Some of the most insightful tips provided by public relations heavyweight experts at the recent Frocomm Crisis Communication & Social Media Summit 2009 related to specific social media tools that are of utility. This post talks about how ‘dark’ websites, videos, forums and Twitter can be of use during a crisis.

Ogilvy’s Brian Giesen, Edleman’s Amanda Little, Howorth’s Graham White, Scaffidi Hugh-Jones’ Rupert Hugh-Jones, SR|7’s James Griffin were amongst the PR thought leaders whose advice is captured below, whilst a previous post discussed social media crisis communication themes such as human resources and messaging, advertising and monitoring.

There is a truncated version of this post. I thought it worth going into greater detail on the tactical elements the public relations leaders named above shared with all of us. This post is part of an extended series covering the summit. All the coverage is also available in a free PDF report that you are welcome to share with your colleagues and peers.

Website

• ‘Dark’ websites – whether using Wordpress or another digital format – can feature pre-prepared information in a pre-prepared format that can quickly be customised and turned ‘live’ when a crisis hits
  • Pre-registered URLs can also help (e.g. KentuckyFriedChickenresponds.com)
  • Make sure the content is made easily sharable through incorporating applications such as Digg, Technorati, Facebook etc
  • A webcast of organisational statements can be uploaded, making for a ‘media conference’ that can be accessed at any time by any media anywhere (important in a global context where social/digital media facilitates worldwide coverage). The webcast should be formatted so that it can be embedded in blogs as per standard YouTube videos.

Video and forums

• Video is a messaging tool of high utility; YouTube is a search engine of significance in its own right, whilst plenty of people prefer to learn/understand from watching footage rather than reading
• Forums are particularly applicable to Australia, so focus on them, whilst Australians have not engaged with blogs as much as in some other countries (though a few people I know are sceptical of this claim re forums, so it may be specific to certain sectors, such as fashion and IT)

Twitter

• Twitter is good at getting the message out, though it clearly cannot be relied upon in isolation:
  • It needs to be part of an holistic social media crisis management and stakeholder engagement ‘package’
  • Further advice on Twitter was to make sure you direct message (DM) people who make comments, but do it strategically. Some comments you need to let go through to the keeper whilst it may be prudent to engage with some twitterers (or tweeters…) to, firstly, nullify/correct disinformation and, secondly, either though asking or hoping (!) for corrected information to be tweeted out through the individual’s network.
  • When transmitting issue response tweets, link to more comprehensive content on your website
  • Always correct disinformation about the issue. Incorrect information, especially if it is inflammatory or ‘bad news sexy’, will probably be a hotter online ticket than good news. Just ask the media on that point. But don’t be condescending when making the correction
  • Don’t engage with bloggers who want money to cover the issue in a positive light. Instead, as with traditional media, offer them access to unique information or spokespeople. Emphasise this gives them additional credibility for their blog and can facilitate more eyeballs for them
  • Social media is useful for media relations, too, as through a mechanism like Twitter you can determine which media is driving online comment. You can then make an informed decision to place more resources in addressing that specific media source and customising a response/content to ameliorate the reputational damage it might be generating
  • As such, it is important to follow negative as well as positive comment about your brand on an ongoing basis as well as, of course, in a crisis situation
  • Lots of journos are on Twitter so can be good way of cutting through the barriers (i.e. which could be something as simple as the multi-tasking pressure journalists themselves are under in crisis coverage/analysis) and engaging with them
  • The future for Twitter (from Graham White): it will find its role; will probably need to monetise in one way or another, with an example of this being charging corporates being followed once they reach a certain level (e.g. 20,000 followers etc).

[Ogilvy have bookmarked some useful resources on Twitter.]

Further sage words of advice from Craig Badings, of Cannings, just in case anyone was fool enough to consider thinking it was possible: “You don’t make friends during a crisis.”

There are two points to make about this:

• In a crisis, aim to minimise the increased amount of enemies you make
• Look at it as an opportunity to form a solid base of stakeholders who, whilst they may not be in a swoon over your organisation at the conclusion (if there ever really is such a thing from a branding perspective) of the crisis, at least there is solid, respectful ground on which to form new, and renewed, positive, mutually beneficial relationships.

What do you think of this advice? What approaches have you taken that can add value to crisis communication using social media tools?

This post is part of an extended series covering the summit. All the coverage is also available in a free PDF report that you are welcome to share with your colleagues and peers. As a return favour for providing this resource, and only – of course – if you think the content is worthwhile, perhaps you could tweet about it or flag it on one of your social media networking sites, such as LinkedIn.

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