Gadflies and Oracles:

Telecom Bloggers Carve an Influential Niche

By NATALIA KOVALCHUK
Associate, Willard PR, Kiev

The advent of Internet web logs, or blogs, has given thousands of people the opportunity to share their views with the world.  Some bloggers find regular and loyal audiences, while most do not.  Those that have attracted readers are succeeding because they offer more than opinion alone; they have relevant knowledge and timely information to share as well. 

Of the hundreds of bloggers at work in Ukraine, few are as influential or closely followed as those reporting on the country's telecom industry. 

Though information agencies like UNIAN and Interfax-Ukraine, newspapers like Kommersant, and Internet news portals do a good job of covering the industry for a general-interest audience, telecom blogs provide news and analysis from - and read by - industry insiders.  That along gives them a degree of influence few newspapers could match.

Moreover, information can be posted on blogs fast, beating other media to the news by hours or even days. The reason is simple: Many bloggers are professional journalists who are also specialists in the telecom field.  They are invited to industry news conferences and receive news releases directly, without first being filtered by other media.  In addition, they have direct access to telecom company executives - from PR directors to top managers - enabling them to quickly obtain necessary answers or comments.

Telecom bloggers often tend to be immersed in the industry to the point of obsession.  That, in addition to their knowledge and strong opinions, can make interesting reading - especially for industry execs looking for informed alternate views.   And because the bloggers are usually writing while away from their regular jobs, posts can appear in the middle of the night. 

"The frequency of updates to the blog depends on interesting news.  I try to write one post each day - sometimes one post every two days," Sergey Gipsh, an IT-observer and the writer behind the Interesting Telecom blog (www.gipsh.com), says. "I do not write over the weekend because I believe that readers shouldn't be overloaded, they need rest as much as I do."

And unlike newspapers, which are published daily, blogs can be updated anytime, day or night.  This ability to publish news independent of artificial deadlines became apparent during a recent Kyivstar press junket to China.  The trip's aim was to showcase an equipment supplier's capacity, as well as to show journalists that Kyivstar is ready to provide high-quality 3G service.  The first information on this trip appeared in the telecom blogs, shortly after the journalists landed in China.  Most writers for news agencies and newspapers had no opportunity to file stories until they returned from the trip, three days later.

Because good blogs are written by knowledgeable industry enthusiasts and contain reliable information and useful insight, readers tend to trust them.

"These blogs allow a thin layer of outstanding people to declare their points of view and convey it to the world, notes Roman Khimich, a Netton AG consultant and the author of the Total Telecom blog (http://totaltelecom.livejournal.com).  "One of the traditional mass media's tools of manipulation is the imposition of strictly defined discourses: ways of interpretation and description. Blogs allow readers to discover an alternative discourse, to reconstruct a three-dimensional picture of the things that are going on."

Any event that causes a storm of discussion can be a great way to collect public opinion.

Khimich says that the possibility for self-expression sometimes attracts people who are able to generate higher-quality content - material that is more informative and interesting than that found in traditional media. However this is still more exception than rule, he says.

"What I appreciate in the blogs is the opportunity to communicate with my readers through their comments," Gipsh says.  "Recently I noticed that a couple of posted topics had attracted over 100 comments.  As I appreciate constructive discussions, I counted only topical comments, and the trash was removed."

Telecom blog readers tend to be those connected with the industry and others who want access to the latest information and opinion.

"The main audience of my blog is active users of telecommunication services. Also it is read by the mobile operators' staff - approximately 20 to 30 people from each company, according to a survey of the IP addresses.  Also, journalists from other trade publications visit my webpage," Gipsh remarks.

The telecom blogs are a resource used by mobile operators who want to keep abreast of what the public is saying about their services.

Telenor Ukraine Communications Director Anastasiya Gogoleva called telecom blogs an incredibly useful source of information for her work. Moreover, she said that she considers them fun and interesting to read.

"There, you can get a real picture of what people think about various news, events and developments on the market, something that they won't write on behalf of a newspaper or news portal that has certain rules of information delivery and must be more objective than subjective. In the blogs, however, not only you get to know the personal opinion of its author, but also what other journalists and specialists that comment the posts think about this or that," Gogoleva says. Overall, she regards telecom blogs as an essential and irreplaceable source of information.

"We monitor them regularly, and Telenor's top managers read them with no less interest than they do articles in the traditional media," she says.

Telecom blogs concentrate on news of new services and tariffs, new mobile phones and other technology related information. While the information is usually accurate, it also tends to be served up with the blogger's opinions.
 

Those opinions may be honest and worthwhile, or they may have been 'rented' by telecom operators, phone manufacturers or others.  Accepting cash to place news or offer a testimonial opinion is one of the ways bloggers can earn money from their work - though the practice is arguably unethical and may ultimately damage the blogger's reputation.

On the lighter side, industry focused blogs help circulate the latest inside jokes and viral video.

Concurrently with the announcement that Telenor and Alfa Group were settling their differences and combining their assets, a joke ablout the numerous Altimo-related conflicts began to circulate.  Beeline created a series of blog-worthy videos, including an online version of a television spot that showed a flash of nudity, another a commercial that contrasted tariffs using two ostensibly nude women. Blogs also posted a Beeline viral video of a corporate party where the company's management sang a self-critical chanson-style song.

"In general, the blogosphere cannot be considered an alternative to traditional media. It is a tool of society's self-reflection, not a source of collecting and disseminating information," Khimich says.

Blogs in sectors other than telecom can be expected to have influence on the industries they monitor as well.  Separating the useful wheat from the chaff of amateur efforts takes work on the reader's part.  It's important to seek our writers  with real expertise.  Google the names: Knowledgeable writers usually work for industry or general publications. Also, check how frequently posts are added - it isn't worthwhile to follow a dead or dying blog.  Bloggers with access to information will post it.  Who is commenting on the posts?  A knowledgeable, professional and informed readership is a good sign that the blogger knows his material.