability. They will be able to post, interact. More importantly as questions arise they will be able to help one another as well as receive help from Nokia representatives as well as get those same people to be interviewed.
We appreciate you nice coverage and encourage you to stay in touch.
Regards,
Andy Abramson
Ok, so it is a little boilerplate, but it was still awfully courteous of Mr. Abramson to return the link.
Finally, they note in the “press room” section of the site:
Talk With Nokia
Do you want to talk with a Nokia spokesperson for a story or blog post? If you do, your Nokia Blogger Relations Team is here to help. Just send us an email and we’ll get set up the interview.
Well, lookee there. Actually welcoming press inquiries from blogs. Sure, bloggers could contact the press office anyway but having a standing invite certainly should increase their coverage.
Finally, there is one last thing I want to mention about this case study. The Nokia blog doesn’t shy away from engaging some negative comments. When blogger Craig Froehle was less than enthusiastic about the picture quality, (disclaimer — any communications directors out there may want to sit down before continuing) Abramson still links to the review:
One comment though, we’re posting all the reviews we are aware of from bloggers in the program, good and bad.
So the bloggers all 48 of you or so who have the N90’s don’t have to be shy
and can air their views like Craig at GearBits did below.
Good on you, Andy Abramson.
Let’s recap the lessons learned here:
a) Send Bloggers Free Crap — (not that I think that the n90 is crap - in fact, my office address is below if you would like to send me a test version…). Old-school press people know this and have done it for years. In politics, they mostly could get away with feeding journalists. There are two main things that bloggers want (aside from loot): Traffic and Information. You have the ability to help them on both accounts.
b) Engage in the Discussion — Once you have people writing about you, respond. If they comment on your blog, answer them (Jesse Lee from the DCCC’s Stakeholder - a blog I set up when I worked there - is a MASTER at this). If they post about you on their blog, comment there (or better yet, trackback or post about it on your blog).
c) Don’t Shy Away from Criticism — Again, your best choice with negative publicity in the age of the internet is to deal with it openly and honestly. Ask Scooter Libby. More on using your blog for crisis management in a day or two.
UPDATE:
Ok - when I said “so it is a little boilerplate” in reference to the comment by Mr. Abramson I REALLY was thinking more along the lines of “when you have 40-50 bloggers with review models, you aren’t really going to have time to create responses from scratch - or you are going to need some intens”. I didn’t mean it as any kind of a snub - maybe it is just the Midwest in me, but I feel bad… Seriously, I really think what they are doing with this outreach is fabulous…
Hey, Steve, the aforementioned Craig here. Saw your trackback and thought I’d pop over for a visit.
Yes, it’s an interesting exercise. I give Andy, et al. at Communicano some serious credit for being innovative — capitalizing on bloggers for grass-roots marketing is something a lot of folks talk about doing, but few actually try to do it in a new and interesting way.
As for the negative comments I posted about the N90, they were intermixed with some good comments as well.
But, I wasn’t at all hesitant to post what I thought, for that is my “job” as a blogger. I think my readers deserve to know the whole story as I see it, rather than being some sort of mouthpiece-for-hire for gadget companies. I’m not running a blog primarily to benefit the technology makers, although I firmly believe that they DO benefit if they choose to take advantage of free constructive criticism like I’m trying to provide. Of course, that’s somewhat of a long-term approach, something that few large companies driven by quarterly profit numbers seem willing to do anymore. But I digress.
It will be interesting to see if my time with the N90 is shorter or longer as a result of my (ahem) brutally honest review, or if that matters at all in the end. I hope it doesn’t factor in, for then Andy and company will be truly embracing the blogger culture rather than seeing it as just another flavor of pseudo-celebrity advertising.
Thanks for the note, Craig! I couldn’t agree more about Communicano’s work here. I sure hope that other companies are listening. Keep up the good work on GearBits!
Steve,
Thanks again for the nice extended amount of coverage about a program we feel is rather innovative, and in many ways asymmetrical.
We took on the challenge from our Nokia client to make the program core to what the Nseries brand is all about. People being creative and expressive, as that’s what we believe Blogging is all about.
I also tend to agree that there is a lot we’re doing here that has relevancy with campaigns, political and promotional alike, and as a communications professional enjoyed seeing the comparison you drew early on.
I also want to apologize if my original comment came across as Boilerplate though, it was *NOT* meant to be as we haven’t had time to construct that type of copy beyond what you see on the site
(nor will we)
For this program to work it cannot be, nor can it become boilerplate. While there are some values and relationship building aspects of the program that come from the Comunicano playbook on how to build mindshare and brand or product visibility, we did not take a plan that we had developed for another client and apply it hear with some cut and past. Like the Nseries and its target audiences, the Blogger Relations and Communications program was developed from scratch to be original and individual.
But other aspects come from actually being a blogger too. In case you didn’t know, like you, I blog about VoIP over on http://andyabramson.blogs.com/voipwatch/ . By being a blogger on a daily basis and having made it to the “A” list in my sector of coverage, a key component of the Nokia Nseries project was to be sure we and they treated other bloggers the way I wanted to be treated. By walking in the shoes of your audience you learn a lot. To manage this program any other way, we’d be approaching it wrong. Thankfully we have a great client who saw it that way too.
While we may not bat 1,000 with this program (heck even former client the late Ted Williams didn’t do that) we do feel, and clearly based on the comments like yours, Craig and from others, that we’ve really developed the proper mix of how to work with bloggers and the blogosphere, and clearly have nailed the approach for consumer and gadget oriented products.
But not just any company could be a client for a program like this to work properly. We have a great client and a great inside company side executive to work with and those are two crucial parts of the mix for this to work out right. By having the right type of client who can embrace the blogosphere and in this case a group of executives who saw its potential it made our job a lot easier.
Add to that and realize that the Nseries line of mobile phones especially is geared for journalists and bloggers with its built in ability to blog, compose, shoot video and record audio, the product fit alone made it a natural fit for this kind of outreach effort.
As I said when chatting with the editor of a leading PR publication today in so many words, bloggers are individuals so you have to be personal with them.
As for getting you a phone, right now we’re full out of the N90s but it is the holidays so stay tuned. In life I’ve always told people that when I say No, it usually means I haven’t figured out how to do it yet. And isn’t that’s the role of a PR executive, to solve problems while creating them for the competition.
P.S. this line made me ROFL -> disclaimer — any communications directors out there may want to sit down before continuing) Abramson still links to the review:
To us it’s all about transparency. One blogger asked why we blogged on the site without a pseudonym? I honestly never thought about creating a mythical character. That wouldn’t be right, and while I know its happening in the blogosphere, it’s neither transparent, nor about clarity and our client’s product is about that.
Please stay in touch.
Thanks for the update. So you know the site traffic has been at a fever pitch, exceeding our expectations, but doing exactly what it was set up to accomplish. The reviews, honest, candid, deep, and detailed, that are well beyond what you see in the magazines or in the traditional press are occuring. Most of all the community of bloggers is reacting very positively on almost all front, and for that we are grateful.
Please stay in touch.
Andy
[…] N90, problems with OSX sync and connectivity and the to be expected size issue. How to Be a Campaign Blogger, Part 3: Discuss (no, really) Steve Olsen (Smallblog) comments on the inte […]