Monday's quick reads: Toyota, Tiger, and evolution of corporate citizenship

1.) Toyota and Tiger Woods: Kindred spirits? (Fortune Magazine) -- The question is being raised more and more: Can Toyota recover its reputation? There is no simple answer. The writer explores Toyota's chances by comparing the automaker's plight with that of Tiger Woods.

2.) How Whole Foods reaches millions with Twitter (Social Media Examiner) -- Have you ever wondered how a business handles more than a million Twitter fans? Want the inside scoop from the largest retailer on Twitter? Whole Foods Market is a leading example of Twitter’s power to build millions of relationships a single customer at a time. Here are key excerpts from the writer's interview with the Whole Foods team.

3.) Survey: Most marketers shifting portion of their budget to social media (Social Media Business Council) -- Alterian’s 2009 Annual Survey Results shows 84% of marketers plan to shift at least a portion of their traditional marketing budgets to digital/interactive/social media channels in 2010. The survey involved more than 1,000 marketers from around the world and was conducted between October 1st through December 3rd of 2009.

4.) Corporate citizenship for the 21st century (Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship) -- Do you know what it takes to lead in the ever-changing field of corporate citizenship? The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship has just released two reports that help answer that question and that create unique competency models for today practitioners and tomorrow’s aspiring leaders.

Toyota’s crisis response is a two part story

(Image credit: Junko Kimura/Getty Images)
Like most riveting stories, the current recall crisis that has beset Toyota can be divided into multiple parts.

In Part One, which is still unfolding, the company is responding aggressively to a crisis. In Part Two, which will unfold in the coming months, Toyota will have to respond to the inevitable question from policy makers: “What did you know and when did you know it?”

Let’s look at Part One.

In the last few months, Toyota has recalled a staggering 8 million vehicles and halted production on 11 different models due to a plague of sudden accelerations in its cars. The crisis has rocked an auto company that for a half century had been synonymous with safety and reliability.

After a slow start, Toyota is responding the way any company should that is serious about rebuilding its reputation. Here are five key components to Toyota’s crisis communications strategy.

Be honest about your situation. Toyota recognized it was in a hole and stopped digging. It halted production on nearly a dozen different models, pledging to fix cars currently on the road before pushing new ones off the manufacturing line. The move is bold and not without serious financial repercussions, but it sends an unmistakable message that the company will bear any burden to keep its customers safe.

Say “I’m Sorry.” Toyota President Akio Toyoda (pictured) apologized to customers and took personal responsibility for the recall, as did the chief of Toyota’s U.S. operations. Sound easy? Ask ACORN and Tiger Woods what happens when you respond to a public crisis with defiance or indifference.

Fix the problem. Toyota quickly found a structural fix to the sticky accelerator pedals plaguing its vehicles. This may seem obvious, but too many companies believe that crisis response begins and ends with a good public message. They ignore the underlying problem that led to the crisis, whether it’s a sticky brake pedal or, as we recently saw in the financial industry, a huge appetite for bad debt. Toyota found a solution and dispatched thousands of employees to work 24/7 to repair vehicles currently on the road.

Start talking. Toyota’s public outreach has been relentless. Here’s a quick count of media channels they’ve used to touch consumers, opinion leaders, and policy makers nationwide: press conferences with executives; live television and radio interviews; huge TV ad buys; full page ads in newspapers; op-eds by Toyota executives in The Washington Post and elsewhere; video streaming on Youtube; a regularly updated website; a toll-free hotline; paid search ads on Google, and; regular recall updates for the company’s 100,000 fans on Twitter and Facebook. In sum, they’ve used every means of communication short of the carrier pigeon.

Enlist your friends. Toyota wisely called on a few friends to speak on the company’s behalf. NASCAR star Michael Waltrip posted a message on Youtube stating his belief that “Toyota won’t settle until they get it right, and I know they will make it right.” The company is publicizing testimonials from satisfied Toyota customers, and is working closely with members of Congress who represent states with tens of thousands of Toyota employees.

Okay, so Toyota gets crisis communication. That is rare, given that a lot of successful companies believe you don’t make money by showing contrition.

That brings us to Part Two.

The recall exposed Toyota’s larger problem: their inability to resolve a brewing crisis that reportedly first surfaced in 2002 when complaints of sticky accelerators spiked. In 2005, Toyota recalled more vehicles than it sold. Two years later, Consumer Reports stopped automatically endorsing Toyota vehicles due to what it considered declining quality. Even worse, recent news reports suggest that Toyota failed or refused to disclose vehicle problems to federal regulators over a period of years.

In the coming weeks, Part One of this story will come to a close. Shortly thereafter, Part Two will begin with congressional hearings, investigative journalism, and consumer lawsuits likely to take center stage.

Toyota’s crisis communications strategy will have to adapt to this new phase. They would be wise to be as aggressive and creative as they’ve been in recent weeks because, like many compelling stories, the second act may prove to be the most dramatic.

This article was first published in today's Daily Record.

Quick reads: Toyota, the Washington Capitals, and resignation by tweet

1.) The Capitals are reaching out (The Washington Post) -- The Washington Capitals in recent years have moved more aggressively than any other NHL team toward embracing social media Web sites such as Twitter and Facebook, targeting supporters who get their information from non-traditional outlets.

2.) Sun's chief executive tweets his resignation (New York Times) -- Jonathan Schwartz, the last chief executive of Sun Microsystems, has become the first Fortune 200 boss to tweet his resignation. Late Wednesday night, Mr. Schwartz used Twitter to publish a haiku about his exit from Oracle, which just completed its purchase of Sun last week.

3.) ConAgra Foods embraces a social media culture (Social Media Business Council) -- ConAgra’s Director of Public Relations, Stephanie Moritz, explains how ConAgra is approaching social media as a strategic opportunity. Stephanie’s case study explained how they’re integrating social media across many aspects of their business, how they educated senior management through “digital immersion,” and how ConAgra uses five core items to determine their social approach.

4.) Can Toyota be successful in brand damage litigation? (The Drum) -- One analyst believes that Toyota’s crisis management challenges say less about the quality of its crisis communication response, and more about the organisation’s culture and ability to identify and manage incidents before they become crises. Nevertheless, it is clear that this particular incident has the power to do enormous damage, not just to the Toyota brand, but also to its business.

Monday's quick reads: Toyota recall and random rules for building awareness

1.) Toyota recall: Five critical lessons (Business Ethics Magazine) -- Toyota’s announcement of a technical fix for its sticky gas pedals – which can lead to sudden acceleration problems - is not likely to bring a quick end to the company’s current recall nightmare. The Toyota brand, once almost synonymous with top quality, has taken a heavy hit.

2.) Survey finds majority of journalists depend on social media (George Washington University) -- A national survey found that an overwhelming majority of reporters and editors now depend on social media sources when researching their stories. Among the journalists surveyed, 89% said they turn to blogs for story research, 65% to social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and 52% to microblogging services such as Twitter. The survey also found that 61% use Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia.

3.) Random rules for ideas worth spreading (Seth Godin) -- If you've got an idea worth spreading, author Seth Godin hopes you'll consider this random assortment of rules. Like all rules, some are made to be broken, but still...

4.) A public company defends staying silent on legal snarl (New York Times) -- For years, Fidelity National Financial, the nation’s largest title insurance company, did not tell investors about dozens of lawsuits accusing two units and several employees of playing a role in an elaborate mortgage fraud scheme in San Diego. Fidelity National did not mention this litigation to its shareholders until October 2009 — a silence that speaks volumes about how tricky “full disclosure” can be in a world that increasingly demands it but rarely defines it.

Monday's quick reads: The Pope, the FCC, and medical correspondents in Haiti

1.) FCC is on the hunt for ways to improve news media (The Wall Street Journal) -- Just a month after the Federal Trade Commission held hearings on the beleaguered news industry and what the government might do about it, the Federal Communications Commission is getting into the act, too. The agency has launched an investigation into the “Future of Media,” and released an 11-page request for information about the state of the news business. It plans to examine the current state of the news industry, industry trends and what the agency could do to change its current rules.

2.) Pope to priests: Go forth and blog (Associated Press) -- Pope Benedict XVI has a new commandment for priests struggling to get their message across: Go forth and blog. The pope, whose own presence on the Web has heavily grown in recent years, urged priests on Saturday to use all multimedia tools at their disposal to preach the Gospel and engage in dialogue with people of other religions and cultures.

3.) Medical correspondents face delicate balance in Haiti (Los Angeles Times) -- Confronted with the overwhelming need in Haiti, medical doctors who serve as network correspondents have been toggling between roles: that of physician and reporter. On Sunday, ABC’s Dr. Richard Besser assisted a pregnant woman in labor and NBC’s Dr. Nancy Snyderman operated on the wounded in a makeshift clinic. CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta performed surgery Monday on a girl with a skull fracture who had been airlifted to the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson.

4.) Got a gripe? Send a Tweet (San Francisco Chronicle) -- When his new dryer didn't work, Brian Williams vented his frustration on Twitter: "Sears and Samsung, you fail. Ordered the major washer dryer. Installer says dryer arrived broken. Fail fail fail." To his surprise, a Sears customer service agent replied by tweet within a few hours. Two days later, Williams had a working dryer delivered to his Nanuet, N.Y., home and the negative experience turned into praise for Sears.

Tuesday's quick reads: Apple, Staples, and the 70 most important words for 2010

1.) Is Apple in control of its PR? (A View From Silicon Valley) -- Blogger Tim Dyson explores why almost all the news we read about Apple comes from rumor sites rather than Apple itself.

2.) Staples using social media to leak holiday price cuts (Social Media Business Council) -- Staples became one of the first retailers this holiday season to use Facebook to leak “Black Friday” deals. The office supply company posted several deals on products, varying from flash drives to GPS units to laptops, and price cuts are as high as 50%.

3.) Banks narrowing their social media focus (American Banker) -- Though Twitter's service is designed to communicate with a vast, online audience, some financial companies are now using it to reach specific groups or even individuals, a sharp contrast to some early efforts that were more akin to e-mail spam.

4.) Seventy words of unconventional wisdom for 2010 (Harvard Business Review) -- What better way for business thinkers to celebrate the holiday season than with the gift of great ideas? As the year 2009 draws to a close, Seth Godin, the innovator, writer, and blogger extraordinaire, has persuaded 70 other innovators, writers, and bloggers to participate in a project he calls What Matters Now.

Doonsbury on Twitter

(Image credit: Doonsbury)
This morning's Doonsbury is a funny lense through which to view Twitter's impact on crisis communications and public opinion. Twitter is "the first rough draft of gossip," says Roland Hedley. Hard to disagree.

Help your employees with social media guidelines

*Today's post was first published in The Daily Record.

HENRY FAWELL
Special to The Daily Record
August 14, 2009

Ever raised an eyebrow at an employee’s off-color remark at the water cooler? Imagine if that employee walked out in to the street and shouted that same comment through a bullhorn.

Believe it or not, that happens every day on social media networks, where an employee’s musings can be read by thousands of people, often times with great consequences for an employer.

Case in point: In January, an executive from Ketchum Public Relations posted insulting comments about the city of Memphis on Twitter. The problem? He was in Memphis at the time and was hours away from pitching FedEx for new business.

FedEx caught wind of the comments and publicly denounced the executive, putting one of the world’s largest PR firms in the unenviable position of apologizing for its own PR gaffe.

Yet for every gaffe, there are countless examples of companies and employees using social media to improve their brands and best practices. So how do you, a manager, weigh the promise of social media with the perils it presents as a soapbox for anyone with Internet access?

Guidelines are key

The answer may lie in drafting guidelines for your employees. It’s no different than your company standards of conduct, and leading companies are now channeling their employees’ use of social media through clearly stated policies. Here are some tips to get you started:

Educate: Many of your employees have never used social media. So give them a primer. Host a presentation to educate them on common social media tools — Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook — and how they are changing the workplace and our lives.

When your employees understand the challenges and opportunities presented by social media, they’re more likely to see the value in a company policy.

Build guardrails: To help guide your team, define acceptable conduct in social media communities. For example, it’s appropriate to use social media to inform the public about your product or to correct inaccurate information about your company. It’s not appropriate to argue with customers on blogs or post content that reflects poorly on the employee or the company.

Call it the newspaper test: Your employees shouldn’t write anything online they wouldn’t want to read in tomorrow’s newspaper.

Be supportive: Encourage your team to explore social media. They’ll open new doors to professional development and strengthen your company’s marketing and reputation management efforts. They’ll put a human face on your company in an era when too many companies are perceived as cold and indifferent.

Designate a group of social media-savvy employees, starting with your communications and legal teams, to mentor your work force along the way.

Trust and Responsibility: The best corporate social media policies are built on trust and responsibility. Cisco, IBM, Yahoo!, and Intel have adopted policies that trust their employees to use social media in a productive manner while emphasizing that employees are personally responsible for what they publish.

Show them the way

Be transparent: Employees should be honest about their identity when participating in online conversations. To do otherwise is to invite needless risk.

Ask John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods. He sparked controversy in 2007 by criticizing a rival, Wild Oats Markets, under a fake name on online message boards. Even worse, he denied his true identity when confronted by online communities.

The misstep generated weeks of embarrassing headlines for Whole Foods and even caught the eye of the Federal Trade Commission.

Address “off the clock” activities: Employees don’t want their bosses dictating what they can and can’t publish online from the privacy of their own home. But addressing online activities outside the workplace is not without precedent if a company’s business interests are at risk.

Why? Because customers, investors and reporters can view most online commentary and photos. If a reporter sees a controversial comment from your employee on Twitter, the fact that it was published from a home computer doesn’t undo the damage to your company. Once again, the newspaper test applies.

Be realistic: You’ll never control everything your employees do online, nor should you want to. Remember, the goal is not to shut down an employee’s access to the information superhighway. It is to build guardrails that keep your team and your company from skidding off the freeway.

I am a firm believer in social media’s capacity to empower companies and their employees, and it’s only a matter of time before most of the work force has joined the online conversation. Whether they use it the right way or the wrong way is in no small part up to the executives who lead them.

Show them the way, and chances are good they’ll reward you.

Henry Fawell is a communications consultant for Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice PLLC in Baltimore and was press secretary for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. His column appears monthly, and his e-mail address is henry.fawell@wcsr.com

Survey: Companies fear social media liability

A well-timed survey from Russell Herder underscores that many businesses have failed to adopt social media policies in the workplace. According to the survey, more than 1 in 3 executives have no policy for employee use of sites like Twitter or blogs, yet nearly half of those executives fear social media use could damage the company's reputation. To view the full results, click here.

The survey is well-timed because Womble Carlyle is publishing a column on this subject tomorrow in The Daily Record. We'll outline a few steps executives can take if they are interested in channeling their workforce's use of social media through a clearly-stated policy. Stay tuned. We'll post the column on this blog tomorrow.

Tuesday's quick reads: car dealers & soda companies talk PR; word of mouth marketing takes off

1.) For Twitter, a tweet in time can avert a PR mess (The Wall Street Journal) -- A growing number of businesses are tracking social-media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter to gauge consumer sentiment and avert potential public-relations problems. Ford, PepsiCo, and Southwest Airlines, among others, are deploying software and assigning employees to monitor Internet postings and blogs. They're also assigning senior leaders to craft corporate strategies for social media.

2.) Car dealerships say PR push helped save them (The Chicago Tribune) -- Thomas McCaslin might never know for sure why General Motors called two weeks ago to say his 80-year-old dealership in the heart of Nebraska cattle country wouldn't close after all. He has a feeling that a hamburger cookout and an old-fashioned brand of political lobbying had something to do with it.

3.) Word of mouth marketing hits $1.5 billion (AdWeek) -- Now that's a lot of chatter. Spending behind word-of-mouth marketing hit $1.54 billion last year, according to PQ Media.

4.) How to pitch USA Today's bloggers (Ragan) -- USA Today’s blogs serve a triple purpose, says Chet Czarniak, the paper’s online managing editor. “They’re for surveillance—connecting the readers to the story,” and ensuring online readers can dig deeper into news, Czarniak explains. Second, blogs are for “getting ahead of a story,” or breaking news in a way that’s not practical or fast enough for print or elsewhere online.

Tuesday's quick reads: public trust in corporations, ghostwriting, and the personal touch

1.) Amassing a massive audience is rarely the right strategy. (Advertising Age) -- In the world of social media, scale is everything. Media darlings Twitter and Facebook boast, what, 30 sextillion members? It's enough to cause marketers to practically foam at the mouth. But is scale really everything?

2.) Survey: Trust in corporations increasing modestly. (Politico/Public Strategies) -- A new polls shows that trust in government has decreased since March, while trust in businesses has generally improved. Voters are also more inclined to believe business (68%) will play a larger role than government (32%) in the nation’s economic recovery.

3.) Lest we forget, a personal touch still matters. (Advertising Age) -- Marketing blogs are often trumpeting "digital-this" and "social networking-that." The Twitterverse is constantly buzzing, and Facebook updates come faster than e-mails. A writer asks: what happened to the personal touch?

4.) Senator probes medical journals for ghostwriting (Medical Media & Marketing) -- Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) asked eight journals to provide information about their medical ghostwriting practices and policies, in an effort to “shed light on the role companies may play in the dissemination of information about their products through medical literature.”

Monday's quick reads: Wells Fargo on social media, Wall Street's reputation management

1.) CEO's urged to do more online (The Washington Times) -- A new study says top CEOs should do a better job managing their presence on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Wikipedia.

2.) Selling health care? Watch what you say (The Washington Post) -- A psychologist reminds Washington that buzzwords send messages, but they may not always be the messages we intend.

3.) Wells Fargo on social media engagement during financial crisis (The Blog Council) -- Wells Fargo's VP for Social Media Engagement discusses the bank's decision to embrace new communications tools during the financial crisis.

4.) Wall Street responds to "populist outrage" (Bloomberg) -- Wall Street’s largest trade group has started a campaign to counter the “populist” backlash against bankers, enlisting two former aides to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to spearhead the effort.

Interview: Anne Arundel Medical Center enters the social media space

We're doing things a bit differently today.

A few readers have suggested we start posting Q & A's with communications professionals who will take us "under the hood" at their organizations and show us what they are doing to influence public opinion in positive ways. We've been wanting to do it for some time as well, so let's get started.

Today's Q & A is with Justin Paquette, media coordinator for Anne Arundel Medical Center. AAMC is a private, non-profit health center in Annapolis, Maryland with nearly 3,000 employees. By way of background, AAMC staff performs more than 22,000 surgical procedures and handles more than 72,000 emergency service visits per year, as of 2007. (AAMC is not a client of Womble Carlyle's.)

Justin was kind enough to give us some perspective on how AAMC has embraced social media in recent months to reach its stakeholders in new and creative ways. Here's our Q & A:

1. Describe the new communications tools AAMC is using to communicate with its audience.

Justin Paquette: AAMC is in a position many hospitals find themselves in – where we must balance new media with traditional media in our overall marketing mix. A recent survey conducted by the organization Ad-ology found that 53 percent of patients between the ages of 25 and 34 had their health care decisions influenced by social media. Yet, many patients are still influenced by traditional media and advertising.

So we’re trying to find that balance where we’re effectively communicating AAMC’s message in a number of different ways – reaching each “audience niche.”

Some of the new tools we’ve implemented are podcasts featuring the AAMC clinicians our region has come to trust. We call it the AAMC Health Connection Podcast, and it’s updated regularly, and archived on our Web site. We’re the second hospital in Maryland to feature original podcast programming.

We’ve also launched AAMC’s Twitter account, @AAMCNews, a running stream of AAMC News, as well as health care articles from news sites across the country.

I’m currently conducting some research into the feasibility/ROI of a running blog from our administration over the next fiscal year, updating our audience on AAMC news, events, and updates.

2. What value do Facebook, Twitter, and podcasts offer AAMC that you didn’t have before? How does it benefit your patients and other AAMC stakeholders?

JP: New media and the power of the internet have allowed any brand to become, in a sense, its own media franchise. New media also allows an unprecedented level of message preservation; direct from the source.

You can compare this to going and picking your own fruit, straight from the field. New media allows AAMC to push our clinicians, news, and updates directly to our audience.

I said this in a recent interview, there is a lot of anonymity that comes with using the internet for information. And in health care, that anonymity can be scary. But AAMC is a brand our audience has come to trust, so we’re able to break through that anonymity, and supply health care information that our audience can know is reliable, because it carries the AAMC brand.

3. If AAMC has something to say, couldn’t you just send out a press release?

JP: Well we can, and do, use press releases to push out AAMC news. Right now, AAMC’s new media efforts are just an addition to the overall hospital marketing mix.

But newsroom cuts, shrinking news holes, and increased syndication have really limited the role newspapers are able to play in pushing out news. Many of the journalists and editors that AAMC has worked with are unfortunately, no longer in those roles. We still enjoy great relationships with the local/regional/state media, but they can only dedicate so much room to any given organization or business. So by making our Web site, http://www.aahs.org/ a “news hub” of its own, and by using all these new tools, we can get our own message out.

I’ll give you a quick example – just the other day I called a Maryland paper to pitch a story to their health reporter – and she was getting married the next week. She was the sole reporter who could handle this story, and was going to be out for two weeks. The story couldn’t be done by them, even though it fell right in the strike zone of their audience.

4. How did you sell the broader AAMC leadership – administrators, doctors, etc. – on the value of these new communications tools? Have they embraced this new strategy?

JP: AAMC has an administration that is consistently on the forefront of strategic decisions that will benefit those that the hospital serves. While we are still in the early stages of adopting new technology and new methods of reaching our audience, our administration has, thus far, been open to new ideas.

The hardest part for any organization, including ours, is measuring any value of these new services. Traditionally, we’ve been able to point to an article in the Baltimore Sun, for example, and know that we’ve succeeded with a given pitch. But with new media, that ROI is harder to measure. We need new metrics, new measurement.

In addition, for a hospital (and any brand) limits have to be implemented with any social media service. For example, on our Twitter account, I have expressly noted on our profile that a “follow” is not an endorsement. I set this protection because while we want AAMC to be in the health care conversation, we need to be sure our audience knows that we cannot advocate for what others are posting on their accounts. Just like in any other conversation, we can only be responsible for what we say.

But one example, I recently used Twitter to push out a link to the article from the Annapolis Capital discussing our podcast launch. That “tweet” was “re-tweeted” by six others in the first hour after my initial post. Suddenly, hundreds of eyes that we would never have reached were viewing this article, and pushing it on. That viral component is where the power of new media lies.

5. What has been the response – from patients, the press, and the broader public – to this new communications strategy?

JP: Answering for our patients at this point is hard – but I can tell you that the web hits on our podcast landing pages are climbing, so we know people are listening. That has been encouraging.

As for the press, I’ve actually been interacting with a number of reporters via Twitter and have been really excited about the back-and-forth that has generated as a result. Reporters and editors are using Twitter for story ideas, and it’s such a unique way to get in touch with them.

Our physicians have been excited about the podcasts, as well – I’m already getting calls from clinicians on our medical staff saying, “I saw the new podcasts, and would love to talk about such-and-such, a question I hear in my office all the time.” And that is exactly the response we were hoping to get.

6. Does adopting social media and podcasts mean you no longer need to focus on “traditional” public relations, i.e. journalists, advertising, and community relations?

JP: I don’t believe so. I think new media at this point is merely an addendum to utilization of traditional media. Members of the audience any brand is trying to reach lie in a number of different places. It’s our job to use as many different methods as we can to reach those people, and communicate with them.

In his book What Would Google Do, Jeff Jarvis cites a conversation he heard at a forum where someone asked the founder of Facebook a question like: “How do I get my audience to communicate with me?” And the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg answered back something to the effect of: “They’re already talking about you; you just need to go to where they are.” Not the conversation verbatim, but it was a great response from a leader in new media to someone trying to figure it all out.

7. Some say that sites like Twitter and Facebook let organizations “take the pulse” of the public on specific issues. Can you give a specific example of what AAMC has learned by “taking the pulse” of the online public?

JP: Via Twitter, I learned from the general public that nobody knows what HCAHPS is. HCAHPS is an incredibly valuable patient satisfaction tool. This confirmed to me that, as a PR professional, my job is to help the public understand the utility of this tool, what it means and how it’s measured. And most importantly, how it impacts them.

8. What advice would you give an organization – particularly another medical center – that is unsure whether to make social media a part of its communications strategy?

JP: It may seem simple, but I would say: Embrace new media carefully and always put the brand before anything else. Do your research, learn the tools, and learn how to use them in a way that will benefit you.

Monday's quick reads: hospitals, utilities, and internal communications

1.) Chicago utility strives for positive news coverage (PR Daily) -- The Northern Illinois and Chicago electric company ComEd usually gets calls from customers and the media only when the power’s out. To counter that problem, the utility's PR team developed a four-prong approach to pitching stories that will create an enduring positive profile.

2.) An aggressive PR strategy helps save a hospital (Albany Business Review) -- Bellevue Woman's Hospital's story contains lessons for business leaders caught up in a capricious economic environment. The former CEO's primary advice, when faced with bad news, is to react quickly and truthfully, and to be both consistent and persistent in telling your story.

3.) How CEOs can rally the troops in bad times (PR Daily) -- When times are tough, it’s natural for leaders to want to rally the troops with some hopeful and reassuring words. However, ignoring the grim reality doesn’t win over the listeners—it makes them wonder what planet the executive is living on.

4.) Got a political career? Don't tweet it away. (The Washington Post) -- Recent political controversies demonstrate that any medium that encourages instant reactions dashed off on a BlackBerry or iPhone and condensed into 140 characters is a recipe for disaster in the political arena.

Steve Case makes his case on the Time Warner/AOL split

(Photo credit: Business Week)
Time Warner announced this morning that it would part ways with AOL, officially ending a marriage that was hailed in 2000 as a merger for the ages between giants of "old" and "new" media.

Of note is how Steve Case, former AOL chairman and architect of the merger, chose to make his views known about the break-up. Case didn't call a friendly reporter (as far as I can tell) or pen an op-ed. Instead, he used Twitter to articulate why he believes the merger failed.

The fact that Case chose a micro-blogging site signals the continuing migration of business leaders to sites that allow them to communicate directly with the public, free of interference or potential misinterpretation from reporters.

Here are some highlights from Case, who wrote in 8 short bursts between 8:28 a.m. and 9:28 a.m:

"My perspective on AOL & Time Warner: has been a long, tortuous journey - and after a difficult decade, its time to open new chapter."

"Merger could've been transformative: driven convergence of TV/Internet/phone, ushered in digital music & video, etc.

"But synergy didn't happen. Didn't integrate businesses to drive innovation. Lots of missed opportunities."

"AOL not what it was a decade ago, to be sure. Uphill battle to return to greatness. But doable. Wish the team at AOL the very best!"

"Thomas Edison: 'Vision without execution is hallucination' - pretty much sums up AOL/TW - failure of leadership (myself included)."

Case did more than simply reach the 12,500 people who follow him on Twitter. He reached millions more when his Twitter followers posted his comments for their own networks to read and when the Associated Press included his tweets in a wire story, meaning that Case's comments are bound for publication in newspapers across the country.

Twitter also allowed him to articulate a message exactly as he wanted without the possibility of slipping up or being misquoted.

Case isn't the only business leader or personality to use Twitter to influence public opinion. Venture capitalists, airlines, computer companies, and financial advisers are just a few of the other industries integrating online communities in to their broader communications strategy. Readers of this blog would be wise to consider whether their company should do the same.

Monday's quick reads: Dell, reputation management, and Twitter

1.) Banks continue to suffer image problems (PR Week) -- The JD Power & Associates 2009 Retail Banking Satisfaction Study finds that the brand image of the nation’s retail banks continues to decline. According to the survey, only 35% of customers are highly committed to their bank, down from 37% last year, and 41% in 2007.

2.) IPREX and corporations talk reputation management (PR Week) -- Executives from major companies discussed how corporate reputations have been affected by the financial crisis, including relationships with CEOs, social media, and consumers’ trust in brands.

3.) Dell confirms product launch rumors on blog (The Blog Council) -- When Dell’s Lionel Menchaca discovered that there was speculation on the popular tech blog Engadget about a new computer that Dell was getting ready to release, he clarified the rumors and made the announcement official on the Dell blog.

4.) To tweet, or not to tweet? For execs, that is the question (Boston Business Journal) -- Edward Boches, chief creative officer at the ad agency Mullen, recently wrote a blog post titled “10 Reasons why every CEO has to get on Twitter now.”

Monday's quick reads: Chevron, 60 Minutes, and Twitter

1.) When Chevron hires ex-reporter to investigate pollution, Chevron looks good (New York Times) -- What did Chevron do when it learned that “60 Minutes” was preparing a potentially damaging report about oil company contamination of the Amazon in Ecuador? It hired a former journalist to produce a mirror image of the report, from the corporation’s point of view.

2.) What's the right corporate policy for Twitter, Facebook, and blogs? (Business Week) -- Check out how Business Week journalists approach engaging their readers online.

3.) Gifts for reporters? Don't bother. (Ragan) -- If you think chocolate and flowers are the way to a reporter's heart, think again.

4.) CEOs who use Twitter (Business Week) -- In August 2008 Business Week reported on 18 chief executives who use the microblogging application Twitter to clue customers in on new services, help them with questions about their products, and generally get a little bit personal with customers, business associates, and the public.Not even a year later, Business Week bring you nearly 50 CEOs who find tweeting a personal and professional delight.

Swine flu highlights perils and promise of social media

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.

Swine flu and crisis communications

(Photo credit: AP)

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.

We'll be watching with interest.

Monday's quick reads

1.) Ignore Twitter? Major bands learn they better respond...and quick (Los Angeles Times) -- Separate incidents involving CNN, Amazon and Domino's Pizza reveal that fluency in the evolving language of digital public relations comes easier to some companies than others.

2.) Tweeting becomes a job opportunity (New York Times) -- Pizza Hut is looking for Summer Twinterns — i.e. a summer intern who uses Twitter — to aid the company in social media outreach.

3.) Americans blame ad agencies, media for economic crisis (Harris Interactive) -- Two-thirds of Americans believe ad agencies have at least some responsibility for the current economic crisis because they caused people to buy things they couldn’t afford, according to a new poll.

4.) How to handle a public relations crisis (Mass High Tech) -- Apple's cease and desist order against a start up highlights how companies can use blogs and social media to influence public opinion.