Articles by Levick Experts
When it comes to responding to a crisis online, blogs are the epicenter of online opinion. By quickly rolling out a blog strategy, companies can disseminate information online, clarify facts and squelch rumors, prepare in anticipation of a crisis, and influence opinion in the blogosphere.
While companies need a blog strategy, they must also be aware of the threat to them from bloggers. Corporations are often tempted to ignore bloggers – after all, most are not professional journalists by trade – but they should realize the risks in doing so. Bloggers represent a much larger group of what is called consumer-generated media, and consumer-generated media won't just go away.
Bike lock manufacturer Kryptonite – the gold standard of bicycle locks -- found out the hard way just what happens when bloggers are ignored. Bloggers identified a problem with the security of a particular Kryptonite lock and posted video of how to easily open it with a common ballpoint pen. The story traveled through the blogosphere as Kryptonite struggled to get its messaging and online strategy together for ten days – a lifetime in the Internet world. In the meantime, The New York Times picked up the story and the company suffered significant damage to its brand.
The blogosphere, by its very nature, moves at a lightning fast pace. News stories that break at 9 AM will have bloggers commenting, speculating, researching other angles, and theorizing what will happen by 9:02 AM. That is, of course, if the bloggers didn’t break it first.
Bloggers Influence Mainstream Media
Bloggers are the on-the-ground journalists of the new media. They get press credentials to cover political conventions. They have readerships in the millions. They break news stories (as in the case of the recent Foley sex scandal) that are then picked up by the mainstream media.
Their stories may not arrive on your doorstep like the morning paper does, but technologies such as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds and bookmarks provide readers with online subscriptions that are just as reliable if not more so.
Savvy bloggers and readers won't stand for corporate rhetoric or tactical obfuscation. That's why developing and implementing a blogging strategy in advance of a crisis is so important. A blog gives businesses a way to stay ahead of the news cycle by presenting the company's message, telling the facts of the situation, and correcting any misinformation that may be making its way through the blogosphere.