Blackberry’s Social Media Marketing Mistakes

 Blackberry’s recent “Share Your Stories” campaign was inspiring for me, though probably not in the way they intended.  I actually love my Blackberry, but their entire “Share your Story” campaign just struck me as lacking in any of the lessons many other marketers have learned about Web 2.0 marketing and what works in social media.

 The mistakes were so basic, that it led me to put together this post listing a few of them and some reactions for how they could have been avoided.  As more and more consumers continue to find ways to interact with brands that they are passionate about, the popularity of UGC campaigns will continue to rise.  Blackberry has such great potential to tap their own brand enthusiasts for efforts like this … but they fall short in this campaign in several ways.  Without further intro, here are some of the key mistakes and thoughts on how Blackberry might have been able to execute this campaign idea differently:

1. Mistake #1 – Not offering a payoff or incentive for users:  Asking consumers to share their stories with you is one thing, but giving them an incentive beyond relying on their affinity for your brand is vital.  This is not about turning any campaign into a contest with winners and prizes.  The incentive could be as simple as guaranteeing that your story is shared with the most relevant people inside of Blackberry, or sending a personal email of thanks back.  The point is, an incentive answers the question of why … and without necessarily promising a financial reward as the answer.
2. Mistake #2 – Forgetting about photos and video: It probably seems odd in this time of popularity for online video and YouTube for any User Generated Content campaign to launch without some ability for customers to include their photos and videos as part of their submissions.  Of course text based entry is easier – but for those customers who really love their Blackberries, why not let them submit images and video.  Particularly when one of the coolest features of the new Pearl is the integrated camera.
3. Mistake #3 – Only promoting campaign through advertising:  The way I found the campaign was through a banner ad on CBSNews.com (not exactly a hotbed for consumer generated content).  Though I am unsure about their other online advertising efforts, I am fairly certain they missed the most easy promotion available to them – a link from the Blackberry.com website.  There are always a host of reasons why clients decide not to link to their promotions from their own homepage, and the only reason I have accepted in the past as reasonable is not wanting to give up the real estate on a ecommerce site to a promotional unit.  Blackberry has no such reason and should be promoting this campaign everywhere they can, especially on their own site.
4. Mistake #4 – Avoiding publishing contributions real time: Again, legal and filtering reasons are probably behind Blackberry’s choice to not publish any stories immediately … however as a consumer being invited to share my story and not be able to read anyone others before doing so seems odd.  What is the plan for these stories they are getting anyway?  According to the T&Cs, the only thing that’s clear is that a consumer gives up all rights and control to any story they submit.  The only way they could make it any scarier for a consumer to participate is by asking for a full driver’s license number upfront like Bud.TV initially did when they first launched (which they have since corrected).

Does anyone have any other thoughts on something I might be missing here?  Would love to hear more from other folks who are launching (or considering launching) new User Generated Content campaigns using social media and struggling with some of these issues …

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