In Case of Emergency, Reach for Your Blog

This blog post caught my eye. In times of emergency, communication is critical. Realize “emergency” is in the eye of the beholder. For the parent of a 3rd grader, a bus that is late coming back from a field trip constitutes an emergency is nobody has communicated that “all is well.”

In my final year as a principal, I started a blog as a communication tool with parents. The blog replaced the newsletter which accompanied report cards at the end of each grading period. The initial reason for starting the blog was a desire to deliver information in “real time.” What happened today was reported today rather than in a newsletter a month from now. But I quickly found blogging had advantages far beyond delivering the good news.

Anyone who has ever worked in a school setting knows that the one thing you can expect is the unexpected. Being able to broadcast good information instantly is your best way to prevent panic.

For the principal or central office administrator who is asking, “What good is a blog? Sounds to me like one more thing to do,” I would suggest reading the post which inspired the one you are reading now, “10 Ways to Use Your Blog to Manage a Crisis.”

After all, it’s not communication that is time-consuming. The clean-up work as a result of failure to communicate—now that’s the time-consuming part!