Most decent news sites run a live blog on the biggest news stories of the day. Some will have more than one running at any one time, depending on how busy the news agenda is. Today, for example, the BBC website is running as many as four live blogs on the big stories of the day and another in the sports section focused on the Paralympics 2024 (go GB!)
Live blogs are a brilliant way of pulling together all the threads of a moving story and conveying to the reader that they’re getting the most up to date coverage of a big news event. Readers can drop in to the coverage at multiple points depending on their interest, and there is a feeling of energy and momentum around the coverage that lifts live blogs above the conventionally filed static news story.
So, if a live blog works so well for external news sites, why don’t more businesses use them as part of their internal communications?
Add some dynamism to internal communications
With the move to a hybrid working environment for many businesses, effective internal communication has taken on a critical role as the glue that holds many organisations together in the absence of more regular person-to-person contact. And live blogging can add a dynamic edge to an internal communications approach as the place an employee can go to at anytime of the day to immerse themselves in what is going on around the business.
Where is the CEO today?
Content in a live blog can range from the momentous to the minutiae: which office is the CEO visiting today? Perhaps an employee is presenting at a big industry conference. Maybe a long-termer is reaching a significant milestone and deserves a shout out. Or does a new arrival need to be announced? Perhaps it’s a big business win; an office revamp; someone attending a big industry event; a great presentation that deserves to be shared more widely…Pictures are great too and there should always be the option for people to interact and comment on content.
A compelling read
The point is a live blog can create an interesting and compelling read where people in the business feel a part of what is going on around the organisation, creating the all-important engagement that static news on the intranet does not always generate.
The hitch of course is a good live blog cannot operate by itself; it needs communications resource to curate it and contributors to send in the news and snippets that can feed the blog and keep it alive. For larger organisations, existing communications people could take turns to share the responsibility. But if a business doesn’t think it has the resources to maintain a daily live blog, why not use it as the go-to comms tool for big internal events like annual results, other earnings announcements, big structural changes?
Too often, the news feed in a company intranet feels flat and like yesterday’s news (which, most of the time, it literally is). A live blog brings more immediacy, can attract a greater readership, bring people together, and drive engagement. Oh, and it can be a lot of fun too…
Maybe it’s time for your business to start live blogging?