Is Nokia the only mobile manufacturer with a blog relations strategy?
“What do you think of Samsung’s latest handsets?” a colleague of mine, another mobile blogger, asked me as we walked by the Samsung stand this afternoon.
“Er…” I said, “Well, I liked the look of that new Instinct they’ve got on Sprint, I saw it last night at that MobileFocus event, thanks to a smart chap from their PR.”
“Don’t they keep you updated with what they’re doing?” he asked.
“Er no,” I replied.
Why would they? No doubt they have an efficient communications medium when it comes to the supersites such as Engadget, however it’s rare to come across a mobile handset manufacturer that understands blogs or, perhaps more importantly, has a working blog relations strategy.
Nokia is the run-away leader in mobile blog relations. They’ve two main setups that I’m aware of. There’s a Nokia USA blogger program and a WOMWorld offering. As far as I’m aware anyone, whether you’re writing about mobile or otherwise, can talk to the leaders of these two operations and, provided you meet certain criteria, get admitted and in the door, to receive test devices and so on.
Smart. Although I’m supremely unconvinced on the nature of geographic dispersal. Why a US program and WOMWorld? Who knows. Whether it makes sense or not, at least it’s there. At least there’s a bit of interaction.
The only other handset manufacturer that I can think of who has a blog relations operation of sorts is Sonim Technologies, makers of the JCB ToughPhone. Although far less formal than Nokia’s, you can give Robin Dhara a call (if you want his details, let me know) and, again, he’ll talk to you about what they’re up to.
LG had a brilliant blog relations program run for them by the top PR chaps, Hill and Knowlton. H&K did an excellent job managing it until LG said (I’m paraphrasing) ‘er, that’s it, thanks, that’s the end of the launch’ and, (against some rather vehement advice from H&K, I suspect) shut down the sodding blog. Idiots. No idea whatsoever.
Trying out an HTC device (the HTC Touch) was like getting blood out of a stone.
I’d like to get hold of more devices to put them in the hands of qualified SMS Text News readers to do reviews. I’m not interested in how many megapixels or what the battery wattage is, I’m far more interested in the evolution, the consumer ‘end-reality’ and the potential of the devices to change or influence the market. For that you need to sit and play with the device, evaluate it and show it to loads of folk. Then sit back and do a lot of thinking about it. Difficult to do in 7 days.
I think, however, it’s going to continue to be a total arse because mobile manufacturers simply don’t understand how to talk to blogs. In fact a lot of them do their level best to persecute them, including, for example, preventing people from taking pictures of their devices on stands at shows, sending ‘orrible legal letters to keen fans and so on.
Are you aware of any companies who have a formal blog relations strategy in operation?
Motorola? Probably not or someone would have hoped in to defend the poor RAZR every time I comment, on it, eh?
Sony Ericsson? I don’t quite know if Sony Ericsson have hit the year 2000 yet, let alone got to grips with bloggers.
Fly Mobile? Sagem?
Is it really just Nokia that are ruling the roost?
Palm has one; but it is not like Nokia’s. Microsoft has their MVP program and a few other ditties that folks know who’ve been reached out to by MS. From my understanding of HP and Moto; they reah out only to certain people, I believve RIM is the same, but more towards non-bloggers.
So Nokia moght have the most far reaching blogger strategy, but not the only one.
Antoine of MMM’s last blog post..Ah-lo
Posted by Antoine of MMM on April 3rd, 2008 at 12:40 pm.Although they’re an operator, not a handset manufacturer, there’s 3’s 3 Mobile Buzz. At the moment they’re focused soley on the 3Skypephone. Still, they’ve dished out a mountain of handsets since just before the launch of the handset. Interestingly, they’ve not just handed them out to tech bloggers - they’ve put them in the hands of a wide and varied bunch.
Anthony’s last blog post..24 hours later… a day with a ‘net tablet
Posted by Anthony on April 3rd, 2008 at 6:29 pm.Ewan,
Thanks for the kudos. I (with boss, Christian Lindholm) was the first in the company to start reaching out to bloggers, back in February 04, with Lifeblog. If you knew of Lifeblog in 04-05, it was because of me and and the bloggers that helped me.
WOM World and the US loaner program was set up, I think, in 06, and was Nokia trying the waters in social media relations (I was not involved, ironically). As you comment, the focus was not well balanced.
This year I was called back to join the newly formed Social Media team. My first task was to get a basic (modest) blog up and running for the communications team (a few more weeks if all goes well). Of course, we do have a few blogs existing (the S60 and Betalabs blogs are the most prominent) and we have a ton of employees who have identified themselves as employees publicly on their personal sites (like me) and occasionally participate in the conversations about Nokia. But my site will cover stories (not specs and tech) that are about the people and companies who use, are affected by, or are related to the products and services from Nokia.
While I might be setting up a Nokia-wide blog, that’s not going to be the only place my team will be (I’m not trying to control the conversation, just add to it). We’ve set up channels in Flickr, Share on Ovi, YouTube, del.icio.us, and may set up more, so that we not only participate where people are, but provide media that folks can play with, forward, comment on, and basically follow.
Yeah, Social Media finally is official at Nokia and we have a ton of people who actually know it. This time around, we are trying to set up a coherent, consistent, and for the long-run strategy to participate in the conversations happening around the Nokia neighborhood.
What do you think?
Ping me in a few weeks to see where I’m at. If we’re not public with the (damned) blog by then, I might be able to give you a peek.
Cheers and keep up the good work!
Tchau,
Charlie
PS The site is called Nokia Conversations. Watch my blog for any further comments on it
Ta!
Posted by charlie on April 5th, 2008 at 7:35 am.Charlie; good hear that Nokia is woring hard to have a coherant, singular-ish voice in the blogsphere and in social media. That’s something that companies and PR agencies could really learn from and push themselves. I think Nokia is in a solid position though because you have a device that is communications-based, personal, and communial all at the same time. Give a lot of layers that can be explored, and you (Nokia) does this as well as anyone.
Antoine of MMM/Brighthand’s last blog post..Its Not the Hardware, Its the UX That’s Broken
Posted by Antoine of MMM/Brighthand on April 5th, 2008 at 10:52 pm.Ewan,,
Thanks for the shout out about our Nokia Blogger Relations Program that has been running since November, 2005. The programs and audiences that both WomWorld and Comunicano manage for Nokia are different in scope and nature.
Next time I’m in London perhaps we can meet up and go through things to provide you with deeper level of detail than is on the surface. I’ll be there later this month for the better part of two weeks.
It’s also gratifying to see how what Nokia, Womworld and Comunicano are doing is so well regarded.
Thanks for your kind thoughts,
Andy Abramson
Andy Abramson’s last blog post..TUNGLE’S MARC GINGRAS CHATS WITH ALEC SAUNDERS ON SQUAWKBOX
Posted by Andy Abramson on April 6th, 2008 at 2:56 pm.Is that the same Andy Abramson who was spotted at CTIA checking his emails on a Blackberry?
(sent from my E61i)
Nice.
James Whatley’s last blog post..CTIA Sneak Peak!
Posted by James Whatley on April 8th, 2008 at 12:25 pm.And who was seen making calls on my Nokia N95 3G…
Andy Abramson’s last blog post..TUNGLE’S MARC GINGRAS CHATS WITH ALEC SAUNDERS ON SQUAWKBOX
Posted by Andy Abramson on April 8th, 2008 at 3:21 pm.[...] To every blogger around, there’s no doubting the fact that Nokia has the best interaction programs with mobile sites and blogs, as well as consumers and followers. And I am not the first person to day that. [...]
Posted by Nokia, Connecting More People on April 17th, 2008 at 7:00 am.