I spent some time on the phone today with Andy Abramson, a longtime blogger and marketing/PR strategist who coordinated the blogger outreach program for the launch of Nokia’s new N90 video phone. Nokia took an innovative approach toward engaging bloggers in this program. Some 50 influential bloggers were selected to get N90 phones and review packages and 22 have posted reviews so far, which is a remarkable percentage only five weeks into the program.

Abramson outlined some key lessons he learned from working with bloggers:

Choose bloggers carefully – Nokia had hundreds of bloggers to choose from but narrowed the field down to 50 by researching those who were the most prolific writers and who had the largest number of links from the community. Calling this “more art than science,” Abramson said the key is finding people who are passionate, prolific and popular with their peers.

Don’t insult their intelligence – Bloggers know their stuff, so treating them like newbies will blow up in your face. In fact, bloggers generally understand technology better than their counterparts at trade publications, so don’t insult them by talking down to them or following up frequently with empty questions. Give them the equipment and the fact sheets and let them go to work.

Be transparent – Nokia committed early on to publishing a summary of and a link every blog entry about the N90, whether it was good or bad. The company stuck to its promise. The blogger section of its site indexes every blogger entry, regardless of tone.

Be responsive – This is a near-real-time medium and bloggers expect to get quick answers to their questions. Your staff needs to be available nearly 24X7 to handle inquiries. You can’t put people off for a day or two. They won’t tolerate it.

After listening to these critical success factors, it struck me that most of them would apply to any media campaign, not just one aimed at bloggers. Abramson agreed but pointed out that the blogosphere is especially unforgiving since the authors are smart, opinionated and don’t necessarily play by the media rules. In essence, I think he was saying bloggers are a more demanding audience than journalists.

Fancy that.