What web journalists want
Image via Flickr taken by the delightful Fred Caballero of Channelship
Usually when I arrive at a product launch event, after being cordially greeted by the company’s PR people, I know that there will be between four and ten technology/business/lifestyle journalists in the main room, depending on how big/exciting/epic the product or service is. The majority of these mainly write for print publications, or at least an online version of a major print publication.
It struck me that for all the purely online sites/blogs dedicated to technology in the UK (Cnet, Pocket Lint, TechCrunch, TechRadar etc), in Ireland this is still extremely rare.
I think SiliconRepublic and GadgetRepublic may be the only tech news publications born of the web, later adding print channels to supplement online rather than the other way around.
… and we have a print channel!
Even so I nervously find myself adding that my website ‘has a print channel’ as if I don’t fully believe that online alone works. And I do believe that online alone works as a publication model, I’ve just been slightly brainwashed by the status quo and disappointed by the fact that most people seem at least 50pc more excited if they see their name in print. I have been guilty of this myself, and this is something Darragh Doyle and I both mentioned at a recent social media training day ran by Simply Zesty.
Let the right ones in
This brings me full circle to my initial point of product launches, and how last Thursday’s Irish launch of Vodafone’s new 360 phone was different than previous experiences.
Instead of just the usual tech journalists, I entered the room to find Pat Phelan, Joe Scanlon, Liz Lyons, Darragh Doyle, Peter Donegan and a host of other bloggers that I know well and love to read.
Fair play to Simply Zesty; although a relatively new company, Lauren and Niall managed to convince Vodafone to engage with the online community – you know, the people who buy their phones, use their data packages, talk about their experiences and then some.
Photo teese
While it was obvious that this was a new experience (photobloggers weren’t allowed to take any pictures of the beautiful Ms Dita Von Teese even though this was one of the main reasons they had come along!) I say fair play to Vodafone for being one of the first big companies here in Ireland to realise that we’re all getting our information/gossip/entertainment online, and we don’t want to see it only on the online versions of the main newspapers, or even just on SiliconRepublic because at the end of the day we’re not a blog and people can’t comment on stories we write.
Having said that, while my website was not developed to include comments, GadgetRepublic is a small site, more or less entirely written by me, so I do see it mostly as my blog, and when Vodafone sat down with bloggers and Thursday and asked what kind of online presence and interaction they would like to see, I was as eager as the rest to get my suggestions in.
What web journos/bloggers want
If you’re a company like Vodafone, in the business of getting people to buy your product or service, then consumers/potential consumers will want certain things from an online perspective. Here are a few things I would like to see:
- A tiered Twitter presence
- You don’t simply create one account and throw everything into it. There should be one main news account that simply publishes all importsnt Vodafone news and announcements for customers.
- There should be a customer service account, with a personal name or identity attached, so people with queries on tariffs, roaming, handset release dates, whatever, have a person to go and ask.
- Space to allow developers within your company to tweet about various elements of products/services they are working on. Gadget freaks like me would love this.
- News release blogs for online journalists/bloggers:
- I want to RSS to a blog/several blogs with great tidbits of information on the gadget or service in question, plenty of high resolution images can I can re-blog, and some personal insight from the blogger in question, who should have a name e.g. Mary from the Vodafone/Microsoft/Sony Team or something.
[...] a press launch and we were delighted to be involved. The launch seemed to go down pretty well too, with a great post from one of the country’s most respected journalists – Marie Boran. Shortly after this we moved onto a more day to day role with Vodafone helping with their overall [...]
i am always watching for any product launch on the internet as i am a gadget addict myself.-`”