Spokane7
62°Quick links: 2012 graduating seniors • Summer camp guide • Jobs: The Road Ahead • Prep sports • News quiz
Dan @ Avista:
I think moderating comments - at least here - seems to be working.
It’s like an editing award for the Oscars - how do I know what they
left out anyway? There are some yay-hoos, but that’s a reflection
of society. My question is this: should newspaper/online journalism resources
have different moderation rules than businesses who host a blog or
comments section? While HBO and the Press are associated with
news/journalism - would a business need to have a little tighter
control even if they want honest dialog and conversation?
Question: I’m working on some new ways to talk to our customers online and we want to do it the right way. Any suggestions? (Be gentle, Merry Hucksters; Dan’s seeking your thoughts. Not your jabs.)
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
999 W. Riverside, Spokane, WA 99201
P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210
Main switchboard: (509) 459-5000 • (800) 338-8801
Newsroom: (509) 459-5400 • (800) 789-0029
Customer service: (800) 338-8801
© Copyright 2012, The Spokesman-Review
Terms of use • Privacy policy • Copyright policy
Find DFO on Facebook
DFO on Twitter
JBelle on May 14 at 8:53 a.m.
Dan, where to start? Maybe, here: your customers are not your employees or your children. You have to figure out a way to let go and quit thinking that in some way, you must control them.
You have to think of your customers are co-equals. And being co-equals is not just some educational leadership buzz word or some catchy new marketing gimmicky word. Really think, as a group, about what co-equal means and could mean.
Finally, when you can live with being co-equal instead of being lord, master and manipulator, you’ll find the dialogue comes easily, naturally in an open and honest manner.
But good luck. I can’t think of any business organization at the moment in the INW that has a worse reputation, deservedly earned, than Avista. I only say that to let you know, for sure, just where you are. And maybe that’s another topic for your think group: Just where did the train go off the tracks on East Mission?
misc on May 14 at 9:27 a.m.
I don’t see how a utilities company can create the type of online discussion that, say, BMW motorcycles could. Plenty of people want to talk about their shiny motorcycles. Electricity, not so much.
No one wants to discuss electricity until something bad happens - the power goes off or the rates go up. And when that happens, a lot of tomatoes get thrown.
Kibby on May 14 at 10:02 a.m.
What would be the purpose of having a discussion group of this sort? There is nothing worse than having a someone say they want to have an open dialoge - build up the expectations of the average joe that they can actually be heard and have an input on concerns, only to be ignored or placated by the forum holder. I think Avista Dan has good intentions, but I just don’t see what could be accomplished by this type of online discussion.
Dan_at_Avista on May 14 at 11:25 a.m.
Kibby has a good point. Having a conversation with stakeholders that is only half-baked it a recipe for disaster. We’re looking at this as a way to be a bit more transparent about our actions – specifically about our rates and general practices.
I wear my Avista name badge on my belt – so when I go grocery shopping after work or to dinner with my kids, I get asked questions about my company because my little tag says I work there. People aren’t always very friendly – and I don’t always expect them to be – yet after actually discussing issues and underlying reasons for things, people in general, walk away a bit more satisfied. Now, is everyone going to agree with me? No. And they don’t have to because they need to make decisions on their own, but they should have an opportunity to have the facts and I hope that hosting a conversation (in whatever form that takes) is a way to provide some details.
Understanding the reason’s behind decisions goes a long way, but like JBelle said – our customers are our equals and should be treated that way – not just talked “at,” but rather “with.”
JBelle on May 14 at 12:40 p.m.
Dan, back in the day when the SR with rife with columnists and professional staff, a couple of the women in Spokane came over here and got pretty irate with our boy Oliveria over some chaunvinist thing or another he supposedly said. Lord what a misunderstanding! :9 anyhoos, these wimmen didn’t like it when the Hucksters jumped into the conversation to the knees, with both cork boots on. Everybody here defended DFO’s thoughts and The Wimmen Over There thought it was just deplorable the kind of brawl that Oliveria referees here each day with the lack of respect and all but as he pointed out, blogging and dialogue is NOT the Ivory Tower of journalism and is quite different that selecting an idea, compiling facts and then detailing your thoughts on this certain topic, on time and in syntax. blogging and dialogue is real time, all the time and it’s not how you control it, but how you respond to it—how honest you are, how humble you are and what your sense of humor really does look like. and of course, what you bring when you come to talk.
know what I mean?