Crisis Communication in the Digital Age

18 February 2011

Jane Jordan-Meier • President of Jane Jordan & Associates • Co-founder of Media Skills, international

media training consultancy • Author of “The Four Highly Effective

Stages of Crisis Management: How to Manage the Media in a Crisis” (March, 2011)

• Pioneered four-stage approach to crisis management adopted in Australia, New Zealand and North America

Thh Dhhhhhh Ahh

Overview: Digital Media meets Crisis Communication

• Social Media, the “new normal” for crisis communication • Plans flawed, incomplete without social media • Media follow predictable patterns in a crisis • Top Dog not always best •Trust is the “new black” • Plan with “end in mind”

Thh Dhhhhhh Ahh

What is a Crisis?

• A show-stopping, people-stopping, event-stopping, country-stopping event

• Media spotlight is firmly on you, your brand, your response

• Significant business interruption • Single moment in time • ALL crises have TRIGGERING events

What Can We Learn?

Why Crisis Communication has

changed forever

Thh Dhhhhhh Ahh

The New Normal

• Lightning fast, 24X7, no deadlines • People rally on-line in a crisis • Disaster information is one of most highly forwarded or

retweeted info • Everyone a spokesperson

– power of citizen journalist, power of one to power of many

• Web – more credibility • Direct communication (Qld Police) • Searching & monitoring more powerful than ever

Predictable Patterns in Reporting

• Technology may have redefined media landscape, but patterns still apparent

• “Last big thing, next big thing” – ST Factor, Context

• News coverage of a crisis follows specific narratives; expect “certain narratives to appear at certain times.”

The Stages of a Crisis

Fact Finding Drama Unfolding

Blame/Finger Pointing Fallout/Resolution

Fact Finding

Stage One:“What” • First news most breaks on social media, particularly Twitter &

YouTube – New police scanner – New “vox pops” – “There is news, there is insight and then there is Twitter. It’s my feed to

the second by second pulse of life” (Guardian reporter)

• Need Twitter templates, plan in place - Test in training/drills

• Monitor all relevant consumer generated media, not just traditional media

• Establish # (hash tag)

Must Respond within first “golden” hour

Stage Two: “How”

Focus on “victim” and response 'Save Dave' Campaign Goes Global as Macquarie Investigates 'Set-Up'

• Facebook comes into play, viral • Dirt digging, back-fill • Crowdsourcing • Compare and contrast

What’s your back-story? “Skeletons” will be revealed

A client advisor, a model

and a bank!

• David Kiely, Macquarie Bank ogles supermodel Miranda Kerr during live cross to bank trading room

• Kiely, Kerr and Macquarie Bank become Internet sensations - 13.7 million hits on “Lord” Google, - YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, MSM - London-based Here Is The City campaigns for Dave

• “Hopefully Mac Bank will see this for what it is - trivial. And think about all that free publicity!”

• “I used to work with Dave, and he is definitely a good bloke. The pics were harmless, and Mac Bank should stand by him”

• “I'm not a banker, but I have joined the campaign regardless. The guy doesn't deserve to be dismissed!”

Stage Three Blame/Finger Pointing: “Why?”

• Blame, “told-you so” game • Looking for scapegoats • Ridicule in cartoons • Avoid airing dirty-laundry in public • Highlight quick wins

If you speak now, prepare for battle!

Too Slow

• Two rogue employees do really nasty things to food and post video

to YouTube – airs Monday • By Tuesday morning – 30,000 hits • Dominos “unconcerned” – “not on CNN, ABC or USA Today”!! • By Tuesday night – 700,000 views, Huffington Post, Chicago

Tribune, FOX News • By late Wed afternoon – viewed nearly a million times • Twitterville active – inc Ryan Seacrest (host of American Idol) • Google search on Dominos web site reveals link to vile video • 4PM Wednesday – Dominos release video to You Tube with

message from President Patrick Doyle

Stage Four: Resolution

• Concluding events – Funerals, Reports, Commissions of Enquiry

• Highlight how peoples have been affected/changed • Highlight Lessons Learnt • People expect solutions/resolutions

-

Mark the end!

Stage Four Fallout

“Employers brace for wave of copycat sexual harassment claims”

“

“

Poll

The Good

•

Bligh struck the right note of grim determination, tinged with emotion. Gillard made right moves being in all the right places, but was often off-key wooden.

The Bad

"We’re sorry for the massive disruption it’s caused their lives. There’s no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back."

Downright Ugly

Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at

http://bit.ly/KCairo -via Twitter for BlackBerry®Kenneth Cole

Spokespeople in a Crisis

• Credibility is CRITICAL • Crisis is defining moment • Biggest test of a company’s values • Is the CEO capable of connecting with stakeholders in a

compelling, compassionate manner? • Go for the person that is most credible, most

believable, most authentic • Will they pass the grace under fire test?

The “Kat” Fight

• April 2010: Greenpeace creates video parody of Kit Kat: posts to YouTube goes viral

• 4 days reaches ½ million, boosted by “naivety” on Nestle Facebook page:

- “Thanks for the lesson in manners. Consider yourself embraced. But it’s our page, we set the rules, it was ever thus.” Later apologised

• Inevitable MSM headlines: – “Greenpeace and Nestle in a Kat Fight”

• Lessons: – Expect coordinated attacks IF you behave badly or are perceived to

have behaved badly – Poor tone begets poor tone - if you are rude then expect rudeness

back – SM is time consuming, challenging if you want to make it work & remain

engaged Live for the best but plan for the worst

Company as Publisher

“We became the media” Situation: • March 2009. Wet, floods, roads closed. Other main hospital

evacuated. A state of emergency. Panic for many. • Media isolated.

Solution: • Working remotely with agency, Innovis became the media • Newsworthy, fact-finding blog • At 5:15 p.m., the blog went live, and by 5:30 p.m., 1,500 media

outlets were monitoring Innovis • Used Twitter to “push” out info, link to blog • 10-day, 24/7 effort with NO PERSONAL CONTACT

– all email

The Media Circus of Life:

the new normal

News breaks on Twitter entertainment & gossip sites broadcast news cite secondary sources

in print & on magazine covers collector’s copy “Dichotomy” of news – “dead” on-line, “alive” in

mainstream media

Hashtags are critical: Qld Floods

Trending around globe • #bnefloods, #thebigwet #Qldfloods • Used effectively by Qld

police - “want more social media”

• Tweeting peaks coincided with flood peaks = vital news source

Thh Dhhhhhh Ahh

Sysomos MAP shows where in the in world people tweeted about the floods

Hashtag Rules

• Compact

• Simple & easy to understand

– #CITYcondition

– by partners

• Low character count

• Organic - #qldfloods

• Test BEFORE crisis

Plan

• Let values guide you • Strategy extremely important • Must have “end game” - what does “winning” look like? • Clear policy statements • Rehearsed, tested, validated

Plan for

• Low levels of retention in crisis

- “they are only ten” • People default to type

- search for meaning • “Gossip,” inaccuracies • Unofficial spokespeople • Multiple sources • What to do IF CEO fuels the fire?

Media in a Crisis

“Watchdogs for democracy”

Hyper-critical, skeptical

Point out flaws in order to “protect society”

Act like a form of “first-aid” - normally unacceptable

Driven to “seek the truth,” particularly if they sniff a sordid allegation, a wrongdoing, or illegal or unethical behaviour

Likely to side with the victim than with big business

So What?

• Use the Stages to Plan - choose spokespeople - create messages including hashtags - choose partners (internal & external) - exercise/rehearse/drill/training - listening/monitoring (drives info in a crisis) - determine policy - determine response

Final Thoughts “What happens in Vegas stays on

Google” Scott Monty, social media guru, Ford

“Internet is written in ink not pencil” Mark Zuckerberg’s girlfriend in movie “The Social Network

Jane Jordan-Meier

www.crisismanagementbook.com @aussiechic (Twitter) jane@janejordan.net “The Four Highly Effective Stages of Crisis Management: How to Manage the Media in the Digital Age” published by CRC Press, 21 March Launches in Australia in late April/early May Contributor to Craig Pearce’s upcoming ebook

Thank You! Do connect.

Webinar

Rob Vass: Strategic use of the Live Event

Friday 4 March 12:00 pm AEDT

Thh Dhhhhhh Ahh

NSW Workshop

Show me the money!

Kathryn Williams

Wednesday 23 February 2011 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Thh Dhhhhhh Ahh

Feedback Please send us your

feedback and make suggestions for future webinar topics

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7JF72CL