| Disaster Solution: the WEB |
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| Written by Trevor Hendrickson |
| Monday, 24 November 2008 21:55 |
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We don’t often think about preparing for a disaster. The “500 year flood” hit again after only 15 years but did not hurt my business or my home. I was lucky. Even with a fault line running through the state of Iowa, the ticking time bomb of a major earth quake is reserved for California. On the news we hear of the hurricanes and tropical storms threatening New Orleans AGAIN, and we think it will never happen to us. Emotionally we were all impacted by 9/11. I saw the movie World Trade Center by Oliver Stone for the first time this past weekend. Like the assassination of John Kennedy we all can remember what we were doing when we first found out about the attack. No one could have expected it. No one could have foreseen a disaster of that magnitude executed in such a way. But it happened nonetheless. Disasters cannot always be defined, but our preparedness can. I had the opportunity recently to speak at an event with Alan Mckean from the American Red Cross, Chris Fereday of PDCM Insurance, and Loyd Benson of IBM about preparing for a disaster. They all brought their knowledge to bear on how to stay operational during a crisis. Alan talked about the importance of a disaster management plan, Chris talked about making sure you have the appropriate insurance coverage and Loyd spoke about equipment designed to provide redundancy and withstand harsh conditions. They all addressed the fundamental elements of keeping a business going when the unexpected happens. Each had a plan that improves communication, and we look to those fundamentals as a guide. But we need to also take into account the obvious foundation of communication – the website. Pandemics, natural disasters, and terrorism are the general terms we know about, but like 9/11, we will inevitably be confronted by new threats. The Internet provides us with a powerful mechanism to back-up client data, provide decentralized access to that data and a multitude of ways to communicate with our customers and staff when all other communication vehicles are unavailable. The Web is often where we turn for information. How many of you check the weather, event cancellations, market information via the Web? We all do. Today the Internet is as common a technology as cable television or the cell phone. It is part of the operations of every business in one fashion or another. The technology available to us today is cost effective and easy to execute. I have broken opportunities down to 3 categories: Web, Mobile and Feeds. These solutions provide excellent tools for communication during times of disaster and are excellent for marketing your business. First, the website is at the core of our communications model. Today’s website should use a Content Management System (CMS) to make updates easy, without the need of a developer. Many CMS systems are as simple to use as Microsoft Word or typing an email, and many are available as open source tools over which you have total control. The website can broadcast updates instantly to visitors providing up to the minute information to customers and staff. Many businesses wish they had an intranet. An intranet is a website used to share information within a business often for the purposes of collaboration and document sharing. This is not only a benefit during times of a disaster as an intranet can be a great tool for organization and communication. But the downfall of an intranet is that they reside inside of a business and offer restricted access. With today’s security techniques a better tool is an extranet. The same purpose as an intranet, an extranet can provide access to files from outside the business and often resides in a remote location. The benefit of this method, one thing terrorists have taught us, is that decentralizing your network of communication allows you to operate from anywhere. Imagine having the ability to access your corporate files, policies and disaster plan from your home when you cannot access your business. Mobile phones and the Internet are growing closer with each passing day. My smart phone is more powerful than my first computer (an Apple SE ll). Make your website mobile friendly. The prevalence of smart phones that can allow you to access the internet has become the standard. Make sure that people can read your website and that it is formatted for a mobile device. Use your website to allow users to sign-up for text messaging alerts and email notifications. These are cost effective tools that provide an instant distribution of information. The great thing about mobile technologies today is that they are no longer providing one way communication. Tools like Twitter allow users to access and post messages to a blog. CNN uses Twitter to communicate with their audience who is likely watching and surfing the web simultaneously. Finally, Feeds are another approach to communication during a disaster or at any other time you want to improve communication. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is the most common type of feed. An RSS feed is a way to syndicate content among multiple websites. RSS is one of the ways you can personalize a webpage like Yahoo! or Google in order to centralize your areas of interest onto one page. Every time a website you have subscribed to updates its content, you will benefit from this update without having to visit the website. In times of a disaster this is another vehicle to get the message out and it does not cost you a dime. The website, mobile devices and feeds can all work together to communicate in times of a disaster or at anytime you want to get a message out. These technologies and approaches are readily available and should be part of any marketing or disaster management plan. You never know what the future has in store, but when the unexpected happens there is no reason not to be prepared. |
| Last Updated on Monday, 24 November 2008 21:59 |
