Crisis Communication - The Best Offense is the Best Defense

This week many homes around the country celeb rated the Thanksgiving Day Holiday.  Families gathered to enjoy home cooked food, catch up with other family members, and probably spend  some money during the the busiest shopping day of the year, Black Friday.  Many stores opened on Thanksgiving Day offering special deals to those early bird shoppers, other stores decided to have traditional Black Friday shopping hours, opening early in the morning on Friday.  Thanks to smartphones and social media there are hundreds of videos of people going a little too far during their Black Friday shopping.  In many videos you see people scrambling for the “hot buys” and door busters. In a video this year, you see a woman snatching an item that a young child was holding during a Black Friday shopping spree. Imagine you’re a communication professional for one of those retailers and as your team monitors your social media presence a movement begins against Black Friday shopping. It starts with the video on YouTube and the comments quickly begin to mount. Then a hashtag on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is started and the conversation quickly builds with anti-Black Friday slogan.  Are you ready to handle a social media crisis?  Are your crisis communication and reputation management plans ready to dust off the shelves and put into effect?

Let’s look at a few ways to make sure you are prepared to handle a crisis communication situation.

In Young and Flowers (2012) analysis of the 2009 Domino’s Pizza social media crisis where two employees defaced several sandwiches and pizza, they site the power of YouTube, “Burgess and  Green  (2009)  explain  that  YouTube  users  engage  with  this medium  “as  if  it  is  a  space  specifically  designed  for  them  and  that  should therefore  serve  their  own  particular  interests”  (p.  vii).  This can have enormous  positive  or  negative  impacts  for  organizations  involved  in  crisis management,  including  but  not  limited  to  the  inability  of  boundary spanners  to  monitor  the  vastness  of  this  space;  malicious  users  who  might create  a crisis; and  the leveraging capabilities of  this platform  to enhance a brand  during  a  crisis.  Meaning that YouTube has the power to create a crisis and, when used appropriately, manage a brands reputation during the crisis. 

Similarly, The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) used a similar approach during the outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus. Though the crisis was not created through social media, the CDC utilized the medium to communicate to the general public to warn and educate about the spread of the virus (Walton, Seitz, Ragsdale, 2012).

What any good strategic communicator should tell you is the need, better yet, requirement, of creating a crisis communication plan as the first step. Neil Chapman, who worked with BP during their gulf spill, said in a YouTube interview that the oil and gas industry is continually holding crisis drills to ensure all levels of the company are prepared for the inevitable crisis. And for those reading who think a crisis will not happen to their company, you are mistaken. It is only a matter of time. I don’t mean to be cliché, but it’s not if, it’s when. You cannot plan for every single crisis situation, but to create a plan with clear communication lines, understanding who is making the decisions during the crisis, who is the spokesperson, are there multiple? In the case of the BP spill, Chapman explains that all the talking points went out to every single employee, because reporters were coming up to employees on the beaches during the clean up process and asking questions on the spot. Instead of limiting them to canned responses and referring back to a communications professional, BP utilized its employees to reinforce the message of what the company was doing to fix the problem that was created.

As social media and mobile technology continues to engulf the majority of adults, planning to respond to a crisis born on social media requires planning as well and the leadership to guide the process.   

In Wooten and James (2008) analysis of linking crisis communication and leadership they share the important of planning as a precursor to responding to a crisis situation, “As business environments change and grow increasingly complex, it is particularly important that leaders develop a set of skills that will help them prevent and effectively respond to crisis and other strategic issues (Garcia, 2006; Mitroff, 2005).”

In an article in The Wall Street Journal by former CEO of Medtronic, Bill George, he describes several lessons on how to be a leader during a crisis. In his sixth lesson, George says to “Never waste a good crisis.” He suggests that when things are going well within a business it is much harder to usher in change.  A crisis allows a leader to bring about change, with the added benefit that the implementation process is generally faster during a crisis.    

Analyzing the situation when a crisis breaks is important, to verify if the crisis is legitimate is key to determine if crisis protocol needs to be implemented. As in Domino’s Pizza crisis, when the YouTube video sprang up, restaurant officials waited 24 hours before responding. The reason was to evaluate if the video was real. They went through the evaluation process with two objective watchdog groups who helped confirm the situation and bring it Domino’s attention (Walton, Seitz and Ragsdale, 2012). To me, in the social media age we live in, stakeholders demand a quick response to situations. There is a fine line that has to be walked when evaluating a crisis and responding. The question is do you loose valuable response time while evaluating a crisis. Working with your crisis communication leadership team, you will need to make the best decision for the current situation.

So with a little more knowledge about crisis communication, will you work with your organization to create a plan to prepare?  

Delivering Your Message in a Digital World

Message placement and delivery options within have grown tremendously over the last several years with the increase in online advertising. And according to an All Thing Digital article from 2013, Google’s Senior Vice President and chief business officer Nikesh Arora, predicts that “over 50 percent of advertising goes online in the next five years.”  CNET stated that within the first six months of 2012 Google generated $20.8 billion in ad revenue, compared to the entire U.S. print media which generated $19.2 billion. Additionally, according to Ad Age, U.S. digital advertising revenue grew by 19 percent to $27.5 billion in the first six months of this year. The way advertisers, marketers and we as strategic communicators deliver and place our messages requires us to think more strategically in how we execute the task.

Traditional advertising includes print, radio, and television. While what is called nontraditional, although it is becoming more and more “traditional” as it becomes standard practice, emerging media such as display ads, search engine marketing, location-based advertising and more are being utilized. Advertisers are becoming more pull oriented than push.

    

“The exercise of “push” media addresses audiences comparatively imperiously, while “pull” media strategically accords liberty and complies with the interactive choice that ensues” (Serazio, 2010).  The shift that is occurring in today’s marketing and advertising world is the change from push media, which represents a TV ad where the message and product is almost forced upon an individual, to pull media where companies are taking great measures to engage in pull advertising.

The idea is harnessing word-of-mouth-marketing and consumer generated content to a company’s advantage. If a message is shared peer-to-peer, rather than the company itself, there is a greater chance for action from the individual. An example of this includes seeing a newspaper ad for a new restaurant. You might see that ad 10 times over two weeks and it never really triggered any response from you. Now let’s say a co-worker starts talking about that same restaurant and share a positive experience they had at the restaurant.  Now, there’s a greater chance you will try out that business because you trust your co-worker more than a paid advertisement.

Now what if I told you that co-worker was paid by that restaurant to do what its print ads could not. Provide a positive story about the business and generate interest and ultimately business through word-of-mouth-marketing. In the technologically driven society we live in, more and more companies are experimenting with orchestrating organic business or product mentions. “Thus, once more, “discovery” comes to the forefront as a conceptual model for marketing management, supposedly legitimating a scenario whereby the consumer draws out information without feeling like has been forced upon her – a regime of engagement reliant upon creating an environment for a “pull” mechanism while still “pushing” in an underhanded, even passive-aggressive way” (Serazio, 2010, pg. 236).  Meaning, it is the natural progression of an everyday conversation that leads to the promotion of the restaurant, not because you want to hear an ad, but about real life.  Traditional (TV, print, radio) ads automatically make individuals defensive because a message being placed in front of them that may not have any relevance to their interest. The pull mechanism in this instance is the unsolicited advice from a co-worker. Moreover, a Forrester Research study found that 70 percent of consumer are strongly affected by customer review and ratings when making a decision to purchase a product of service.

In my experience I’ve heard and seen marketing agencies integrate consumer-generated content into their campaigns for the reasons listed above, higher message saturation.  When an ad campaign invites you to share your experiences or take a picture with your favorite soft drink next to landmarks in your city or town, companies will then turn to use those images as a way to reinforce their brand.  Companies are very selective about which content they use during a user generated campaign. They want to make sure the image used reflects their brand and its target market.

Trending advertising delivery methods include location-based advertising, contextual and behavior targeting.  Location-based advertising is where an individual receives specific ads depending on their location. An example includes receiving sale information about clothes when you walk past a retail store in a shopping mall. Contextual advertising is where your message will be delivered on a website and through mobile apps that have the same type of content relevant to your audience. For example, I placed an ad for a private religious school that was delivered on religious news websites. The reasoning behind this approach is there is a greater chance a website visitor will interact with the ad if they find the ad relevant to the content they are viewing. Behavioral advertising the process of tracking your activity online and discovering the places you visit and interaction. You may have seen this when you were shopping for clothes, digital camera or computer/tablet. You may have just been researching products, but did not purchase. Now you have an ad for that product following you around for a few days reminding you of that product or service, that is behavioral targeting.

For strategic communicators, we have to find ways to deliver our company’s message effectively. It’s more than just a news release and trying to get media coverage. That is a small part of the equation. Delivering a message could mean paid advertising, as well as earned media. It could mean creating a user generated content campaign to engage with an audience. Modern technology is wonderful, because we can now reach so many people, but we can also be very strategic in reaching specific audiences. It has also made the work of strategic communicators more complex, requiring flexibility.

Tracking your message is often overlooked, but any good communication professional should be evaluating their strategy. Through digital advertising efforts, we can better track an individual through the sales funnel or buying process, thanks to reporting from digital ads. One of the greatest benefits of digital advertising is its ability to, almost in real-time, see the progress of an individual interacting with an ad. The key is reviewing the data and analyzing it to better understand your potential customer. I didn’t want to close this post without mentioning tracking, because it is an important part of evaluating a strategy. 

Oh Where, O Where, Have Our Leaders Gone?

Leadership is about vision, getting people to buy into that vision and empowering others to execute the vision, according to an article by John Kotter in the Harvard Business Review.  Often times leadership is mistaken as management, but management is more about the process and operations of a business. Leaders are needed to help move organizations forward. They set paths for visions that are challenging, and they should be, according to a Forbes.com article.

Recently I was able to catch up with a former classmate of mine who has been living overseas for a number of years.  He is currently working on his Ph.D. in accounting at a university in New Zealand. His research is geared more toward how social effects accounting has on business (I’m simplifying his research significantly, so please forgive me if you’re reading this friend), but his vision about sharing this information leads me to see him as a leader.  His biggest question is about how to share his research in a timely fashion, but questions whether the traditional media model is going by the wayside, including peer reviewed journals. His vision includes a multifaceted approach to sharing scholarly research through digital mediums, while still satisfying requirements for being a published academic.

What makes my friend a leader is that he sees the future of peer reviewed journals and wants to find a way to keep the industry relevant. He asked me if he should take a communication or public relations class to help him get a better sense of the industry. I told him that he is already a leader by having a vision of a problem and a potential way to fix it.

The amount of time leaders spend setting the vision is low. According to a Harvard Business Review article, researchers say that leaders spend only about 3% of their time setting vision and enlistment. This means we need to produce and train leaders and potential leaders the importance of spending time to create vision to aspire to.

To me, strategic communication is the practice of setting a vision and getting others to follow and achieve the common the goals. As a professional communicator, in order to distinguish myself as a leader means that I have provide a strategic vision. Currently, I’m working on redoing my organizations advertising messaging. Part of my directive for my advertising agency include creating messaging that can be recycled or slightly altered to ensure the ads have a long shelf life.

Our last set of ads ran for three years and so due to expense and message alignment, my goal is to keep the new set of fresh ads for the next three years. Part of the change of messaging includes evaluating the current competition and finding what will make our organization stand out amongst the crowd.

Hopefully, by creating a vision of where we want to be with our organization within the next five years will help position our communication efforts for the better. This includes a vision for my organization’s internal communication efforts. Currently, we do not have the ability to communicate with all teachers and staff at various private schools within the system. A vision that I have, and the rest of my office, includes using technology to reach our internal audience of teachers. My vision is within two years we will have the ability to reach all teachers without any stipulations. My goal is to increase communication with our internal audiences to help create conversations and hear feedback that can be used to improve campuses for the better. Opening up bottom up communication, listening, and implementing specific feedback will build and reinforce trust with this audience.

We need more leaders in our world to continue to progress not only organizations and businesses, but move humanity forward. There’s a great quote from the 1995 movie The American President about leadership. Check it out at the clip below to hear the quote.

The absence of leadership forces companies to living project-to-project with no greater vision. Let’s make concentrated efforts to create vision for our organizations, and ourselves to lead us to the future.

Internal Communication - Don't forget your employees

Internal communication is an aspect communications that many businesses fail to execute appropriately.  The focus for management most often is external audiences to ensure customers and outside stakeholders are informed about organization products or services. I propose an organization should focus on their internal audience as research shows that a better informed internal group helps to achieve company goals in the long run.  Additionally, Shein (1994) found effective communication between individuals builds a strong organization culture. Establishing positive patterns in internal and external communication can result in reducing dysfunctionalism within an organization (Parson, 2012). So what are some ways you can implement some changes to help improve internal communication.

Open up company communication
Encourage communication across the the entire company to help open up ideas and increase trust within the company. In Korea, a division of LG setup an internal Twitter-like system where messages could be sent to other employees, questions could be asked and answered.  Although some within management were concerned it would turn into a gossip mill, in the end it helped increase communication between its employees. Not all companies will have ability to create its own Twitter-like micro-blogging platform, but there are free alternatives available, depending on the size of your business.

Check out programs like Instant Messenger, Google’s Hangouts, and iMessage which are some of the more popular programs. The idea is get employees talking. Long gone are the days of employees working in silos. Cross functional communication leads to more successful teams contributing to increasing horizontal communication. Google has done a great job listening to employees and fostering ideas that have helped to company grow exponentially. Ideas including Gmail, Google Talk, AdSense and others were created by listening to ideas Google’s employees had.

Listening is a very important part of internal communications in, and data about listening proves that. Kline (2008) said of the 70 percent of time we are awake, we spend 45 percent of that time listening. So nearly half of the time individuals are awake, we are engaged in listening.  Effective listening is harder then it sounds, but with technologies available in today’s modern business world, it is easier to listen to your employees.

Increasing vertical communication, communication between managers and employees, is also important to create transparency, harness the wisdom of the crowd and track employee suggestions, according to a Fast Company article.  Management can increase communication through emails, newsletters, meetings, memos and more.

Measure your results
As with any undertaking within business, you have to prove success of a program. Be sure to measure results of your internal communication efforts. So how do you accomplish this and show management your efforts as a strategic communicator are worth it?

Measure employee satisfaction. Survey your employees to obtain quantitive data to learn how happy they are in the their job. Ideally, if you can survey before you start your internal communication efforts to get your baseline reading, then survey again after a few months, hopefully you will see an increase in happiness.

Review your retention rate of employees. If you have less turnover, then that helps the organization’s bottomline and means employees are more happy to stay. Lastly, work with you finance and HR team to analyze sales and employee production, all of which should increase with improved internal communications.

A strong message begins from within
For professional communicators, we often have to share information with the media and other external audiences.  Communicating a message that is consistent, especially about a certain topic or situation supports a united front mentality and helps to reinforce the message you want to send to the public. Often though, internal audiences are left off the talking points list and if a reporters gets to an employee, the worst thing that can happen is to have them say, “I have no idea, they don’t tell us anything about what’s going on.” Informing your employees on the latest company news prior to, or at the same time as the public is the first step to cultivating one of your most powerful assets.

An example of this is a crisis situation where a college football rivalry came to a tipping point when one crazed fan from the University of Alabama poisoned a set of  trees in a sacred spot on the Auburn University campus. The trees had been part of a long tradition at the school and were just as sacred as Bevo in Texas or Boomer and Sooner in Oklahoma. Throughout the crisis, which drew national media attention, both universities looked to reduce the chances of further violence, inform their stakeholders, including students, faculty and staff (internal audience), alumni and the general public (Waters 2012). As part of the communication plan, all staff members speaking with the media were provided similar talking points so that no matter if they were football coach, athletic director, dean of students or the president of the university, the message was clear and consistent across the board. The information presented to the universities’ internal audience was so that all were well informed of the ongoing situation and acknowledged that students had the power to reduce chances of retaliation. By the end of the crisis, both universities were able to deflect blame of the incidence, the crazed fan was not tied to  Alabama in any way, and there was a joint effort to continue a competitive, yet civil, rivalry.

Leadership sets the example
So what’s the next step after your company has encouraged communication both horizontally and vertically and has listened to employees.  Now it’s up to your leadership to bring it home. Staff in the upper echelons of the company need to act on what they preach to employees. As you have opened up the gates to suggestions and new ideas, leadership should review all the information and support managers and supervisors as they look to implement the increase in internal communication. Internal communication is very much a collaborative effort. It is not just a top down web, the web of communication should be in every direction to support internal communication, which hopefully will result in a positive organizational culture.