Crisis communication a multi step process

I was fortunate enough to appear on a panel at the Commercial Collection Agency Association meeting in New York on Friday, November 12. The panel included Jeff Gellis from APV Communications, Bob Troia of Affinitive, Robert Pinchuck of Columbia Financial International, Inc. and Lee Baldieri, who works for a credit collection firm in Connecticut.

The topic was how marketing, PR, sales and social media can all work together…or rather, whether they work together.

I’ll spare you the usual PR-social media-marketing love triangle stories—too much drama, right? Interestingly, the moderator, Emil Hartleb of CCAA, asked me how PR can help companies deal with a crisis. Here is what I told him:

Follow, more or less, these or similar 6 steps and you’ll likely reduce the negative impact of most crises:

1) Gather all the facts as quickly as possible. Avoid trafficking in rumors. Speed is of utmost importance as the media and social networks move faster than your ability to contain the story.

2) Tell the truth at all times. Basic advice but there will be voices in any organization advocating that you cut ethical corners. Resist these forces and stay away from them in the future.

3) Be as responsive during a crisis as you are during good times. Many reporters will remember quite vividly whether you returned their calls during a crisis and hold it against you the next time you have a positive story to pitch.

4) If you are in social media, stay plugged into those channels—those are your supporters, customers and constituents and they are watching. Make sure they are updated regularly as part of your plan.

5) Communicate early and often. During a crisis, it’s common that management will want to constrict communication at the very time when the public, customers, regulators, and others need to hear from you.

6) Follow up. Hold a focus group with your customers to see what, if any, residual issues need to be attended to. Find out how you can improve and refine your response to the next crisis is handled more smoothly.

Finally, one more piece of advice for my PR pals: Be sure to assert yourself as a necessary and important voice at the table. You will lose many battles with risk-averse attorneys and small-minded managers, but remember this famous PR saying I learned many years ago: Lawyers tell you what you can say but PR people tell you what you should say.

Looking for Sunni Patterson’s EBook mentioned at the Big Ooga? Look no further!

As promised, here is the link to the EBook “Over 100 Marketing Ideas for A Tiny Budget.” The Big Ooga thanks those who attended the presentation on Tuesday, November 9th at Ina’s, and you are rewarded with the first access to Sunni’s exciting and helpful EBook!

Over 100 Marketing Ideas for a Tiny Budget

Feel free to post your review and comments about the Book or the presentation. Sunni and I hope you enjoy it and took home some valuable tips for your own PR and marketing efforts! And, we encourage you to share this link with your colleagues and tell them to attend next month’s Big Ooga event!

Facebook Chat a potential tool for PR Pros

The social media movement has created new tools for PR people to use to improve and enhance your relationships with reporters. Facebook Chat, which started out as a poor man’s instant messaging function available for all Facebook account holders, is one such tool.

When Facebook Chat was first introduced, it suffered from some fits and starts. Chat sessions were often cut off abruptly or the service was sometimes unavailable. Facebook, however, has improved the service and it now serves as an excellent communications tool for FB account holders to exchange instant messages. For PR people, this means that relationships we have developed with reporters, either in the real world, or via Facebook, can be augmented using FB Chat. I have used FB chat on a number of occasions to send quick messages to reporters and in some cases, pitch reporters I have a relationships with. How do you use FB chat to interact with reporters? I recommend these steps:

1) I don’t recommend you use FB chat to establish new relationships with reporters. Some journalists may show up online in your chat box but may not be interested in using it to communicate.
2) Do use FB chat in place of phone call follow ups—the IM window allows you to copy and paste in links to your original news release or website blog.
3) Don’t overuse it.
4) Avoid using chat for personal use. Just like you wouldn’t call up a reporter and yammer away about your weekend, you shouldn’t use chat that way either.

Give it a try the next time you see a reporter online and you have a meaningful story to discuss or pitch.

Health care PR measurement

My friend Lee Aase from Mayo Clinic and I have a good laugh when we talk about all the people coming out of the woodwork expressing an interest or concern about social media measurement. The first thing that comes to our mind is: are you currently measuring your traditional PR or media relations programs? If so, how? With audience impressions, clips, numbers of calls you get from reporters? Nothing wrong with those if they are just part of your measurement. Still, there are often specific ways to measure health care PR that make more sense and have more meaning.

So step into my WayBack Machine and lets journey back to a simpler time when newsrooms were fully staffed and Facebook was just becoming more than a twinkle in the eye of a couple of Harvard students. I’m talking about 2006 of course!

In fall of 2006, I had successfully pitched a story on hip resurfacing to the Associated Press, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (http://www.jsonline.com/features/29217269.html) and a local TV station. To determine how much, if any, of this coverage actually turned into patient visits and hospital charges, I worked with the orthopedic surgeons’ administrative staff to get them to ask each new patient who called, visited or emailed how they found out about the doctor’s services. The office further tracked these patients from initial point of contact to appointment and surgery, if it occurred. The office told me they could identify 28 patients who came to the office based on seeing information from the media. That would be a significant victory in itself but patient visits alone were not enough.

So, I asked the hospital finance department to track these 28 patients and tell me how much revenue the doctor and the hospital received from this. Separating out the physician’s revenue from the hospital, I discovered that the hospital revenue netted from these patients covered my fees to the hospital for the entire year.

The exercise gave me insight into why more PR measurement doesn’t take place: it’s difficult, time consuming and costly. However, if you can do it and your department supports you, you’ll get excellent return on your measurement investment.
To sum up:
1) Measure based on something significant to your hospital. In my client’s case, that was hospital charges.
2) Work with the doctor’s staff as early as possible to get them to buy in and track patients
3) Report back your findings to your boss and use it in your elevator speech the next time someone asks you what you do. What’s more impressive: telling someone you write news releases or that your efforts led to the hospital garnering more than twice your salary?

I’d love to hear how you measure your traditional PR efforts. What works for you and your clients and organization?

Livestream, Ustream, we all stream today! How Four Chicago Women Got a Jump on Self Broadcasting Trend

The last two years or so, gurus, mavens, evangelists, ninjas have been populating the blogosphere with articles about how social media is going to replace the way we market, the way we communicate or the way we broadcast. They’ve held up Facebook, Twitter, Digg, WordPress and other platforms as potential worthy successors to mainstream media. And while I’m a big advocate of these social media platforms, I’ve yet to be convinced we can throw out our TVs and cancel our newspaper subscriptions. These new platforms are great but the biggest Facebook Fan page usually can’t hold a candle to the lowest rated TV newscast in most markets.

So, where does that leave us? Well, some hearty pioneers have been blogging or starting media or news gathering cooperatives. Still others, like one group of Chicago woman, started a blog called Chicagonista and then recently launched a Chicagonista Live talkshow, sorta like a poor woman’s “The View,” on Livestream.com. The women who make up Chicagonista Live are Nancy Loo, M.J. Tam, Beth Rosen and Duong Sheahan. All four women met via Twitter and it stands to reason that I found out about the show from an MJ Tam tweet. According to Tam, the monthly show started in January and last week’s segment was the fourth show. The group has future show dates booked out for the next few months.

Both LiveStream and its relative, Ustream, are interesting platforms that allow individuals and virtually any organization to create their own channel or broadcast show and recruit or attract viewers using the social media aspects of the sites as well as individual Twitter and Facebook pages. Perhaps you caught the live Ustream version of #journchat a few weeks ago that Sarah Evans hosted with several CNN reporters/producers at South by Southwest?

Ustream bills itself as “the leading live interactive broadcast platform that enables anyone with an Internet connection and a camera to engage their audience in a meaningful, immediate way.” These websites have serious implications that communicators should be considering for the communications needs of their clients and organizations.

It was interesting to see how the Chicagonista Live hostesses used the new technology to create a talk show that is similar to shows that one might see on mainstream television but at a fraction of the production costs. Here is the link to the show: http://www.livestream.com/chicagonista

I watched the April edition that was broadcast from a Chicago-area studio and found the conversation quite lively, spanning such diverse topics as Apple’s new Ipad, opening day for the Chicago White Sox, Chicago area violence, Chat Roulette, sexting and slutty prom dresses (doubly horrified on these topics). The women reacted with appropriate suburban moral outrage at these more aberrant topics while waxing on about the revealing aspects of HD video on Hollywood stars at the Oscars.

On the pro side, the Chicagonista Live group covered a lot of ground and read some on air suggestions from people who tweeted in, making it more responsive and interactive than a typical show. When the show gives voice to one of the women, it can be compelling and funny, but when it breaks down into a chatfest, it’s more difficult to hear what was going on.

Tam believes that sites like Ustream and Livestream represent extensions of broadcast technology but perhaps not replacements.

If you have a comment about the Chicagonista Live show, you can comment via twitter using the hashtag #chicagonista.

Planmeca and trade press links

The dental trade press does a lot of cool promotions with their advertising clients and I thought I’d share this cross link promotion one dental trade publication, Dental Product Shopper, is running with one of my clients, Planmeca USA.

Planmeca ProMax

Chicago Morning Shows Accessible to Outsiders

Podiatrists from the Illinois Podiatric Medical Association represent in front of Channel 7/WLS-TV in Chicago on Friday morning, March 11th.

Unless you are a chef, pet owner, celebrity or fashion show producer, you don’t have much of a shot at getting your calls or emails returned from Chicago TV morning producers. The good news is that for some organizations, you may not need to completely rely on these sleep-deprived sentries to get morning TV coverage in Chicago.

Witness the effort of a hearty band of podiatrists in town for the Midwest Podiatry Conference a couple of weeks ago. My client was able to recruit about two dozen colleagues, print out a sign from Kinko’s and march up to the Channel 5 and Channel 7 windows that face inward towards the studio. In both cases, staff from each station came out and talked to our group. All we needed to do was hand them the news release that explained that the podiatrists were in town for the meeting and collecting used shoe donations for Haiti earthquake victims for the group Share Your Soles.

Before you undertake this effort and pass up the chance to sleep in, here are a few tips that will help you decide if this is right for your group or client:

1) Are you a non profit group engaged in something altruistic or not blatantly profit seeking?
2) Do you have a group large enough to make a good showing? The podiatrists probably would have canceled had they not recruited a group of two dozen members.
3) Get a colorful sign. Kinko’s printed the IPMA banner for $140.
4) Timing is everything. Know when the stations are on and off the air and allow enough time to move from one to the other.
5) Have a news release. Staff from both stations asked for it and Channel 7 read portions of it on the air.

Should you invite a politician or celebrity to speak at your event?

U. S. Senator Richard Durbin interviewed by Chicago media after his speech to the Midwest Podiatry Conference on March 12, 2010

This picture illustrates what happens when politicians or celebrities speak at your event. It’s great that the media comes out to cover them, but sometimes, the speakers divert attention from your group or event because of controversy. In this example, U.S. Senator Richard Durbin gave a nice speech about health care reform and podiatry but he was asked after the speech about the donations he received from alleged check kiters who were arrested that morning.

Unfortunately, we can never predict what news will break during the day of an event so when we invite high profile speakers to our events, we have to accept some risk that they will attract media seeking comments on breaking or controversial news that day. In this case, Sen. Durbin was asked about his reaction to news that his campaign had accepted donations from a Chicago restaurant owner who was arrested that day for passing bad checks. To his credit, Durbin answered the question in a straightforward manner and was not evasive, ensuring that at least from his perspective, the story would not drag on for days.

Question for PR pros: how can we better ensure that media will still use our stories even when juicier news is more available at our events?

Vote for me!

Most of my new business and business my friends get is through word of mouth and I do a lot of more subtle marketing through this blog, and my social media efforts on Twitter and Facebook. However, a friend of mine inspired me to take a more proactive approach, which lead to this effort:

I was talking with a fellow solo PR consultant yesterday and she told me she is hiring a salesperson to actively market her practice and follow up on leads she couldn’t get to because it can be difficult to market a solo practice when you have to spend your time doing the work clients pay you to do. So I thought she had a good idea there…but this morning I had another thought, influenced by an old story that former House Speaker Tip O”Neill used to tell.

When O’Neill was out campaigning after a primary election, he visited one woman’s house and he asked her if she voted for him in the primary. She told him “no.” Rather stunned at the loyal Democrat’s answer he asked: “why not?” he asked “You’ve always been a big supporter.”

“I didn’t vote for you because you didn’t ask for my vote.” she replied. I thought of that story when I was figuring out ways to market my own health care PR practice. So much of my work comes from word of mouth–and I am eternally grateful for that–however, it would be great to find some time do some more controlled marketing, per se.

Don’t get me wrong, I do a lot on Twitter and Facebook to share information, help others out and talk about what my clients are up to, I’ve never used LInkedin much to promote CMPR, Inc.

So, like Tip O’Neill, I’m asking for your ‘vote’ in the way of consideration for PR, media relations, communications, writing and yes, social media projects you have coming up that might require or benefit from my expertise. Here’s a rundown of some of the things i’ve accomplished for my clients in the last year:

• Pinch hit on one week’s notice for a health care association who needed someone to run their spokesperson training session
• Written a newsletter for a group of doctors at a large west coast academic medical center
• Placed several stories on new products for a dental products company
• Ran a successful press room for a national health care association
• Place an OPED for a public health consortium in a large daily newspaper
• Placed a number of stories on clients in the Chicago Tribune, Sun-Times and television stations
• Hosted a cable access program each month for a client
• Set up a blog for an optometrist
• Set up and run several Facebook Fan pages and Twitter accounts for clients

That gives you an ‘on the ground’ feeling for what I’m capable of handling. When it comes time for you to ‘vote’ on any projects, I hope you’ll push my lever and vote for me.

Looking for a good health care case study on using social media in a crisis?

Because social media is still in its relative infancy, the number of good case studies of organizations, especially health care organizations, using it for crisis communications, is pretty small. However, in the last 24 hours, an excellent case study has presented itself that we health care communications professionals can observe and learn from.

A family member whose father was a patient at the Johnston R. Bowman Center Health Center at Rush University Medical Center contacted WBBM-TV investigative reporter Dave Savini about what she felt were unhygienic conditions in her father’s room and in some of the rest rooms in the facility. The hospital did a nice job of taking responsibility for the situation and vowed to clean up things and improve conditions.

Here is the link to the Channel 2/WBBM-TV story that kicked off the crisis.

In the old days, that’s where it would end. Not so in today’s social media world.

Take a look at the comments Savini received from his followers about the story: http://bit.ly/9vSZpJ (note: you may have to log in to your FB account and copy and paste this link into your browser to read the comments)

After you read the comments, here are some questions to think about:
• What, if anything, should Rush do to respond to the comments on Savini’s FB page?
• Should they friend him and post a comment on his page that is similar to their on air comments?
• Should they respond to the story on their own website at www.rush.edu? As of this writing, there is no reaction to this story on the website.
• What does the number and intensity of Savini’s FB comments say about how traditional media stories interact with social media sites and what implications exist for communicators?

Leave your comments/reactions here and we’ll follow this case study together to see what happens next.