Never underestimate the power of community.
Or the strong loyalty and relations that journalists can build by giving their viewers and readers a place to vent, to share common experiences, or offer tips and suggestions.
I’ve been covering the very shaky migration of 70,000 cable Internet subscribers over to a new Comcast network in Michigan. I’ve done several columns for the newspaper but it was clear to me that those affected were desperate for more information.
I set up a special Web page (www.pcmike.com/Journal/comcast.html ) to do updates, include reader e-mail, offer extra information that couldn’t make its way into the print edition. I received over 500 e-mails in the first week.
I also used a free discussion group forum from a service called Everyone.net (www.everyone.net). Called Plug-In community, the service, which I dubbed online as “PC Mike’s Technofolk,” quickly generated 200 messages in the first few days.
In themselves, the e-mails and messages have offered great information and yielded me several important new sources who are now in my contact file. But what has been most heartwarming has been the tremendous sense of community that sprung up online as readers shared their common experiences and frustrations.
And a great many have offered thanks to me and for setting up the service. For many of my readers, the Web community-building has also built strong bonds of loyalty toward me and my columns.
Check with your newspaper or station Webmaster to see if you can build a similar community to address issues raised by your next big story or project. But if corporate politics make that impossible, you can register a domain name with Network Solutions (www.networksolutions.com) for $35 and get Web hosting for less than $10 a month.
If you’re comfortable with the Internet, setting all this up is not difficult. And administering and updating the community page is as easy as writing and sending an e-mail.
It’s a small investment in time and resources that pays big dividends in strengthening your relationship with your audience.
