Back in May of this year, the global PR firm, Mission, engaged a British life-style blogger, Muireann Carey-Campbell, to participate in a half marathon to bring some buzz to their client Nokia's Outdoor Series. Muireann was to blog about her journey preparing for the marathon and was told she would be training with and interviewing Olympic athletes. She was also to receive sports kits, a Nokia camera/video phone (to document her training) and her blog was to be linked on Nokia's Outdoor Series main page. Her travel and accommodations to London to train with the Olympic athlete as well as participate in the race would also be paid in full by Mission.
My first thought was, "That's all she gets!?" and after further research I found it very common that companies and PR firms tend to have the perception that it's okay to "pay" bloggers in freebies and samples. Unfortunately, many bloggers allow that form of payment to be sufficient. For the commitment and the amount of work that Muireann was doing, she really deserved much more than Mission offered her. Unfortunately, they failed to follow through with any of their promises, save a loaner phone!
When Muireann's race pack still hadn't arrived 2 weeks prior to the marathon she really started to worry. Mission proceeded to give her the runaround, blaming lack of communication/confirmation with Nokia for the delay. In the end she contacted the race administration directly and was able to get a spot and used her own funds to travel to London.
The blog post, The Tale of PR and a Blogger, includes her letter to Mission regarding their lack of professionalism, communication and follow through. This post has caused quite a fuss, or a "twitterstorm" as one commenter called it. The blog entry has jump-started dialogue around the relationship between PR and Social Media Outlets, as well as provided a reminder of why the blogger was hired in the first place - her influence and impact in the world! Mission's lack of professionalism in response to Ms. Carey-Campbell has not only hurt their image, but also the image of Nokia and anyone else that they represent. And while both Nokia and Mission immediately responded in Muireann's comments of her blog entry, the piece has been spread far and wide as an example of what not to do when using Social Media for PR.
What is the lesson here? Whether or not you believe in the power of Social Media, there is no question that it exists and its influence can just as easily harm your image as boost it. Companies looking to utilize various forms of Social Media need to understand the strength and impact a blogger has with his/her readers and give appropriate respect and compensation.
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