Blogging when trouble strikes

MANCHESTER based PR practitioner Rob Baker has been quick to use his blog to reassure the customers of one of his clients that all is well after the fire in the city centre yesterday.

Rob quickly updated his website after hearing that the offices of software company CTI had been damaged, highlighting how they had been in touch with their own customers but also had a disaster recovery plan in place.

One of the strengths of blogging software is the ease with which it can be used to update a website should you need to get a message out, which can be done via any internet connection, a PDA, mobile phone or similar.

Comments

[Rob Artisan]

Craig,

Many journalists are using the net as well as blog searches to find information and interviewees.

I believe that blogs give us another communications channel, which we should use to provide information quickly and with easy accessibility.

Besides press releases and phoning my contacts I am using online PR to get the message out that my client is back up and running within a couple of days, a mean achievement and one that needs to be communicated and reinforced as much as possible

Rob

[Simon Wharton]

Craig

I've been looking at defensive PR of late. It's so easy for negative messages to figure prominently in search unless the "target" is actively engaging in online PR. I did a piece of research for a major London based company a little while ago. Searching on their brand name delivered a majority of negative stories in the top 10 results. There's a whole load of strategies for dealing with this problem such as :

making sure your own site ranks repeatedly for key terms
Make sure you have a relationship with key bloggers/news sources in your vertical.

But the first step has to be awareness of the problem and regrettably, UK business is still blissfuly unaware of the power of search.

[Craig McGinty]

Hi Simon, must agree that the ease with which people can create sites means they can express their displeasure very effectively. But equally if a business watches and is involved in conversations around the web through their own blog and by following other sites, they can spot problems early and quickly connect with a dissenting voice.
All the best, Craig