Tag Archives: PR

How to Deal With Social Networks When You Make a Bonehead Mistake

March 2, 2012

 

If you’ve ever been a part of an organization that has had what seemed to be a simple matter  blow up into a nuclear holocaust of bad publicity, you might be interested in this missive. To state the obvious, social networks like Twitter and Facebook act as gasoline when there’s a spark of controversy. Just ask the Susan G. Komen foundation.

For reasons that are still not clear, on January 31, 2012, this squeaky clean, long-revered non-profit organization decided not to renew a grant to Planned Parenthood to fund breast exams. Since Komen’s stated mission is to find a cure for breast cancer and these screenings have proven to enhance that admirable endeavor, many supporters of the group – not to mention the millions of Planned Parenthood supporters – went through their own stages of grief, culminating in outrage. If you’ve ever worked for a non-profit organization, which relies on kindnesses (and money) of strangers to keep the doors open, you know that outrage is not something you want to encourage.

It took about as long as it takes for twenty million people to simultaneously update their Facebook page and type out 140 characters on Twitter for all hell to break loose. While this bonehead move was reverberating through the social networks and big Komen donors mysteriously decided to forgo their annual contributions, it was strangely quiet on the Komen social nets. One got the impression that the silence was the result of Twitter-lash – an updated version of whiplash.

In about a week, the adults at Komen had taken back over. The top executives with an anti-abortion agenda and questionable good sense were gone. Komen founder Nancy Brinker apologized and re-instituted the Planned Parenthood grant and college professors who teach communications students had a new case study entitled: “How to make a policy screw-up even worse!” And yes, you WILL be tested on this material.

Arguably, the Komen fiasco was so monumental that even a brilliant social network strategy would not have fixed the problem. However, most agree that the organization could have helped itself immeasurably with more input into the debate surrounding the firestorm.

So, what if your company or organization does something dumb and millions of people start saying tacky things about you on Facebook or raises such a ruckus on social networks that nobody wants to buy your pizza or plumbing supplies or cars? It’s probably a good idea to have a plan of action before the stuff hits the fan.

Here are some suggestions:

  • Assume that someday controversy will happen and you should have a plan to deal with the social network posts that will surely follow.
  • Assign someone who understands social networks to be responsible for responding to controversy within hours – not days – of the controversy breaking.
  • Give this designated social network czar the power to do her job. This means equipping them with cellphone numbers that get answered 24/7 of the honchos who can respond to the chatter.
  • Get a social network listening service to monitor everything – good and bad – that’s being served up on the nets about the organization.
  • Be prepared to offer videos, infographics and other web-friendly media as to the real facts surrounding the controversy.
  • Be very clear and honest in all communications. This way you never have to have to say you’re sorry…again.

When things are peachy, the megaphone of social networks is a great tool for spreading peace, love and understanding. However, when things go south, this fabulous megaphone can reversed and the noise hitting your organization can be deafening.

- Art Young, Client Development

Photo credit: Flickr user audreyjm529

How to Bootstrap PR for Your Start-Up

February 23, 2012

 

I had the chance to attend the February monthly meeting of TexChange recently, enjoy a lovely meal and soak in information on the relevant topic for us: Bootstrapped PR.

The 87 attendees represented the most optimistic group of people I have ever spent three hours with. Most of the members of this group were the CEO’s of technology start-ups in the DFW area. There were a few VC’s, bankers and lawyers who were sniffing around for opportunities, but most of these folks had their own dream/business and they have experienced the entire gamut of success, failure and (worst of all) ambivalence.

I worked the room and met some of the people behind the dreams. For example, there was a former Braniff pilot who has developed a sure-fire patent for a new mass transit train. I sat by a software entrepreneur who has incorporated gamification theory in an effort to get users of his software to participate in greater numbers. I shook and howdied with  the new president of the Social Media Club of Dallas, the president of a company that sells custom coupons, a couple of healthcare IT types and spent a few minutes with the bartender – Felix – who has a can’t-miss concept for storing carbonated beverages (still on the drawing boards).

Somewhere among this group of savants and/or crazy people, there are likely several next big things that, if they hired us to help them, would change the world. The trick is to talk to enough of them and filter the crazy from the brilliant. So many ideas and so little time!

The presentation was all about using guerilla PR tactics – aka Bootstapped PR – to earn media coverage without spending money. Presenting were:

Most of the topics that were discussed were not those that would demand that you slap your forehead and scream Eureka! However, there were good insights offered on how startups can use the power of their content to build interest among media. I could tell that I was not alone when I wrote in my little notebook to “steal this idea” several times.

There were good tips like:

(1) Don’t waste your time re-tweeting tech news to your followers verbatim from its source. Come up with something interesting, funny or unique or don’t tweet it. It’s likely, everyone who’s getting your tweets has seen the same article that you are re-tweeting.

(2) Fresh content (in the form of blogs, social network posts) gets media attention and leads to better SEO than the same old crap on a site. Ergo, hence and therefore, companies need to have a constant stream of new content on their website and social networks. Video is coming to Pocketstop site soon and several on the panel noted that video has big impact on SEO.

(3) Free analytics services such as Google Analytics can tell a company what type of content on a site is being loved by the readers of the site. Whereas, most people look at the analytics and say something like, “Oh cool. Somebody from Australia looked at our site.” A better approach is to determine what page, what blog post (i.e. the type of subject matter covered by the post) or what feature on the site draws the most traffic and figure out why. Then, put more content like that. Again, no forehead slapper, but valid.

(4) Most of a small company’s staff and freelancers have more followers than the CEO and executives of the company. Therefore, it is very important to (try) to get everyone who gets a paycheck from the company to get on board with the spreading of the word about the company. This doesn’t mean that everyone has to be a company PR automaton, blindly posting every silly post on every social network from colleagues. It does, however, mean that when there is a new and interesting blog post on the company website an employee’s vast number of followers and fans might be very interested in what they’re doing from 8 to 5.

It was a great night for big ideas. May they all turn into giant companies with astounding ROI! And hopefully Felix’s concept for carbonated beverages will take off like a rocket. I MIGHT have invested a few dollars with him for stock options to be determined later.

- Art Young, Client Development

Photo credit: Flickr user Mykl Roventine