Inside PBS Blog

One week ago tomorrow Hurricane Ike slammed into the Gulf Coast, knocking out power for over 4.5 million people in the Houston and Galveston, Texas areas.

As Hurricane Ike was slowly crossing Houston I checked HoustonPBS's Web site to see what the station was doing (I have family who live in Houston so I was looking for any and all information I could find). HoustonPBS had already put up a banner at the top of their site linking to a small Web page full of information and resources for their audience.

HoustonPBS General Manager John Hesse later posted a letter to the site giving a timeline of damage to the station and its broadcasting facilities and what crews were doing to make sure HoustonPBS could stay on the air and serving their audience.

"There is much to be done now, as I am sure some of our colleagues in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida can attest to from their experiences.  We appreciate all of the emails of concern and support that we have been getting," he wrote.

The letter and the resources site really show a respect and understanding on the part of the station for their audience.

• They're serving their audience by working hard to make sure they're able to continue broadcasting.
• They're being open and transparent about the progress they're making.
• They're providing assistance and updated resources for those that they are able to reach.

Being honest, open, and understanding are all key skills in connecting and engaging audiences in an increasingly fragmented online, and offline space. Ultimately isn't that what social media is all about?  What do you think?  Would you like to see similar outreach from stations in your area when important events happen?