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:
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?
It’s always good to have positive examples – as well as the many negative ones – in the crisis communications arena. In our culture, we do tend to highlight negative, so I think it’s doubly important to point out success stories.
On a totally unrelated note – am I supposed to know who is in the picture that appears with these blog posts? I often wish there was a byline, since there are multiple posters and I’m not that familiar with your organization.
@Lisa Wetherby Hi Lisa, thanks for the comment. I guess that may not be clear, huh? There are three of us that post regularly: Marijean, Rusty and myself (Erika). We occasionally have guest posts, and the author’s name and picture should appear in the top corner of the post. Thank you for letting me know it was confusing. I’ll see about changing it.
@Lisa Wetherby there is a byline underneath the title of the post on the right. If you click on Erika’s (or Rusty’s, or my) name you can see all the posts they’ve written.
@Marijean & Erika – thanks for responding. I can see the byline here, but I normally read these posts in my email client, where they do not show up. I guess if I’m curious in the future, I’ll know I can click through. Although now that we’ve shared this moment, I should be able to tell from the pictures alone.