Issues and Crisis

There was a great piece online last week at theglobemail.com that gave five tips to Air Canada about how they may have better handled a PR issue that happened recently. While the piece is focused on an incident with the airline, there is wealth of knowledge in here for any organization. It’s worth a read.

From what we understand, a young boy who is fighting a terminal illness travelled to New York City recently to live out one of his life wishes. At some point during his travels, with Air Canada, his wheelchair – which is a necessity for this young fellow – was damaged. His aunt tweeted about it, which, given the situation, touched many people and created some buzz online. The thing of it is, while it turns out that Air Canada was working on the situation, they weren’t communicating this to anyone – including the people discussing it on Twitter.

AHA Take

I am not sure whether Air Canada didn’t know the conversations were happening or decided that they weren’t important enough to respond to. Either way, their silence hurt them. Air Canada doesn’t have the best brand reputation and this incident, which was about a sick little boy and a dream trip for him, didn’t help much.

We are always cautious about criticizing how an organization handles things because you don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. In this case, I think that’s part of the challenge. The public  (which are made up of a large group of people who travel on airplanes) feels that too much goes on behind closed doors with Air Canada. We feel like Air Canada doesn’t respect us or care enough to communicate with us. It wouldn’t have taken very much effort to get online and explain that they were on this. They could have explained easily that they were fixing the wheelchair AND were going to provide this young boy and his family with some additional perks to make up for the inconvenience and challenges they faced because of this incident. But they didn’t.

The young boy now has his chair back and is excited that he’ll be taking his cousins to Disney World, another wish of his, as Air Canada has offered to take them.

It’s a shame that Air Canada didn’t take the time to tweet or announce that they were doing the right thing. It would have been a lot easier than taking yet another hit to their organizational reputation.

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At AHA, we followed the Domino’s issue and several others quite closely and spent a great deal of time deconstructing the challenges that are now common place because of the widespread adoption of social media.

This article is worth a read. If you don’t have a social media policy in place, it’s important to develop and implement one – no matter how big or small your organization is.

AHA Take

As I write this blog post, I am heading off to meet with a client that is anxious to put a social media policy in place for their organization. We have developed a first draft of the policy, set a straightforward and easy to follow process and protocol. Today, we are going to spend some time going through it and poking holes in it, ensuring that it will work for everyone in this large and diverse organization. This means meeting with a range of individuals who have their own opinions of what is a reasonable social media policy. It’s a step that I think is very important when it comes to putting a social media policy in place. It’s one thing to write a comprehensive policy, quite another to hear feedback from real people who are being asked to adopt this policy.

Many organizations have a media relations policy in place. Only assigned spokespeople have the authority to speak to the media (or other stakeholders) on behalf of the organization. This is standard in our world. However, in all the years I have been doing this, I have only ever heard of a handful of times when a journalist contacted an employee directly, rather than go to the CEO, another senior executive or the communications person. There was usually a specific reason for this approach. Social media is completely different. Staff members have personal Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts. They might blog. They may comment on other blogs. There are new avenues of expression that we’ve never had before. And sometimes people forget just how public social networking sites are. Sometimes, they just need to be reminded and have guidelines and boundaries put in place. A social media policy is a good start.

When you develop yours, make sure it is a policy that is relevant for the people it is written for. Don’t assume that you know or understand the challenges they face. Develop a draft and ask them: “Does this provide accurate and appropriate guidelines for you when it comes to social media usage, relevant to your role at this organization?” This step will help develop a good social media policy.

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There are many discussions online and, I am sure, in offices all over the world, about what BP is doing regarding its crisis communications. It has been a very hot topic in the AHA office as well.

One of the key points in our discussions is how much the world has changed because of social media. Technology and the online conversations happening all over the world mean that, as communicators, we have to evolve how we deal with an issue or a crisis.

There are many articles and blog posts out there about the crisis and people are weighing in with their opinions. Check Twitter and search BP or @BP or #oilspill and you can see how much information is out there, how many opinions are given and just what people are thinking.

An article in Ad Age discusses whether the firm doing BP’s crisis communications is doing it well. I think there have been a lot of mistakes made, not necessarily by the agency – but overall. Let me clearly say that unless you are behind those closed doors and a part of the strategy discussions, it’s hard to know why a strategy was developed or why certain decisions were made.

Time Magazine has a great piece on the crisis and it goes into why there is now a lack of trust between almost any stakeholder (which is really anyone who cares about the environment, the ocean, the fish and animals who live on Gulf Coast) and BP. Once you lose that credibility, it is almost impossible to get it back. And, whether it is all accurate or not, BP is getting slammed in traditional media and online (and I would bet at water coolers, in pubs and coffee shops around the world) for almost everything that they do. The thing is, right now, it doesn’t matter whether the information is accurate or not, it’s out there and perception is everything.

The Onion also has a good, in-your-face piece entitled Massive Flow of Bull Sh*t Continues to Gush From BP Headquarters.

This is a huge environmental crisis and one that people care deeply about. I have searched to find answers – and I can’t find them anywhere – for the most basic questions that everyone wants to know. Without answers to these basic questions, how do they expect to maintain any credibility?

  • How this could have happened?
  • Why there wasn’t an operational plan in place – one that they KNOW would work – to fix an oil leak if there was one?

As for the credibility and trust crisis facing BP, their reputation is severely damaged. Rumours that they are using Search Engine Optimization so that when you type in oil spill, you also get their side of the story haven’t been substantiated yet, but it’s something I would recommend to a client. The thing is, no matter how you get your information out, you have to have a credible story that shows your stakeholders that the crisis is important to you and that you are doing everything possible.

I don’t think that any tools or tactics, whether their traditional or social media-based, can do anything for an organization that isn’t ready to be transparent, admit their mistakes and do whatever it takes to make it right. Social media has changed everything because we can now share information globally in a matter of seconds. If the worst-case scenario happens, like it has in the Gulf oil disaster, it is only a matter of minutes before your organization will begin to lose credibility. Without the trust and support of your stakeholders, what do you have?

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There doesn’t seem to be an end in sight for candy maker Nestle. I just checked their Facebook page and the negative comments are still being posted on a regular basis. I also checked out their Twitter accounts (@nestle and @nestlecsv – which stands for creating shared value. While there are plenty of comments to and at Nestle on Twitter, they aren’t tweeting much.

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Being attacked publicly is one of the main concerns that we hear when we speak with new clients about the potential of using social media as a part of their communications efforts. This is a valid concern and one that needs to be addressed, especially for those organizations that have outspoken critics—critics that understand and use social media and other PR tactics.

The challenge that Nestlé is facing is in the use of palm oil in their products.

You only have to read a few comments on its Facebook page to see that people are angry with Nestlé and while the challenge began with a video about Kit Kat put out by Greenpeace, it escalated into something that has now taken on a life of its own.

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