BP's MAJOR PR mistakes. What went wrong?

I have been seeing the PR references coming up routinely now in the certainly... meritorous defamartory news reports world wide on BP's oil crisis. It is now proclaimed as the worst environmental disaster ever faced in North America and to add more fuel to its fire, PR efforts are unceasingly receiving big fat:  FAILS.

So, what are they doing wrong?

CEO, Tony Hawyard, has publically declared that he would "Like his life back" and was even seen this past weekend at a prestigious yacht racing event in the oil free waters off the coast of England. He is the company's primary CEO based out of the UK. MSNBC reports that  John Hofmeister, former Shell chairman has remarked that from a PR perspective, it would have been more helpful for BP to have their top level American executives face the press. BP's chief operating officer, Doug Suttles who is American,  has come out out of the woodwork, but Hawyard continues to get the spotlight. Eric Rugly from the Globe and Mail, has put it like this: "If there is one thing BP should have done from the onset, it should have been to recruit a high-profile, plain-talking, media-friendly, all-American tough guy to act as the company’s official spokesman." Very true!

Another major BP fail- PR rule #1- Underplay the bad and overplay the good:.On the BP website there is a live video stream active the gushing oil. In some ways this is good, as it indicates that BP is not depreciating the seriousness of the issue- but showcasing this video is taking away from all the good that is being done.

I will definitely be returning to this topic. I hope they can turn things around, time will only tell.

I am back!!!

Hi Everyone,
Sorry it has been awhile since my last blog entry. A lot of changes have been underway. I am still working with the same advertising agency that I have been with for the last 3 years and am now working from a home office in the heart of Toronto.  I love this city! I thought moving from Vancouver would be difficult, but it has actually been quite easy and I have met some really great people here.

I have also been accepted into a Master's program in Professional Communications at Royal Roads University in Victoria BC. This is a program specifically designed for professionals and will completed over the course of 2 years on a part-time basis, so my current job will not be affected. I have been dying to go back to school and it will be great to get some proper training in communications. I am already forseeing my thesis topic which be: Social Media used as a PR tool, or something of the like. This is something that has been captivating me over the past couple years, and I would really like to find out how useful social media actually is, in respect to developing a company's public image and also the effects it has from an internal corporate angle.

Once my courses have been launched, I will publish all my work on this blog, and permitting proper citation is practiced, I will welcome other bloggers, students, professionals, to make use of my results.

More blogging on the way!! Promise :)

The Bread and Butter of Lay Offs- Work With What You Have!

I currently work for an organization that, like many in 2009, had to go through some lay offs. It is an afflicting time for all involved in that process, even including those whom are still sailing within. So, I recently read an article that is the spark behind this blog as the findings were, to say the least:  very surprising!

Kevin Stoker and Susan Walton from the Brigham Young University published an article titled: Corporate Compassion in a Time of Downsizing, which is about the positive effects of maintaining relationships with past and current employees via social networking.


The obvious expectations did surface in the research paper,such as how alumni groups help current and past employees feel like they are important to their company, rather than just a number. Seeing compassion from their employers in times of turbulence and change gave individuals a sense of worth. However, the primary focus on this subject, is not the employees per se, but rather the perception of the public. Creating an alumni group via social networking, increases the value and reputation of a company. Social networking makes this impression amenably achieved in the eyes of the media, stakeholders, competitors, etc, simply based on how easy it is to disseminate information online.

To read the full article, click here:
http://www.instituteforpr.org/files/uploads/CorporateCompassionTimeofDownsizing.pdf

Following Politicians- Verification Determination!

So Twitter is a great tool to know what is going on in just about any field of interest that you may have. But a particular sphere of culture and society that requires some delicate care in the nature of communications, is politics. We can only imagine how many Bill Clintons and Sara Palins there are out there in Twitter world, and fortunately the powers of the enterprise have managed to implicate a filtering process to protect those that are often victims of impersonation. The blue verification check mark has been applied if a Twitter executive has been in direct communication with the owner of the account and has been given sufficient proof (Ie: a link to their Twitter account via official website, etc) to brand the account as Verified.

This verification process is still being tested and can only be done by request through Twitter's feedback form. A request for business verification is certainly no promise, as Twitter has specified that businesses are not included in the Verification trials that are currently under way.

As you can imagine, politicians are actively using Twitter during campaigning. Barack Obama's page is my current fave, check it out here: http://twitter.com/BarackObama, and yes... it is verified!

How can Twitter Benefit your PR company?

Before getting into how to actually market a company and get a brand message delivered via Twitter, I would like to address some of the ways a PR company can use Twitter to help assess how their clients are being received in Twitter nation ( this would be useful for PR corporations that deal with more prominent brands).

Microsoft's very own PR agency, Waggener Edstrom, created a Twitter application that not only tracks when and how often a brand is tweet referenced, but the general feeling that is being elicited from those commentaries.

The tool is called Twendz and it provides you with a generalized summary of how product, idea or event is being received over time. It is free to use online at http://twendz.waggeneredstrom.com/

I suggest to simply give it a try. Submit the name of a current movie, technology, book, etc and you will see a thread of real time commentaries that are being filtered through the system based on your submission.

Supporting or rallying a cause via Twitter

Twitter is a great tool to get a message across. If you are pushing for a cause, it's a great tool to keep your followers up to date on what is going on. @officialpeta (Peta's Twitter site) is a great example. Check their page out to know who's in the bad- who's in the good- and where you can get all the good stuff free of animal testing and bi-products.

Deliver it in real time! ::Journalism/Live-reporting::

Did anyone hear about Kanye West stealing the spotlight from little Taylor Swift last night during her acceptance speech for a VMA? Well that circulated across the internet within seconds after the incident, and guess where the news first broke online? Twitter! In 140 or less characters you can get a quick message across to your followers. 

Famous celebrity and lifestyle blogger, Perez Hilton, was at a magic show in April this year, which was being presented by Chris Angel. While he's sitting in the audience, he happened to be tweeting on his mobile phone about how unentertaining he thought the show was. Well the news happened to get to Angel within his hour and a half show block and he ended his presentation with this statement: "I have to recognize someone special here in the house," said Angel, according to a witness. "Perez Hilton, please stand up.... We have the world's biggest douchebag ###hole in the house!"

Yikess!!! Vibrant example, but this is how many reporters and journalists are using Twitter.

CNN is on my Twitter contact list and the very moment a new story drops, guess where you can find it?! 4 hours ago, a tweet is published: [HAPPENING NOW: President Obama speaking on financial regulatory reform. Watch on CNN TV and CNN.com/live.]
Even though your Tweets are restricted to 140 characters, that doesn't mean the message you want to release is bounded in anyway. (Just add a link to your full story) Quick and effective.

Feedback is always appreciated! How do you use Twitter at work and do you use it for live-reporting/journalism?

-H