Category

Communications

May 21
Love0

In Which I Cave to Oxford Comma Pressure

By Communications, Media

I was never an Oxford comma person. It always seemed superfluous to me, and my history as a public relations professional, which required writing according to A.P. Style, ensured that I was Oxford-comma free.

And then there was this:

. . . and a family dinner in which my adult son and his fiancé, my husband, and my 15-year-old daughter all ganged up on me and made the case for the Oxford comma. They were convincing.

In addition, this year, I started working with Rusty. He’s an Oxford comma guy. And unless I want to spend all my time editing out commas, I think I just need to move on and accept it.

Where do you stand in the Oxford comma argument?

 

May 16
Love0

Still Working. Still Committed.

By Corporate Strategy, Crisis Communications, Public Relations

Does that sound familiar? Do you feel like you’ve heard that somewhere? That’s because BP Global does not want you to forget that they are still working in the Gulf of Mexico funding nature research, promoting tourism, and helping the area recover from the oil spill of 2010. 

Look, I know no one loves big oil, but they have done a phenomenal job with their crisis communications. Here’s a feel good video for you:

Restoring the Gulf

Everything you could want to know about where they are and what they are doing is on the website dedicated to their restoration work. What actually happened during the spill? How have they changed their safe guarding measures? What are local residents saying? How has it all affected wildlife? Yes, it is all on there. The bad news and the good news on what happened and BP’s response program; it’s all there. What is great about this? Hearing live people tell their stories. These voices are of real people affected by the spill. This is not a spokesperson telling us how they are helping:

Hope with BP’s Vessels of Opportunity Program

Showing the hard realities of the crisis makes the positive response feel more authentic. This spill happened 2 years ago, and BP has invested heavily in their communication to make sure that the public knows they are involved. Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube are  updated regularly. The stories are both informative and personal.

Crisis Communications is one of those aspects of our work that doesn’t get a lot of day-to-day attention. It’s easy to talk about Social Strategy or Brand Positioning, but when it comes to a crisis, you want to have that red folder to turn to. We work with our clients to think about what would be a crisis within their company, who would be your spokesperson, which media would you reach out to, how would you acknowledge fault and move forward with an actionable plan. And then, like BP, truly invest in that actionable plan.

So I’m ready for it. Do you hate me for saying I think BP is doing a good job?

May 14
Love0

Walking the Line Between True and False in Your Content

By Communications, Corporate Strategy, Crisis Communications, Marketing, Media

There was an interesting article today in the Washington Post about David Sedaris, who’s been getting kudos for awhile now as a contributing writer and storyteller for “This American Life,” the ever-popular NPR program. As the Post states, “Starting with his reading on NPR of a now-beloved story about his experiences as an elf for a Macy’s Santa Claus, Sedaris has grown into one of America’s preeminent humorists.”

The problem, it turns out, is that many of these “realish” stories have had a lot of fabricated characters and events in them, even though they were marketed as true stories, which is what made them so interesting. It seems that truthfulness is really important to journalistic organizations such as NPR.

In this period of amazing pressure to create really compelling and interesting content 24-7, it’s really challenging to create enough to meet the demand and to stay top of mind. I mean, are there really that many really amazing stories out there every day, especially TRUE ones? Who has the time to dig them up? Wouldn’t it be easier to take a pretty average story and maybe gussy it up a bit with a few fictional enhancements? What’s the harm if it makes the point and closes that sale?

In defending Sedaris, NPR execs said things like “…we just assumed the audience was sophisticated enough to tell that this guy is making jokes and that there was a different level of journalistic scrutiny that we and they should apply…” Sorry, not good enough. It’s never made clear on the show that these stories are fictional. Seems like folks are trying to get some journalistic mileage out of them by placing them in the context of real journalism.

So what?, you say. The point of all this whining is this: your company cannot afford to take this kind of license when you present yourself. You must be truthful, open, transparent. You must own your weaknesses and engage your customers to find solutions to them, with their input. You must struggle for missing excellence just as they do. Taking shortcuts or making good stuff up just doesn’t work anymore. Once your credibility is shot, like Sedaris’s might be, then it’s really hard to get it back, if you ever do. Ask JP Morgan. Or Jim Bakker. Or John Edwards.

May 11
Love1

Failure to Communicate Really Stinks

By Communications

At the end of the day last Wednesday, it was clear that our usual trash pick up wasn’t happening. An email from the homeowners association confirmed that a) our trash pickup day had changed to Friday and b) this would also be the quarterly “large trash pick up day.”

The HOA leadership had failed to get the newsletter with this information mailed before the change. The email user group delivered the information on Wednesday, while all of us dutifully had our trash at the curb. It was 89 degrees.

The HOA implored us to “tell our neighbors” since only about 50 percent of the community subscribes to the user group. A week later, it’s clear that neighbors don’t really talk to neighbors since about half of the trash cans were dragged to the curb two days early. Again.

A better approach would have been to:

  1. Send a postcard to each residence announcing the change at least two weeks in advance.
  2. Include the information in the newsletter and GET IT OUT ON TIME.
  3. Use the email user group to inform the residents of the change in advance, multiple times.
  4. Use the Facebook page (which exists and is under used) to communicate and capture those not paying attention to other channels.
  5. Post signage in the neighborhood.

All in all, this seemed to me like a terrific failure to communicate, and a stinky one at that. Now, to be fair, I’m not volunteering to help my HOA with communications, so it’s not fair for me to criticize too much, but if they decide to take my advice, I’d be really grateful.

 

May 09
Love0

How McDonald’s Turned Bad PR Into Good Strategy

By Communications, Corporate Strategy, Crisis Communications, Marketing, Social Media

You all may have read in the New York Times this week about how McDonald’s has been experiencing a strong resurgence. I won’t recap it all here, I’ll just provide the link so you can read it yourself.

The gist was that they listened. They absorbed all the negative criticism, most notably re-energized in their ill-fated #McDStories Twitter campaign, and they took stock. They then methodically went about answering these criticisms one by one. They updated their stores. They changed the menu to add more healthy choices. They reached out to mom bloggers and engaged them. They provided amenities like WiFi, couches, TV and high-end coffee. Then they told the world about it through social channels and massive advertising campaigns. As a result, McDonald’s revenue is up almost 13% year over year while their competitors–Burger King, Starbuck’s, Wendy’s–are losing market share.

It’s a simple lesson in how social media and marketing is supposed to work. When the public, your customer, speaks, LISTEN and ACT on what it tells you. It pays!