I found the Center for Communication event on the changing face of crisis communications to be quite interesting, especially since I am currently doing a research project on the many uses of Twitter, and most of the panel spent 75% of their time speaking about how they use Twitter. So it was informative and productive for me. The discussion began with Peter Himler, the Principal/Founder of Flatiron Communications asking each of the panel members about their definition of crisis before and after the explosion of social media applications like Facebook and Twitter. He noted that previously the public relations profession usually only made news during times of crisis, when its function was under intense scrutiny. However, due to the influx of social media applications the face of PR is changing, and thus the PR function is being re-evaluated in the media. He noted that in times of crisis, it is no longer enough to mitigate the situation through one media outlet, and that diverse audiences must be reached through diverse media outlets.
Catherine Mathis, the SVP of Corporate Communications at the New York Times Company, said that there are four elements that make up a crisis. It is sudden, it demands attention, it is often unexpected even if you’ve spent time preemptively planning for a crisis, and it has a negative effect on your corporate reputation. D’Arcy Rudnay, the SVP of Corporate Communications at Comcast Corporation, said that she traditionally saw a crisis in terms of its financial impact, but today she sees crises in a consumer-oriented fashion. She has embraced the function of social media applications, and noted that she no longer hires anyone unless they have personal experience with blogging. While she sees these social media applications as viable, she was quick to point out that whereas traditionally you could call a reporter and say: “Here’s what happened but you can’t quote me,” now much of the information circulating in the media spawns from a direct quote that public relations professionals post directly on the web.
Marcia Horowitz, the Senior Executive Vice President at Rubenstein Associates, started off by letting the audience know what her typical morning before 10 AM looks like – which apparently is bouncing back and forth between a high-profile divorce, a CEO having an affair, and a disgruntled employee who claims they were fired because of their age, sex or race. She then said that while sites like Gawker, TMZ and the Smoking Gun contribute to the speed at which a crisis is picked up in the media, they also make it easier for a crisis to pass without significant distress. She said that crises come and go faster because the social media is always looking for the next thing to feed to their readers. However, while these crises can come and go, they can also spiral out of control as sharing of information has become easier than ever. A story on one blog can reach several others within minutes, and as we all know from the childhood game, Telephone, when facts are passed from one person to the next, it is easy for the truth to get lost.
Finally, James Donnelly, the SVP of Crisis Management at Ketchum New York, defined a crisis as when an event happens where the viability of the company is threatened and the company is thrown into a fishbowl of scrutiny. He said that in this sense, a crisis is the same as it was before social media flourished, but what social media has changed is the size of the fishbowl – it’s more like an aquarium now. He also noted that the three most important things to convey to the audience in a time of crisis is credibility, focus and imagination. After these initial statements, the event became a mix of one liners and anecdotes from each of the panel members. To make this easier to process I have organized the rest of this post by the four different speakers, and listed a few highlights from each of them.
Marcia Horowitz, Rubenstein Associates:
- “It’s not the right thing to say, it’s what you DO.” – speaking about when clients come in begging her to tell them exactly what to say. She stressed to the audience, as she does with her clients, that the tenet of “Actions speak louder than words” is often true in the case of PR.
- She said that social media sites can help preserve the truth, since if you post a statement on your own first on a company site and then direct the media there, they may still alter that statement in their own outlet, but at least there is still one place where the original statement is preserved in its unadulterated state.
- “If you have a cell phone in your pocket right now, then you’re a broadcaster.”
D’Arcy Rudnay, Comcast Corporation:
- “Tell the truth and tell it fast.” – this is a seven-word principle she came across at the outset of her career in PR that has stuck with her over the years, but she was quick to note that while this may sound nice, it is often very difficult to find out the truth in the first place
- She said that while she has embraced social media sites, there are still many millions of people who don’t know what social media is and couldn’t care less about it, so that while it can be beneficial to use these applications it is not yet possible to ignore the traditional media outlets
- Comcast is a special case where they had a customer service representative who began to use Twitter to better serve his customers who were experiencing difficulty with any of the Comcast services – his Twitter account took off, and now he often uses it to post updates about the company in general – his name is Frank Eliason and his Twitter name is comcastcares
- She said that with people like Frank, individuals who Tweet under their personal names on behalf of corporations help to create a face and a personality for a large conglomerate, however she pointed out her fear about what happens if that face leaves the company?
- She told the audience not to break down in time of crisis, or even to get flustered when negative comments on social media applications turn up. She said that negative comments are a part of engagement, and that it can be turned around.
- She said that one of the most important things to learn is when to do nothing. Blogs can be controversial and hateful places, so while companies should do all they can to turn negative perceptions into positive ones, sometimes it gets to the point where you have to decide to disagree and disengage.
James Donnelly, Ketchum New York:
- You have to have the right strategy before you choose the tactic, which often involves figuring out which audience is the most important to reach. Once you have chosen the audience, you can figure out which media outlets are the most appropriate for this form of communication.
- It is hard enough to be transparent as an individual, so how are corporations today held to such a high standard of transparency? He stressed that companies should aim for authenticity, and warned that true transparency is nearly impossible to achieve, and that’s because it is often against the best interest of the company and its employees to expose each and every bump in the road. Bumps in the road are a healthy and normal part of the business cycle, but not everything has to be exposed.
- He warns every client that wants to start a social media campaign that if you engage online once, you should be prepared to continue that conversation.
Catherine Mathis, The New York Times Company:
- I didn’t think most of what this woman said was very helpful but here’s one comment: Journalists use social media to make the news more of a dialogue rather than a “we’re telling you … “ situation
- I think that it’s great that journalists are trying to open up a dialogue with their readers, but if they spend so much time dedicated to social media, will the quality and type of journalism suffer? – that’s my own comment
