2.) Keeping pay police at bay (The Wall Street Journal) -- Having Uncle Sam set executive compensation is unnecessary and unworkable. David Yermack on how companies could strengthen their own checks and balances.
3.) Swine flu shot faces big PR fight (Charlotte Observer) -- Bert Curcio is more afraid of the flu shot than the swine flu itself. He won't be showing up when health departments, doctors' offices and other clinics begin offering the first vaccinations against the new H1N1 influenza in coming days.
4.) Where the news comes from - and why it matters (Pew Research Center) -- There are a lot of misconceptions about where we get our news. Only about 54% of Americans say they regularly read print newspapers. But that number, drawn from surveys, does not tell us much about where news comes from.
1.) Businesses that blog see 55% more visitors (Social Media Business Council) -- A recent study by HubSpot using data from their 1,531 customers (comprised of both small and medium-sized businesses) found that companies that blogged had far better marketing results.
2.) Clorox, Lysol marketing messages compounded by swine flu fears (Ad Age) -- A second wave of media coverage around outbreaks of the H1N1 virus is driving new opportunities for back-to-school marketing by brands not typically associated with the season.
3.) Recession prompts MARTA to spend on image (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) -- In the midst of long-running financial problems, fare hikes, service cuts and the worst economic downturn in a generation, MARTA is doing some high-level hiring to beef up its image. Money-starved MARTA may spend up to $592,000 on outside help in lobbying and public relations, according to agency documents and officials. The money would come from MARTA’s operating budget, which is particularly pinched.
4.) How Intel is making its press releases more social (Social Media Business Council) -- Intel’s “Press Room” has taken the traditional press page found on most corporate sites and overhauled it with lots of social media elements, including real-time Twitter feeds, external links to Facebook, and links to audio, video, and Intel’s blogs.
This column was originally published in The Daily Record on Friday, May 8, 2009
(The CDC's Youtube Channel)
The H1N1 virus – also known as “swine flu” – isn’t going away just yet, but there a few early lessons we can glean from this case about how to communicate effectively in a public crisis.
For me, the H1N1 outbreak illuminates both the perils and promise of social media and how it can shape public perception.
First, the perils. As the H1N1 flu picked up momentum in late April, popular social media sites lit up with commentary from the public. Many users of the social media site Twitter warned the broader public to avoid eating pork products so as not become “infected” with the flu.
There is one problem with this advice: it’s wrong. The H1N1 flu is not transmitted via food, but the presence of such inaccurate information in the public dialogue posed a threat to the bottom line of pork producers across the world.
Yet U.S. pork producers had just 300 followers on Twitter – a miniscule audience considering the global scrutiny and volume of chatter about their product. As a result, a critical opportunity to contain damaging speculation was missed.
Twitter is no echo chamber. The micro-blogging site has 5 million members globally, each of whom is capable of delivering information to wide audiences. With some Twitter members boasting networks of one million followers, misinformation about pork products can spread like, well, a virus.
Sure enough, prices of hog futures contracts dropped sharply as the flu’s reach spread. I won’t attribute the price drop solely to the misinformation on sites like Twitter, but it is hard to ignore the impact on the pork industry’s product as false information spread to wider audiences.
The lesson is that organizations cannot ignore social media communities in a crisis. Any citizen with a Twitter account or a video camera can spread any content about your industry or product that he or she desires, whether it’s pork or Pepsi. And whether your organization considers that citizen credible is irrelevant; what matters is whether that citizen’s network of followers considers them to be credible. To put it in public health terms, organizations fighting through a crisis must quarantine bad information and kill it. Then, replace it with the facts.
So, what is the upside of social media in a crisis? The Centers for Disease Control has demonstrated during H1N1 outbreak that organizations under the gun can use social media to their advantage. The CDC added roughly 10,000 new followers on Twitter every day during the crisis, bringing its total followers to more than 105,000 at the time of this writing. It has distributed hundreds of messages online about the flu, its origins, and what precautions the public should take. Cable news outlets such as CNN monitored the CDC’s online efforts and repeated the agency’s message to their massive viewing audience. The CDC also posted informational videos on Youtube, some of which garnered more than 140,000 views per week.
Beyond social media, the CDC’s strategy shows three hallmarks of a good crisis communications strategy.
Over-communication. One would have to be living under a rock to have not seen or heard from the CDC over the past two weeks. The agency utilized virtually every communications tool at its disposal – both old and new - to inform the public. The CDC hasn’t fallen prey to the dangerous assumption that your audience “gets it” in a crisis after you’ve issued a couple press releases and updated your website. To the contrary, they spare no opportunity to reassure the public, often on a minute-to-minute basis.
Message discipline. Acting CDC Director Richard Besser has positioned himself as a calm and articulate spokesman for the government. More importantly, he has repeated his message of prudence and informed decision-making relentlessly.
Crisis planning. The CDC has prepared for years to communicate effectively in the event of an outbreak. Granted, it’s the CDC’s job to do so, but too few companies today can say they have developed a plan to communicate with their stakeholders in the event of a crisis.
The closing chapters of the H1N1 crisis have yet to be written, but one lesson for Maryland organizations is clear: public conversations are migrating to online communities that hold great promise and great peril. The real question is whether your organization will follow.
Womble Carlyle's John Pueschel has compiled useful information on how businesses can respond internally to the threats posed by swine flu, also known as the H1N1 virus. Readers would be well served to take time to get the most current information available, and to evaluate how this outbreak might impact their business. To read more, click here.
There are myriad ways to explore how public anxiety over swine flu will impact businesses, from airlines and drug makers to agriculture. For now, I am watching how pork producers respond to the uneasy public sentiment that is lighting up social media sites across the web. Here's an example:
The social media phenomenon known as Twitter has been abuzz this week with discussion over the swine flu and how people can protect themselves. Several users (none of whom appear to have any medical background) are telling their friends and family that the risk of swine flu is, as one person put it, "another reason to avoid eating pork."
That's not true, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC flatly states that swine flu is not transmitted via food. Yet the misinformation on Twitter - which has roughly 5 million members and growing, including members of the press -- can spread like wildfire, and rarely is information edited for accuracy. This can cause significant confusion and ultimately threaten a pork producer's bottom line. Take a look at what's happened to hog prices by clicking here.
The onus is on those producers to "go where the people are" and combat misinformation head on. To its credit, the National Pork Producers Council does have a presence on Twitter, but its list of followers at the time of this writing is slim considering the volume of chatter about its industry.
