Some years back I had the privilege of meeting the late, great broadcaster Paul Harvey when he spoke at a broadcast journalism industry event. At the beginning of his speech he described the audience as being "Future Shock-Shock Absorbers" for their viewers and listeners. I've never forgotten that well-turned phrase by Mr. Harvey.
It's a term, I think, that equally applies to communications, especially in this rapidly evolving world of social media and why it's important your business have a sound, developed and regularly reviewed communication strategy/plan.
What got me thinking about all this was something I heard yesterday on a sports talk radio show. Eagles QB Michael Vick is the talk (good and bad) of the town for his performance against the Washington Redskins this past Monday. One of the talk show hosts quipped that the PR team for the NFL would have its hands full if the season ended with a Eagles-Steelers Super Bowl, which would of course be billed as a showdown between Ben Roethlisberger and Vick. Both would bring considerable baggage to the game which we don't need to get into here because it's well documented.
The NFL's public relations team is arguably as good as any in the business and they'd do their very best to stay on message and keep the media covering the Superbowl on message. They likely have anticipated such a match-up and are planning for it accordingly. Good luck.
The NFL has well developed policies within its organization, but also knows that they need to quickly adapt to the situation at hand.
Another case study would be the recent incident involving the Carnival Cruise Ship, Splendor. An engine room fire knocked out power, including electricity and passengers had to go without some of the normal luxuries they paid for. Steak and Lobster were replaced by sandwiches. But the original fire was contained, no one was hurt and everyone returned home safely, refunded in full and given another cruise for free. Carnival, to its credit, dealt with a bad situation and did a pretty good job of taking care of its customers and their safety.
But most of the media coverage centered on that passengers were supposedly were fed Spam ferried over, along with other supplies from the nearby aircraft carrier, USS Ronald Reagan. Carnival's PR team did, I think, a darn good job of putting out fair and accurate information but the fixation by most covering the story was the Spam. The story quickly faded from the limelight, but Carnival and Spam went together like peas and carrots for a few days. So despite the best plans and intentions, ultimately the media will cover a story how it decides to. Which is their right. But both the story and the actual fire could have been far worse. Damage control was the rule of the day aboard the ship and in the media. Both fires put out successfully.
I could go on including the BP debacle but the point here is that a well planned and continually reviewed communications plan is important and social media is a great conduit of information when crisis occurs.
A metaphor would be the fire lines that are created in a forest fire. They slow or halt further spread of the fire. But the fire lines aren't created until after the fire starts. Your social media strategy creates a fire line before the fire starts. A future shock-shock absorber when you need it.
So while social media is all about outreach, marketing and brand building; it's also about being there to deal with unexpected situations which can happen to just about any company or organization.
These days, just one disgruntled customer can create a digital fire. As in "Touch my Junk." Having a good plan in place to deal with that kind of fire can prevent it from going viral. It's important to continually monitor what's being said about you on the 'Net. We suggest you set up "listening posts" for key members of your team to listen to what's being said and to quickly and proactively deal with it.
So if you haven't already, check your shock absorbers.
Brian Olson
Conversation Starters LLC
"We start the conversation about you" (And help you deal with any unpleasant conversation)
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