Overview of Programme Activity

1. Creating a blog – design, style, technology and innovation with 1 in 3 to 4 posts being directly about LG products
2. Dealing with comments and enquiries to the blog, acting as LG
3. Active participation – commenting on target list of blogs
4. Utilise other relevant media – YouTube, Flickr, Twitter etc.
5. Create and attend events – direct interaction of bloggers and LG staff
6. Management of blogger relationships
7. Seeding phones for reviews

One of the reasons why I think the programme has been such as success to date is because LG understand that blogger relations cannot be treated as a campaign but as a long-term, ongoing commitment to the blogger community. In my experience, too many clients try and dip in and out of the blogosphere without realising that trust, credibility and ultimately influence can only be built up over time. As communications professionals, this ethos is something we need to get better at instilling into our clients – something which Outside Line has clearly achieved with LG.

The other thing this programme demonstrates well is that there can be no short cuts – blogger relations is a labour intensive programme and the Outside Line team employs dedicated bloggers who work in tandem with LG on a daily basis. As a result, LG has been able to demonstrate its authenticity to the community over a sustained period.

I think the thing which impressed me most, however, was the mix of online and offline activity. As I mention in my earlier post (To Blog or not to Blog? That is the question), bloggers cannot be treated in the same way as journalists but blogger outreach is still built on relationships. By hosting offline events where bloggers can interact with LG staff (and each other), it makes it far easier to build genuine, credible relationships.

When I asked Ronnie if the Outside Line team had learnt a lot since they started the programme back in August 2007, he admitted that they had which is hardly surprising. Blogger relations is still a relatively new practise, so there is still a steep learning curve for those involved. However this is an extremely good example of what can be achieved through a blogger relations programme.

I was intrigued (although not surprised) to see the lengthy queues outside mobile phone stores, Carphone Warehouse and O2, with consumers clambering to get their hands on Apple’s new 3G iPhone. It would seem however, that our orderly British queues were tame compared to the furore that has taken place in various other countries around the world. Bloomberg has reported on a queue half a mile long outside one particular store in Tokyo, which was besieged by reporters and camera crews, whilst helicopters circled overhead. In New Zealand, security guards had to be called in to control crowds.

In the UK, demand for the handset has – in similar fashion to the original launch – outweighed supply, with O2 announcing that it had run out of pre-order stock. Speculation remains as to whether or not O2 limited the number of handsets available in order to increase buzz around the launch (a tactic previously deployed by various games console manufactures), but the fact remains that the hype surrounding Apple’s latest offering has been significant.

When asking the question why, fingers might point in the direction of Apple’s marketing team which has been fueling the hype for months now. Whilst I agree that the marketing around the new handset has been undeniably slick, Apple’s job has been made somewhat easier by the product itself. Yes, there were some functionality issues surrounding the first iPhone handset launch, but the fact remains that the iPhone has broken new ground.

“Users of electronic communication can take up to four times as long to exchange the same number of messages as communicating face-to-face, particularly as non-verbal cues can account for up to 63 percent of the social meaning within face-to-face exchanges. Trust can be fragile…because of ‘behavioral invisibility’ when [people] cannot observe each other.”

Other findings from the Keller Fay study indicate that teenagers participate in a higher percentage of online WOM than members of other age groups, which I think reflects the considreable percentage of young people engaged in social interaction online (more than 90% of 11-20 year olds in the UK are registered to social networking site such as Bebo, MySpace and Facebook). So, whereas I don’t think online WOM will overtake the influence of offline face-to-face WOM any time soon, I am certain the gap will narrow over time as social media becomes the norm.

One thing that the study doesn’t cover, however, is the comparison of single influence compared to group influence – where online WOM really comes into its own. For example, if I want to find a suitable holiday resort, I will of course listen to the face-to-face advise of a friend or collegue, but I think my decision is more likely to be swayed by half a dozen positive or negative reviews posted by ‘strangers’ on an online site such as TripAdvisor.

So in essence, I think that different communications channels – both online and offline – can carry varying levels of influence dependent on specific scenarios.

As a PR professional, I’ve watched in wonder as the communications industry has evolved at a dizzying rate over the past few years, with social media playing an increasingly integral role. Of course, traditional media relations still has a pivotal role to play in the PR mix, but the considerable influence of the blogger community cannot be undermined. I think it is fair to say that it is widely acknowledged that bloggers are a very different beast to journalists, but the concept of ‘blogger relations’ still seems to remain an enigma to many – myself included.

How many PR executives can say, hand on heart, that they fully understand the workings of the blogosphere and give blogger relations equal consideration to traditional media-focused initiatives when they put together their client PR plans? I imagine the answer is not enough.

Yesterday however, I happened to stumble across a podcast interview with Andy Abrahams, CEO of Comunicano, the California-based PR agency behind the blog relations campaign for the Nokia N90 smartphone. Using the analogy of Alexander Mundy’s catchphrase, ‘you need to be a thief to catch a thief’, Abrahams suggests that in order to engage with the blogger community, PR people need to start thinking like bloggers. Pretty obvious stuff you might think, but can we really think like bloggers unless we submerse ourselves in the blogosphere?

Many people outside of the industry jest that PR is endless parties and long lunches, and whilst this sweeping assumption is clearly well of the mark, our business is based on people, personalities and relationships.  The better the relationships, the better the understanding, cooperation and respect from everyone involved.

Having listened to Abraham’s interview, I’m of the opinion that this rhetoric must surely apply to blogger relations as well. We wouldn’t dream of running a traditional media relations programme without entering in to conversation with journalists on a personal level, so surely the best way to get an insider insight into the blogosphere and garner an understanding of what makes bloggers tick is by entering into a dialogue with them on an individual basis.

Needless to say, blogging isn’t for everyone, but for me this is, in part, my first step towards building relationships within the blogger community and gaining a better understanding of the blogosphere. It will also, I hope, provide me with a platform to talk about others areas of the communications landscape relating to word of mouth marketing.