WhatsApp groups

Sharing my experience, as an experiment in progress

Hi

This is about my experience with a few WhatsApp groups that I created with the aim of facilitating business reporting in Chennai.

Business Journos Chennai

The first group that I created, a few weeks ago, was with the name ‘Business Journos Chennai,’ to enable sharing of notes and

appointments among business journalists in Chennai. Its members include journalists in

print and electronic media, spanning regional languages and English, who I generally meet at

press briefings and other media events.

Exciting posts

In recent days, there have been exciting posts in the group, such as when reporters were covering the Chettinad AGM, and the court

proceedings in the cable television case. There have also been many instances of sharing

among the group members, of appointments for the day, and the contact details of the PR

handling a certain event.

Sharing notes

Yesterday, at a book launch, an industry captain was the chief guest, and I was recording video snatches of the proceedings. The event details had already been posted to the group, and at the start of the

event, I posted a photo, too. A group member who was not attending the event

messaged to me that he wanted to know what the chief guest spoke. My response, as you could have guessed, was to take a photo of my notes and send him on WhatsApp, as also post on the group page.

Hope

I’m hopeful that we will have more of these, despite the newer constraints that journalists in mainstream media face in the form of rigid

social media policies.

Feeder groups

To feed into the Business Journos Chennai group, I created, over the last few days, the

following groups:

PR for BizJournos Chennai

PR for BizJournos Chennai, inviting PR to post info about events that should interest Chennai

business journalists.

Useful events 4 BizJourno

Useful events 4 BizJourno, with institutions such as chambers of commerce and industry

bodies as members, for posting info about important business, trade, industry,

management related events in Chennai and not for any forwards and quotes!

Startups with Stories

Startups with Stories, aimed at having as members a floating population of startups that want to talk to business journalists in

Chennai about their new venture, expansion plans, funding and so forth.

Thought Leaders Chennai

Thought Leaders Chennai, with prominent enterprise heads as members. Today morning, I

posted on the group this message: “Business journalism, as we all are aware, has its blind spots.

Feel free, therefore, to flag possible leads and stories that my colleagues in the Chennai financial media

can take forward. Will be happy to share your inputs with my other group, Business Journos Chennai.

Thanks for your time.” The posts, I anticipate, may often be tweets shared, to save on time.

Plans

Further plans include putting together a group of business law practitioners in Chennai who would like to engage the media on some of the decisions, on a periodical basis; and also separate groups of thought leaders in health

care, education, and so on, all tying in with the larger purpose of a more comprehensive

business journalism in Chennai.

Evolving experiment

As of now, this is an evolving experiment which lends itself to easy replication.

Thanks!

Will be happy to listen in to your thoughts…

D. Muralihttp://about.me/dmurali