Like Jeff Jarvis Sprint has offered me a Samsung SPH-A900 MP3 wireless phone plus six months of free service in return for my feedback.
I have accepted, but have not yet received my phone. I haven’t talked about this because, as Jeff notes, they did not specifically ask for blogging. Jeff thinks this is smart program and I concur. He writes…
“If they tried to buy publicity with phones, that would not be good. But they’re smarter than that: They know that a blogger must blog. And so here it is: free publicity. And if I find anything noteworthy about the phone, I may blog it again. The publicity they get is not controllable. I could hate the phone (but I probably won’t since I am a gadget addict and a speed freak and I could also buy the phone and hate it and blog that). It’s a risk, but a small risk well worth taking.”
The blogosphere is a terrific place to find influencers who will give you valuable feedback. It’s a 24/7 focus group. Find the people who are going to give you honest to goodness feedback and give them products to try out. It’s that simple. Just be prepared that they will talk about it.
Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.
He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.
