Real-time reporting offers the opportunity to strengthen readers' trust through immediate and transparent information. Live blogs in particular play a key role here, as they promote transparency and give readers a direct connection to the event. This article highlights why the live blog format is so effective at building trust and provides actionable ways for publishers to use the format to connect with their audiences.
What is a live blog?
A live blog is a form of reporting that documents events in real time. With the help of regular updates, readers are kept up to date and can access media or social media posts at the same time. Live blogs are particularly helpful in dynamic news situations, where new information is constantly emerging. Compared to conventional articles, live blogs offer the advantage of being flexible and interactive, making them an ideal reporting tool.
Why live blogs build trust
Live blogs are the perfect tool to build trust and transparency for 4 main reasons:
- Live blogs improve transparency and proximity with real-time updates.
- Live blogs build trust through the clear organisation of information.
- Live blogs create connections with multimedia.
- Live blog retain readers with snackable content.
Below we highlight easy steps that you can take to capitalize on these four live blog elements to build more trust and transparency with your readers and audiences.
1. Improve transparency and proximity with real-time updates
With the help of live blog real-time updates, readers can be directly involved in what is happening and can find out about the current status of an event at any time. In combination with regular updates, this gives readers the certainty that they will not miss any current developments. In response, reader trust in reporting is strengthened.
ℹ️ Strengthening trust through continuous reporting
One of the main features of live blogs is transparent reporting in the way it enables reporters to give audiences updates as they become available. Readers can therefore rely on receiving information in real time and always being up to date. With this format audiences experience the story as it unfolds. As a result, platforms increase credibility and create trust through this transparency of events.
3 easy things live reporters can do to build trust with their continuous reporting:
- Show your work - Highlight fact-checking going on in the background
- Show you're human - Add profile images to each post
- Show where you are - Add bylines under each reporter's profile (e.g. in the field, on location, etc.)
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung has found the transparency live blogs provide as a particularly big benefit of the format. And their audiences appreciate it as well. In May 2023, 7 of their top 10 articles were live blogs.
" Live blogs uniquely highlight SZ's strengths. With this format, readers receive impressions from our on-site reporters and correspondents while the news is breaking. Live blogs enable news to be shared with audiences while other in-depth reports, reportage, or commentaries on the event are prepared. In a sense, they show storytelling in the making.
Here our experienced colleagues at the news desk can illuminate to readers how they analyze, arrange, and continually re-construct the news story. "
- Michael König, Managing Editor at Sueddeutsche Zeitung
💬 Real-time interactive elements invite proximity
Real-time updates don't just need to come from reporters, however. Live blogs make it possible to interact directly with audiences in real-time, and gain insights from audiences too. Live blogs with integrated comment functions or surveys allow readers to actively participate in the events. This creates a dialogue between the journalists and the audience, which ultimately benefits the publisher. By interacting with readers in real-time you draw them into the story, and help make readers more invested in the story as well as the publication.
3 easy things live reporters can do to build trust through interactive elements:
- Add polls to your coverage - Let your audience participate in the unfolding events
- Ask for audience experiences with comment blocks - Don't forget to outline moderation rules, like MDR does when they ask for audience participation.
- Provide a safe space for dialogue - Gaining and sharing audience perspectives in real-time makes audiences feel seen and understood, also building trust.
2. Build trust through clear organization of information
With the increase in false information and rumours, a clear separation of confirmed and unconfirmed information is essential. By making it easy for readers to recognise which information is still unconfirmed and which they can rely on further strengthens trust.
🔍 Mark unconfirmed reports
Particularly well-managed live blogs always clearly and unambiguously label unconfirmed reports. This measure strengthens readers' trust in the platform and curbs the spread of false information. Clear labelling is also an important step towards increasing reader trust when confirming news.
3 easy things live reporters can do to label their work:
- Add tags to individual posts - e.g. unconfirmed, fact-checked, etc.
- Highlight and pin important elements of a developing story
- Create short summaries for readers to easily catch up on stories with many updates
📑 Clear references
In addition to the labelling of reports, the origin of the information also plays an increasingly important role. With the help of live blogs, for example, sources can be linked directly to ensure maximum transparency. This preserves credibility and creates an additional basis of trust for the reader. The reader can then read the information in the source itself.
Another way to make information clearer for readers to consume, is by providing visual representation of data. Adding graphs to live reporting makes it not only easier for readers to consume, but it also demonstrates that journalists have been working closely with the data, on which they are reporting.
3 easy things live reporters can do to provide clear references:
- Book automated updates from trusted press agencies - This process is made super easy with Tickaroo Marketplace.
- Link to reports and other articles - Demonstrate the depth with which your team has been following and covering stories by linking to other articles.
- Make data easier to understand - Make your data visually captivating by using tools like Datawrapper, which can be easily integrated into your live blog.
A few real-life examples of building trust through live blogs
One example of how live blogs have strengthened reader trust is the reporting during the Covid-19 pandemic. At this time, live blogs were increasingly used to keep readers up to date. At the same time, experts answered readers' questions in real time in the live blog and further strengthened trust.
Another example is a German news portal that used live blogs during a natural disaster to inform readers in real time. Here, unconfirmed reports about evacuations and fatalities were clearly labelled in the live blog until they were confirmed or refuted by official sources. This emphasises once again how important a clear separation of confirmed and unconfirmed reports can be. In uncertain times, this practice can be used to communicate precisely and strengthen trust.
3. Create connections with multimedia
A major advantage of live blogs is their flexible structure and the possibility of integrating a wide variety of media. This makes the live blog more dynamic and complex information can be presented clearly.
🎥 Multimedia content improves the user experience:
By using images, graphics or videos, information becomes more tangible for readers and reporting is perceived as more authentic. In combination with real-time videos on location, readers feel much closer to the action and perceive the information as more credible.
3 easy things live reporters can do improve readers' experience
- Add Images and Videos from the scene - with the Tickaroo Mobile Reporter App this is easier than ever
- Integrate Social Media posts - provide readers with various perspectives while still controlling the content.
- Adjust formats to connect with readers - easily adjust the look and feel of your live blogs with Tickaroo's Theme Generator without any coding necessary.
🔗 User-generated content strengthens the relationship with the audience:
Enabling readers to integrate their own content into live blogs can build connections and establish a real community. By integrating readers' pictures, videos or comments that complement the live blog, you make your readers a part of the story. This inclusion not only demonstrates that readers are a valued part of the community, but that their perspectives are an important element of the story. Above all, this helps to show a variety of perspectives and ultimately strengthens trust.
3 easy things live reporters can do include audience perspectives
- Request reader submissions like photos and videos - Stuff does this with great success.
- Invite readers to share their perspectives - this is easily done with live commenting blocks
- Integrate Social Media - share a hashtag with your readers that they can post under and then select the posts that work best.
4. Retain readers with snackable content
Snackable content has become important for platforms to attract and retain the attention of readers. Live blogs offer the advantage of presenting information in easily digestible ‘snackable’ portions. In particular, the small, quick updates of events on site are perfectly suited to the reading habits of social media users and keep attention levels high while also keeping audiences invested in the content.
🍪 Short, concise updates:
With the help of short, regular updates, readers stay informed about what is happening without having to read entire articles. These concise updates meet the expectations of modern readers and help them to consume information quickly. Establishing yourself as a platform where audiences can get quick, trusted, curated information about a developing story, is a key way to build loyalty among readers. The longer readers stay on your platform, the more opportunities you have to build trust with them.
3 easy things live reporters can do to increase retention times
- Enable readers to interact with the story - The more audiences can engage with the content the longer they stay on the page
- Integrate video explainers into your live blogs - Explainers build trust by clarifying complicated topics. Video keeps people engaged and on your site.
- Address various User Needs - Live blogs aren't just for the "Update Me" user need. By utilizing the format to cover a story for different needs, you can keep audiences engaged much longer than simply providing basic updates.
Bonus: Integrate ads into live blogs - With retention times 8x longer on live blogs than normal articles, the opportunity for monetisation of your live blogs is high.
📱 Mirror the mobile social media experience:
Short and quick updates make it easy to consume information on mobile devices. Due to the fact that the majority of readers access news via mobile devices, snackable content is crucial. Because audience behavior and expectations have been conditioned by mobile social media use, the more publishers can mirror social media conditions, the more likely audiences are likely to stay on the page, and even return.
3 easy things live reporters can do to mirror the mobile social media experience
- Add images and videos - short texts are great, but images and videos catch the eye.
- Provide opportunities for readers to interact with posts - add comment blocks or make your posts sharable
- Make individual posts shareable - this not only helps boost reach, but it also allows readers to demonstrate that they trust your content enough to share with their networks
Conclusion: Boost Trust and Transparency with Live Blogs
If you want to increase trust and transparency in your reporting, live blogs need to be a part of your content strategy. Real-time updates are more in demand than ever. If used effectively, they can be used to build trust with readers. The flexible customisation of the format and the integration of interactive elements make connecting with communities easier than ever.
After all, the feeling of being ‘close to the action’ ensures greater trust in reporting and deeper reader loyalty. In this context, Tickaroo offers the right software to effectively design live blogs and support the building of trust.
