Nokia joins Blog Council to learn how to talk to us
By Stefan Constantinescu on Friday, December 14th, 2007 at 5:06 PM PST In Nokia
Nokia, along with 11 other companies, have joined something to be known from here on as “The Blog Council.” The communications guys couldn’t figure out a way how to start blogging themselves, so they want to join an elitist gang of other corporations to make sure that the message they put out is genuine, authentic and <insert buzzword about online reputation here>. Now I don’t want to discourage you guys to stop talking to Nokia (NYSE: NOK), quite the contrary, many of the employees I know can name several prolific bloggers in the S60/Nokia space with no hesitation. They know who you are and they talk amongst themselves what you mentioned on your blog, in a comment, etc. The problem is how should they communicate with you?
This approach of a council rips to pieces what makes Nokia such an awesome company, the people. While employees may joke about how much S60 stinks at A, B, C compared to product XYZ in private, they wouldn’t dare joke about that kind of thing in public. That folks, is a mistake. The blog council wouldn’t understand why someone like Phil over at the S60 blogs took a picture of the sun rise over Nokia House in Espoo and post it for the world to see. It doesn’t add any value to the brand, it doesn’t have a direct correlation to ROI stats, it has no marketing message.
What happened to people being people and the stuff that they happen to be selling is just the catalyst that encouraged the conversation to begin in the first place?
“Be more Nokia” is a slogan that has been popping up all over the place. James from SpinVox took the picture above. What does being more Nokia mean? Initiating a conference call with your friends to gain advice on how to pick up the girl you meet at a bar and formulating a strategy that involves maximum perceived value for your twig and berries versus the other men in the vicinity? No. Being more Nokia is walking up to the girl because you have sisu (Finnish words for guts), telling her what you want, taking her home and then sharing the pictures you took with your N82 of the bedroom action with your coworkers and friends the next day while nursing a hang over with several cups of coffee. Those of you who have been to Nokia parties know exactly what I’m talking about.
Nokia has close to 40% market share of every mobile phone on the planet. They want to protect that by giving you a packaged set of corporate values into a 60 second ad reel instead of taking “more risks” as CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said during Nokia World.
You call this taking a risk?
I don’t understand the point of this post? Reading the press release, I didn’t see any word like censorship or other nasty things like you are describing… They said they want to promote best practices. I guess they should have said “Nokia will send its guys to Oulu on a training on blogging” and everyone would be cheering
Something doesn’t sit right with me about a group of companies sitting together at a table discussing how blogging should take place. A conversation with a company and a consumer shouldn’t involve this.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/blog_council_fumbles.php
That article also sums up some of the faults.
Stefan -
I’m sure there must be a misunderstanding here. The Blog Council members are those few people inside big companies that really understand what truly open blogging is all about. We created a group so they can spread these ideas and help more companies understand. It’s the opposite of a secret group setting rules … it’s a voice for the best of the best. For all the reasons you have worries about corporate blogging, that’s why we need to support these guys.
Andy Sernovitz
Blog Council