Peer Blogs--Part 3

For this weeks blog, we are commenting on our classmates blogs.  This week, I came across Jess' Blog that focused on surveys with the Chicago Cubs baseball team.  She said that she received an e-mail from MLB.com asking her to take a survey for the organization.  The e-mail re-directed her to the Cubs' website where she could take the survey.  I thought that this method of direct communication with the organization was good because, as Jess said in her blog, it allows the organization to reach other fan besides the ones who attend the sporting event.  I also liked how she noted that instead of needing to build a new stadium to please fans, the Cubs would enhance the experience at Wrigley Field and make it more enjoyable to fans and spectators.

Another blog that I read was Ashley's Blog, which focuses on crisis management and communication.  In one of her posts, she talks about an article on crisis communication and 5 steps to managing a crisis.  This post caught my eye because in one of my marketing classes this week, we were learning about PR and crisis management/damage control.  My book offered some interesting points on what needs to be done, but I feel that this article offers a different perspective then what we are always taught.  I was always taught that in a crisis, you should come out and confront the situation at hand and take hold of it.  A few things that I found interesting from the article was, and Ashley touched upon them as well, is the fact that an organization should be transparent and just how fast a crisis can spread on the internet.  Organizations should offer inside information about how a product is made or where it comes from; it allows the consumer to be more trusting of the organization.  Also, a crisis can spread so easily on the internet because bloggers copy and paste information into blogs, people read them, and the cycle begins again.  This article could be eye opening for practitioners because it involves having to act fast and bring publics beneath the surface of the organization.