Companies Embracing Social Media: A Case Study With Nokia
Nokia Knows How To Open Up For Social Media
A few weeks ago I was in Barcelona for Nokia World along with a group of other writers. I’ve had some thoughts over the last week about how companies and organizations are treating independent journalists that I’d to summarize.
Because I write online here at Techcraver.com and not for a “traditional” outlet such as newspaper or magazine, we independent online journalists are often seen as second-class when by large companies and organizations. As a result, I have a more difficult time A) getting access to high level executives for briefings, and B) getting equipment to review and evaluate.
I encounter this bias when working many with many different types of companies, with a few shining examples that are the opposite. One company that has embraced social media is Nokia and their practices and patterns should be emulated by any company or organization who is looking to engage social media for outreach purposes.
What Does Nokia Do That Is So Great?
There are a few efforts that Nokia employs to bring social media into the picture. These PR-type efforts include WOMWorld, a program which grants loan devices to bloggers and tracks the buzz in the blogosphere surrounding the current Nokia handset models. There is also the Nokia Blogger Relations program from Comunicano.
These are active engagements whereby the large Finnish mobile phone company has reached out to social media to generate attention with their products, gain feedback, and have a conversation surrounding their mobile handsets and services.
At the Nokia World conference, Nokia representatives were available, including key product managers from inside the company (including a Senior VP). I was able to meet with a variet of officials from throughout Nokia, including handsets, to services, and even corporate sustainability.
The Nokia Social Media team turned this huge monolithic company and organization into an open book for us to start conversations and adequately analyze the new offerings. They invited us to interview anyone from Nokia and arranged these meetings.
Another key facet to Nokia’s Social Media Team’s strategy: they’re engaging large, well known writers from larger blogs as well asless well-known, up and coming writers. Rather than just engaging outfits such as Engadget, Mobile Industry Review, and others, Nokia invites me along with other smaller Nokia writers as well. Very smart!
It is apparent to me that as a company, Nokia’s intent with engaging social media is to start conversations and appreciate feedback, both good and bad. The Nokia Social Media team takes negative feedback and routes it to the appropriate manager or team within the organization.
So in summary, Nokia has embraced social media by bringing us to the table, giving us access to different aspects of the organization, and appreciatively listening to what we have to say. More companies and organizations should use this approach, as there are benefits for both parties when it is employed.
What other organizations are doing a stellar job of interacting with and engaging social media? What approaches do they take that you feel should be repeated? I look forward to the comments!
This entry was posted on Friday, December 26th, 2008 at 11:51 am and is filed under Op-Ed, mobile, nokia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Ryan December 28th, 2008 at 8:17 am
I love your post! Great Insight!