The shenanigans we have to deal with

ESPOO, Finland - As you probably noticed, this site is about having an ongoing, open, and honest conversation with folks around the Nokia neighborhood. And, as I have said before, we are not the only ones in this effort (nor should we be, since this is a large company). Hence, part of our role here at Nokia is to educate individuals, agencies, and teams in how to use the latest Web tools and services, such as blogs, wikis, media sharing sites, and so on.

But, sometimes, over-eager individuals who should know better (that is, PR and marketing agencies) do things that risk trashing our reputation. Indeed, in the past few weeks, there were two occasions. Read on to learn more.

Different person, same place

Recently, someone was going around commenting on different sites using different names, making positive comments about Nokia. They ended up commenting a few times under different names on the same site and the site owner noticed that all the names (with similar positive comments about Nokia) came from the same IP address (that is, from the same computer). The site owner revealed the aliases and accused Nokia of perpetrating this.

It turns out that the folks responsible revealed themselves immediately and apologized and said they were not doing it under the direction of Nokia. Nonetheless, we dug deeper and found out that they do work for Nokia, so we told them in no uncertain terms that this behavior was unacceptable.

Different place, same way

In another incident, in one of our online shops, someone was going around leaving comments supportive of our products, under different names, no less. Someone found out that it was, once again, an over-eager agency trying to game the system, an agency that does work for Nokia. In this case I do not know if they were told to do this or if they did it on their own. Still, stern reprimands were delivered to all involved, along with an offer to learn more on how to ethically and properly leave comments on sites.

Different people, same ways

There are some folks at Nokia who would rather err on the side of caution and not let any employee or agency comment on or participate in conversations on the Web, so as not to taint or mislead genuine conversations among customers. This is commendable, but that is no longer realistic as corporations are required to get into a closer and more direct conversations with customers. Hence, we encourage employees to actively participate in online converstions inside and outside the company.

Of course, we have guidelines, to ensure we do it properly and within corporate bounds. Also, we strongly encourage employees to identify themselves as from Nokia or to also clearly state when their opinion differs from Nokia’s if it is relevant, say, when talking about Nokia, the mobile industry, or one of our products.

Different people, same honesty

What’s on the line here is our reputation for being open and honest. If we blow that, then we just become a shrill marketing engine seeking to spam and scam everyone with lies.

And we don’t want that.

So. I’ll do my best to ensure that whenever we speak, it’s openly and honestly. And you make sure to tell me when we fall out of line. Together, we can teach this company the value of the conversations you and I have here every day.

Deal?

Image from exfordy

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Tags | honesty, marketing, Nokia, scam, trust