Archive for crisis communications
‘Arrested’ and Other Real World Lessons from Social Media
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In recent months I’ve participated on several panels with the media where we discussed using social media tools in crisis communications situations.
Last week I was on a panel, “Crisis Communication in a Social Media World,” with CNN political commentator Maria Cardona and The Washington Post‘s James Buck. Cardona, also a principal with the Dewey Square Group, provided insights into political scandals and the need to be prepared to move quickly with social media as a key part of your crisis PR plan. Since former Congressman Anthony Weiner is “old news” in the Twitter world, we focused on the Herman Cain controversy and the impact of social media.
Buck talked about how the Post uses social media in its reporting, including live-tweeting meetings and events and verifying sources via Twitter by looking at Klout scores and level of engagement among other factors. Buck has first-hand experience with the power of social media. While covering protests in Egypt in 2008 he was detained by Egyptian authorities and placed in a vehicle that was to take him to a prison. In the back seat, he tweeted one word - “arrested” – which triggered a response that eventually led to his release. Twitter’s founders use this as an example of how one word tweeted to a handful of followers can have a big impact.
Still think social media is for following Justin Bieber or Snooki? It’s so much more, and you need to have a plan and tools in place – before the crisis hits.
Sawmill Partner on Social Media Panel with CNN Commentator and Washington Post Editor
Posted by: | CommentsI’m looking forward to being part of a panel on crisis communications and social media Nov.3 that will bring attendees the latest thinking on how news organizations are using tools such as Twitter and Facebook during crisis situations. Find out more about the session, “Crisis Communication in a Social Media World,” and register for PRSA’s Mid-Atlantic Chesapeake Conference here. My co-presenters are:
Maria Cardona is a Democratic strategist who recently joined CNN as a political commentator for the 2012 election and contributor to CNN en Español. During the 2008 Democratic primary election, Cardona was senior adviser and spokesperson to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and served on the campaign’s Hispanic outreach team. During the 2008 general election, she was a key surrogate for the Obama for America campaign, and during the Clinton administration, Cardona served as a spokesperson at the U.S. Departments of Justice and Commerce.
James Buck is the Washington Post‘s local innovations editor. He came to the Post in 2010, after working at FRONTLINE/World, The Oakland
Tribune, The Center for Investigative Reporting and University of California-Berkeley. While a graduate student at Berkeley in 2008, James traveled to Egypt to cover an anti-government protest and was arrested. He used Twitter on his cell phone to alert his friends, who immediately began campaigning for his release. The founders of Twitter frequently use James’ experience in explaining the power of the site as a communication tool.
Register today and join us! The Mid-Atlantic Chesapeake Conference has an impressive lineup of sessions this year, making it a must-attend event for the region’s public relations pros.
Sawmill Marketing Public Relations Named Agency for FCC Environmental, LLC
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BALTIMORE, Md. (September 21, 2011) – Sawmill Marketing Public Relations, a Baltimore public relations firm, has been selected by FCC Environmental, LLC, one of the world’s largest environmental services companies with an expertise in waste oil collection and processing, for a comprehensive awareness campaign for its first sustainable used motor oil recycling facility.
The campaign will include strategic message development, traditional media relations, website development and management, community relations, crisis communications planning and spokesperson training.
The $50 million facility, to be located in Baltimore, is the first of several used motor oil recycling operations planned by the company in the United States.
About FCC Environmental
FCC Environmental, LLC provides recycling services for the automotive, commercial and industrial sectors of the U.S. economy. Its service offerings include used oil collection and processing, collection and recycling of used oil filters and antifreeze, along with parts cleaner supply and service, plus field service activity and emergency response capabilities to support the requirements of its customers.
Headquartered in Houston, FCC Environmental has maintained a regional office and operation in Baltimore since 1950. It has 38 branches and terminals throughout an 18 state operation, serving over 30,000 customer locations. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC), one of the world’s largest environmental service providers with headquarters in Madrid, Spain. With more than 90,000 employees operating in over 50 countries, FCC was able to provide the financial capability and leadership to allow FCC Environmental, LLC to expand its service offerings. For more information, visit www.FCCenvironmental.com.
About Sawmill Marketing Public Relations
Sawmill Marketing Public Relations is a Baltimore PR firm and social media marketing communications agency established in 1995 specializing in the development and execution of marketing public relations programs as business development strategies for business-to-business, business-to-consumer and professional services clients. The Maryland public relations company specializes in social media, traditional media relations, media training, and crisis communications. For additional information, visit www.sawmillmarketing.com.
Check Your Crisis Communications Plan’s Expiration Date
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Does your company’s crisis communications plan look like this?
If you went through an expensive planning process that ended up with a bulky three-ring binder that’s now stuck on a shelf, it might have been a huge waste of money if it hasn’t been updated. If the words “Twitter” and “Facebook” aren’t even mentioned, it’s time for a re-fresh.
Today’s crisis communications plans focus less on setting up a media headquarters, holding press briefings and assigning phone tree responsibilities. Instead, your plan needs to incorporate social media so you can monitor and respond quickly – and while mobile – even before you get the first text, Tweet, email or even phone call from the media.
Use Earthquake Lessons to Shake Up Your Crisis PR Plan
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Here’s a crisis communications lesson from yesterday’s East Coast earthquake – if your crisis PR plan relies on using a telephone or cell phone, you had better insert an alternative method for reaching out to people.
As Gus Sentementes reported in today’s edition of The Baltimore Sun, “As Marylanders reached for their cell phones to communicate with their friends and family, they found it easier to get peace of mind through text messages, emails and Facebook updates than through calls.”
That’s because just about everyone has a cell phone in their pocket – and the first thing they do in an emergency is call family and friends, so the phone system cannot handle such a high volume of calls. To actually work, your crisis communications plan needs to rely on other means to get the word out – tweets, texts and Facebook updates.
As we counsel clients, now is the time to set up those social networking accounts and the related policy and protocol – not during an emergency! [Gus's photo sent via Twitter, left, shows an evacuated Sun staff yesterday after the earthquake shook up the building.]
Sawmill Partner Invited to Share Public Affairs Success Tips
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I will be a featured speaker at a full-day learning event, “Resources & Tools for Public Affairs Success,” co-hosted by Erickson Living and the Maryland Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel on Thursday, September 29, 2011 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The day includes panels looking at the role of social media in crisis communication and today’s newsroom, as well as hands-on workshops on Twitter and LinkedIn. Attendees will also hear the State of News Media from Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.
Here are “my” sessions:
The Role of Social Media in Crisis Communications – 9 a.m.
Featuring a behind-the-scenes account of a shooting at Johns Hopkins Hospital and how social media was used, I will guide a discussion that will demonstrate the importance of monitoring and being aware of today’s online tools to protect your company’s reputation. 9:00 a.m.
• Justin Fenton, Crime Reporter, Baltimore Sun
• Anthony Guglielmi, Spokesman, Baltimore City Police Department
• Jeffrey A. Davis, APR, Sawmill Marketing Public Relations
Twitter Tactics for PR Professionals – 10:15 a.m.
From basic tools and etiquette to the many ways media and PR professionals are using Twitter, this session will offer a hands-on look at the latest tactics.
• Jeffrey A. Davis, APR, Sawmill Marketing Public Relations
The event is held in collaboration with Erickson Living as part of their national Corporate Communications Summit. Because of this, PRSA is limited to 20 seats at $50 for PRSA members, $65 for non-members. For additional details and to register, visit the PRSA Maryland Chapter website.
Assignment Desks Look to Twitter for Updates During Crisis
Posted by: | CommentsAn interview with an assignment editor at KSDK in St. Louis highlights one reason Twitter is an important – maybe the most important – tool in the crisis communications toolkit. During a four-hour lockdown at Missouri University of Science and Technology on May 12 when a gunman appeared on campus, telephone updates were not easy to obtain, but the university’s stream of Twitter updates allowed the TV station to get the latest info and share the news with viewers.
For more details and to view the interview, check out the blog post by Andrew Careaga, director of communications for Missouri S&T.
BALTIMORE, Md. (May 3, 2011) — Sawmill Marketing Public Relations, specializing in media relations, social content integration
, crisis communications and media training, participated in the Barclay Greenmount Spring Sweep 2011, a community service project sponsored by client Greater Baltimore AHC, on Saturday, April 30.
“We spent the morning working with neighborhood residents, representatives of community organizations, volunteers from schools as well as individuals and Greater Baltimore AHC, Inc. staff,” said Susan J. Anthony, partner with Sawmill Marketing Public Relations, headquartered in Baltimore.” We picked up trash, mowed grass in the common areas of the neighborhood and other similar tasks before enjoying a cookout together.”
This was the first year for the Barclay Greenmount Spring Sweep. Greater Baltimore AHC officials said that they are considering making it an annual event.
About Sawmill Marketing Public Relations
Sawmill Marketing Public Relations is a Baltimore PR firm and social media marketing communications agency established in 1995 specializing in the development and execution of marketing public relations programs as business development strategies for business-to-business, business-to-consumer and professional services clients. The Maryland public relations company specializes in social media, traditional media relations, media training, and crisis communications. For additional information, visit www.sawmillmarketing.com
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Crisis Communications Tip #9: Develop an Audience Strategy
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While many focus their crisis communications effort primarily on crafting what to say, we believe it’s also critical to develop an audience strategy for the crisis messaging.
Begin by prioritizing the audience that is impacted the most and then identify the influencer audiences. This exercise should quickly reveal the crisis communications audience strategy as well as options for how best to begin communicating with them.
Additionally, the audience strategy will help to fine tune and customize the crisis messaging so that it is relevant and credible to the target audiences.
Using Social Media On the Front Lines of Crisis Communications
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I was invited to participate on a panel discussion this week on “Crisis Communications and Social Media,” joining two people on the front lines of what many would consider crisis of the day – Justin Fenton, crime reporter for The Baltimore Sun, and Anthony Guglielmi, spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department. If anyone understands crisis, it’s these two pros, while I provided insights from the crisis planning and PR viewpoints.
We got right into it, using the Sept. 16, 2010 shooting/barricade situation at Johns Hopkins Hospital as a focal point, but touched on a variety of topics on what it’s really like to deal with an actual crisis communications situation every day. Here are a few observations from the event co-sponsored by the Social Media Club of Baltimore and the Baltimore Public Relations Council:
On Statements and Staging Areas
Using social media, reporters will crowd-source information to piece together a story whether the company involved is ready or not. Recognize that while you craft and polish official statements, go through the approval process and plan your press conference, the posts, tweets and online updates will move along and evolve – along with public sentiment – with or without your input. If you can, pay attention to both.
As for setting up a location for the media, here’s what they really think: “If you’re creating a media-staging area, that’s the last place I want to be,” Fenton said. “Let the TV cameras go there, let them sit there and talk about their weekends, but I want to be in the middle of everything. If I could have gotten inside the hospital during it, I would have.”
Praise for Social Media and Its Speed
Fenton: “I’ll ask people what they saw or heard, some people might have taken photos or videos, and I’ll cobble together the accounts and tell people what happened without having to wait for the Monday morning briefing and the police report.”
Guglielmi: “In our eyes it’s a direct to consumer approach. We still do media relations, we still do community meetings and community affairs, but social media is another way to communicate with the public,” he said. “I was skeptical at first, but it’s incredibly helpful. Instead of sitting on the phone or sitting by a fax machine, sending information out to the media, and having the public wait for the 6 o’clock news or the newspaper the next day, we can get the information out, and it’s ‘our‘ information…it’s not through Justin’s lens or (WBAL-TV reporter) Jayne Miller’s lens, it’s what we want to put out, direct to the people we serve.”
Efficiency for Both Sides
Back in the day, police officers would be available during all shifts to pull reports and answer reporters’ questions. “We can’t do that anymore and pay for those positions, so social media helps us significantly in getting information out,” says Guglielmi, who oversaw the Department’s introduction of social media in March 2009 and now uses tools such as Ustream, Facebook, Twitter (@BaltimorePolice), YouTube and Nixle. Fenton noted how it helps the newspaper side as well – previously they would call the Public Affairs Department periodically throughout the day with “anything going on?” questions (to supplement monitoring the scanner). Now they monitor the Twitter feed, knowing the information will be posted there right away.
What About Focusing on Internal First?
Standard crisis communications protocols say you should inform employees first, but the panelists agreed the focus might as well be on external communications. “Why shouldn’t the public know?” was the reporter’s point of view, while Guglielmi pointed out that “internal” emails will eventually find their way to the media, so why not let everyone know about a serious situation?
Exercise Restraint
What separates a solid journalist from a dude with a Twitter account is restraint and fact-checking. What Fenton first heard on the scanner the morning of the hospital shooting, and later via online sources, was not entirely accurate or verified. So rather than simply retweeting what others were instantly speculating, he couched it by initially tweeting “Hearing on scanner: someone may have been shot inside Hopkins Hospital…officers asking for supervisors, officers on roof.” He rushed to the scene and did what he could to verify and post as accurately as possible as the story developed, including withholding details about tactical operations that could put officers’ safety at risk. Others weren’t as responsible, Guglielmi said.
