Archive for the ‘Issues and Crisis Management’ Category

PRSA Midwest Conference Video: Modern Day Crisis Communications

Thursday, July 26th, 2012

On July 19, the first PRSA Midwest District Conference was held at Loyola University in Chicago. Our senior vice president of crisis and issues management, Jack Yeo, co-presented at the event with the director of media relations at North Park University, John Brooks. The title of the presentation was “The Eight Laws of Modern Day Crisis Communications.”

In their presentation, they outlined several steps that companies can take to prepare for a crisis, respond to a situation and recover from a crisis event. Below is an excerpt from the presentation. In this video, Jack shares a number of steps for organizations to consider as they prepare for a crisis.


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Posted in Digital and Social Media, Influencer Marketing, Issues and Crisis Management, Midwest News, PR Industry, Reputation Management | No Comments »

In the Loop News Roundup

Monday, June 13th, 2011

Between Apple, Blagojevich, Weiner and Couric, it has been a busy week in the headlines. Check out what we’re reading this week:

U.S. World & News Report, “PR Pros Say Weiner is Bungling the Twitter Sex Scandal” – New York Rep. Anthony Weiner fails PR 101, holding a press conference to announce his plans to “keeping quiet” about his high-profile Twitter scandal.

The New York Times, “Is Chicago Pumped to Keep Pump Room’s Name?” – As Chicago’s Ambassador East Hotel undergoes a facelift, the new owner launches a PR campaign, putting the hotel’s famed restaurant’s name to public vote.

Wired, “iCloud’s the Limit: How iOS 5, Lion Push Apple’s Lock-In Strategy” – Apple squares off with Amazon and Google, launching a truly wireless network to fully integrate and “lock-in” customers in the Apple product suite.

The New York Times, “Familiar TV Anchors Move On, Hoping to Profit on Their Own” – Almost a dozen television anchors and celebrities abandon their longtime seats to invest in their own brands and new online ventures.

Fast Company, “Infographics of the Day: 20 Facts About Our World” – Artist, Toby Ng, illustrates the importance of corporate social responsibility in an infographic series on the key social issues facing the world.

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Posted in Digital and Social Media, Issues and Crisis Management, MSL Compass (Media Relations), PurPle (Purpose Marketing), Social Media | No Comments »

#CustomerServiceFail

Friday, September 17th, 2010

Lately, I’ve been having a nagging sense of deja vu. Like a small rock in my shoe. It’s the feeling that internet services can’t be relied on. Back in Y2K, everyone expected the entire system to fail at any given moment. Broken links and sites were fairly common. People just dealt with it. No one expected an email returned right away. Fast forward a decade to cloud computing. Internet services are expected to be even more available than their real world counterparts.

But it’s like 1999 all over again if you’re a Chase.com customer, but then Twitter users are probably used to that. Or a Digg reader.

We’ve become accustomed to internet services being as reliable as phone service, available 99 percent of the time. In reality, we’re not quite there. Companies that offer software as a service need to be prepared for crisis communications if and when they experience a service interruption.

Chase.com is an instructive case in what not to do during unplanned down time. On Monday September 13, users began experiencing problems logging in, then the banking service went down – for three days. Late Wednesday, Chase finally restored full service though users continued to report issues. During that time, Chase did little to calm its customers who relied on its internet banking service.

One needs to make friends, before they need to rely on them. Not after. As the crisis began, just when Chase most needed good friends to help tell its story, it had no one to turn to.

To understand the frustration, check out #chasesucks or #chasefail on Twitter. The “I Hate Chase” pages on Facebook are experiencing explosive growth renaisance and with no other alternative, people have taken to venting on what appears to be an unofficial profile.

This became a full blown communications disaster for Chase. It will be interesting to see how Chase responds from here.

What should they have done differently? Many things, not the least of which is having a backup system in place. They also could have leveraged their past social platforms like Chase Community Giving which has 2.5 million followers on Facebook. One thing is certain, they let the situation get out of hand by not having a social media presence in place and ready to communicate with its customers who mainly interact with the bank online. Here’s a few things they could have done to mitigate the situation:

·     Maintain and monitor social media channels.  Chase not only wasn’t listening to their audiences online, they didn’t even have a way to communicate.  Despite the fact that Chase.com has 16 million monthly uniques, it has no managed page on Facebook and @chasebank has been hijacked and now suspended on Twitter.  Nothing could be found on YouTube outside a promotion for its Blueprint feature.  That means for many of its customers, Chase couldn’t be found.

·     Treat online posts seriously.  Like Chase, many companies don’t treat online conversations with the same seriousness as traditional media coverage. Big mistake.  Things  can get ugly quick online.

·     Maintain and monitor a corporate blog.  This would have allowed Chase to at least address the situation.  

·     Respond.  Even if the situation is unclear and evolving, engaging customers is an inherently re-assuring step.

·     Coordinate response with company spokespersons, and of course, customer service.   Sending confusing or contradictory messages is like throwing gas on the fire.   The message should be consistent across traditional, digital and social channels. Rightfully, many of Chase’s customers became alarmed at the situation.   Frustrated they couldn’t pay their bills, afraid their identity had been stolen and generally worried about the safety of their hard-earned money.   Customer service, although reassuring and able to help with transactions had no explanations.

·     Be conversational.   It helps to appear human.  Customers are more likely to forgive people than corporations.

·     Communicate often.   It’s better to deliver a little information often than go long  periods hoping to tell a complete story.

·     Use paid media like search to get the message out quick.  Sometimes, waiting for earned media to work isn’t fast enough.

Arm chair crisis coordinators, what do you think?

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Posted in Digital and Social Media, Issues and Crisis Management, Reputation Management, Social Media | 1 Comment »

How to stand out in a world gone “GREEN”

Friday, July 16th, 2010

Going Green. Shallow buzzword or thoughtful platform of public stewardship?

Being more environmentally conscious is something we must all do on a personal level and something that most organizations have found to be both intrinsically rewarding and beneficial from a public perception standpoint.

But these days, nearly every company has a green message plan. It seems that today the best way to get ink in the papers is to plant a tree (oversimplified, perhaps). But when everyone is saying the same thing, does the sentiment lose legitimacy?

How can we as PR professionals help clients cut through the clutter?

The answer, in case you haven’t guessed, is that we must be authentic – have facts to back up our claims. Simply telling the public that a client is green can seem disingenuous or made-for-marketing. Outlining that a client has, for example, reduced its carbon footprint by 30 percent in the past three years and is dedicated to using only recycled materials for its 2011 packaging, makes an impressive and believable statement.

Just because we put a tree logo at the bottom of our e-mail signatures doesn’t mean we have built a global platform of environmentalism for future generations. Not to say that this e-message isn’t a valuable tactic, but we must be honest about the proportions of our environmentalism. In other words, if we are going to build a campaign on being green, we’d better make sure we really are. As PR professionals we must use statistics and researched content to legitimize our message instead of relying on eco-buzzwords. Show tactile and measurable results and the media impressions are sure to follow.

So actually being green is a first step, but as PR advisors, we must encourage our clients to think about being green in a strategic way. We must consider what matters most to our clients’ audiences (not just our clients) and understand what green initiatives will resonate and move the needle. Not all green campaigns are created equal. Although thoughtful eco-consciousness is expected from every company, over-the-top green-crazed campaigns may not help get our clients’ message across to the right audience.

If tactically aligning our clients as environmental thought leaders is a good idea then having clients that actually are environmental thought leaders (and thanks to us, know exactly how to tout their noble deeds) is a great idea. It isn’t just good message strategy – it’s a good message.

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Brand Reinvention (or not) of the Month

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

How much does a full-page ad go for in a publication like the New York Times? So much that corporations often institute confidentiality agreements with the paper to ensure the cost will not be shared with the public.

Two full-page ads in the New York Times, countless of prime-time TV spots and other expensive marketing tactics are being implemented by BP in an effort to improve public perception and run damage control over the Gulf Coast spill. That’s millions of dollars towards their self-preservation efforts, while the world watches and wonders why that money isn’t going towards gulf-coast preservation.

Proactive communication via expensive forms of purchased media are actually hurting BP. The millions of dollars spent on ads could be going to the clean-up and to fully compensate those who have submitted claims. I’d argue that BP would be in a better place right now had they decided to stick with press conferences and effective social media engagement.

In the case studies that will be written about this PR disaster in a few years, I bet BP is dinged for one overarching communication flaw, and that’s their inability to completely disregard their self-preservation efforts in order to “make it right” like the tagline says.

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Crisis Communications in a World Run by Media

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

I am always on the prowl to get my feet wet (perhaps the correct term is dive in) when it comes to meeting other PR professionals. I believe every opportunity is a potential learning experience, when I was invited to attend a local PRSA Chicago meeting last week, I couldn’t resist.

The conference began with three distinguished guest speakers, all selected because of their strong PR background and expertise. The big topic everyone kept coming back to? You guessed it- British Petroleum. Lately, it’s been difficult to avoid coverage of the company since nearly every media outlet has run some sort of story on them. I’m sure you’ve seen how many of the major television news outlets run video of the oil gushing out two miles below the ocean! Interestingly enough, the public relations professionals at the event were all asking themselves the same question: What was BP thinking?

Our job as public relations professionals is to be both the strategist and the builder– we‘re supposed to make sure our messages are clearly communicated to our clients’ target audiences, while helping to manage their reputation through crises. In addition we protect them from controversy and negative media coverage, and ensure that they are entirely transparent with both the public and the media. British Petroleum unfortunately failed to disclose enough information and broke one of the most important rules in public relations: don’t lose the media’s trust. Unfortunately for BP, this error will likely keep the company on the defensive for the foreseeable future.

Several guest panelists at the PRSA event noted that they couldn’t understand the decisions made by the PR team at BP, especially when they allowed their CEO to go on a “yacht racing” trip. However, one panelist made an excellent point: it’s easy to criticize another company when you’re not involved in the situation. The key is to realize that being on the outside means that we don’t always know all of the variables.

Ultimately, we have to find that fine line between meeting the media’s needs, while simultaneously promoting our client’s messages. As I left the luncheon with a stomach full of ravioli and tiramisu, I came away with a deep respect for the work done by public relations professionals, and a new understanding of crisis communications.

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OilSpill.com

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

Like many people, I’ve been glued to the news coverage of the Oil Spill. Beyond the tragedy, it has been incredibly interesting to see this play out online. There have been a lot of angles, and tons of content, so I thought I’d share some interesting finds and observations from around the web.

* There is a huge disparity between online coverage (such as blogs) and within the mainstream press. While initially interested, blogs quickly moved on to more pressing issues like Facebook privacy and the new iPhone.

* Creative agency jess3 got a bit of press for releasing a Firefox plug-in which once installed, blacks out all instances of “British Petroleum” across the web, so that “the company which cannot be named” will never offend readers again.

* @BPGlobalPR An anonymous guerilla tweeter has taken a darkly humorous stand on the calamity by adopting BP’s voice. His snipes are incredibly popular with almost 140,000 followers as of June 8, 2010.

* Grassroots Mapping crowd sourced aerial images of the spill, filling in the blanks in the coverage of the spill. In a related note, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade has also crowd sourced the mapping of the spill. It’s interesting to see how it spread over time by adjusting the controls on the map.

* There are over 457,000 people in Facebook’s largest “Boycott BP” group and over 20 other groups with 1000 or more people in them. Many fake BP pages have cropped up with messages from the venomous to the inane.

* On the pro-BP side, well there’s BP themselves. They have deployed a robust array of digital assets, all aggregated here.

* And of course there’s the joint Deep Water Horizon Unified Response effort – which does a good job of being generally informative and helpful, with its own suite of social media tools, courtesy of the US Government.

Nothing on the social media menu was missed. BP’s Facebook page has frequent updates about their clean-up efforts and a live feed of the leak underwater. Their YouTube channel features an apology and a promise to make the situation right from Tony Hayword. Their Flickr page shows the multi-pronged approach to their effort – day by day – and their Twitter profile keeps a steady drum beat of updates and reaffirmation that “the job is far from done” and that BP will “make it right.” They have also released websites for each of the states affected.

All this content is great, but it’s getting lost in the cacophony – which is largely negative for BP. SEO requires time and that’s one resource BP doesn’t have. Rather then let the news outlets tell the story for them, they’ve taken out paid search ads for terms like “oil spill” and “oil news”. Reportedly, they’re spending upwards of $10,000 per day to make sure that their side of the story isn’t lost. Paid media was also used by Toyota during their recent recall crisis.

Not surprisingly, they’re taking a lot of flak for this type of expenditure. As an American, I understand the outrage. As a digital marketer and communications professional, I recognize that if BP is going to emerge out of this crisis and rebuild their image, it must be done. Enduring slings and arrows is something BP better get comfortable with; they won’t be going away any time soon.

Does anyone see other interesting tactics being used to get the various messages out about the oil spill – whatever the perspective or source? Be sure to list them in the comments section.

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