Blogging a crisis

Like many people, I have been keeping track of the financial news regularly throughout the day. I tried to catch the TV news all the radio bulletins if I am at home. Otherwise, I check out the newspaper websites online. The press reports talk about a “rollercoaster ride” and indeed, there are developments every hour with share prices plummeting and then recovering, up and down, throughout the day.

Back in the days of print, newspapers would have found it difficult to compete with the broadcast media in terms of delivering up-to-the-minute dispatches. However, moving online has enabled publications like the Guardian and the Times etc to bring updated news easily and quickly to their readers in almost the same way as broadcast news bulletins. In particular, I am following the Guardian’s live blog of the financial crisis .

At times the Guardian’s live blog updates every 15 minutes or so. Where it does not have any hard news, it brings commentary from web and blog sources so it is quite a good site to keep an eye on for a very few on the credit crunch developments.

Social media tools such as blogging are excellent for fast, up-to-the-minute updates. You do not need to be a major news organisation to use blogging and other such tools to keep your readers informed at regular intervals — this is especially handy for businesses and other organisations at those times when it may be critical to keep your customers, clients and other stakeholders updated. For example, it can be reassuring for your customers not just to be told that “it’s business as usual” on your main website but to be refferred to your blog for regular updates about a developing situation that affects your enterprise.

It goes without saying that if you promise regular updates on your blog, then you must follow through and deliver those regular updates — ideally, you should set out minimum timescales e.g. at least once a day, or every hour or at least three times a day etc. And when you are going to wind down those regular updates, it makes sense to say that on your blog as well.

Of course, you may not be able to reveal confidential or sensitive business information about that developing situation affecting your enterprise on a minute by minute basis. However, if there is information that can be sensibly released, then it is worth considering doing so as part of your regular updates. Also, it may be sufficiently reassuring for people to know that the situation is being attended to and that more information will be provided at such and such a time in the future. It’s like when you are stuck on a train that isn’t moving, it’s helpful when the driver comes on and tells you that it’s due to signal failure and even though he may not know when it will be resolved, he will keep you updated from time to time — you still have to wait the same amount of time whether he says so or not but somehow, it feels reassuring and less stressful and frustrating.

Photo: of “The writing on the wall” thanks to Overseas Development Institute from flickr.com (CCL)