Hello, I Must Be Going

There’s been a lot recently within the PR business about the
impact of social media on crisis communications. Mostly, this speculation
projects social media as a bad thing. Companies and organizations can be
blind-sided by crises that tend to come out of nowhere, mounted by strangers.
Control becomes hard when sources are unknown or unexpected.

Perhaps there might be some good to dealing with a social
media-driven crisis situation, as Wall Street Journal editor Francesco Guerrera
noted this week in an opinion
column. “In a socially-networked world where investors, customers and
employees are judge, jury and news editors, companies may be able to survive
foul-ups better than in the old days of ‘traditional’ news and corporate spin,”
he notes.

This could be due to a couple of things: First, social media-related
incidents tend to be much shorter in duration and reach a comparatively smaller
audience than when the traditional media become involved. Second, the
traditional media often tend to become “obsessive-compulsive,” as one
commentator put it, and linger over an incident far longer than the story
merits. My hunch is that with shrinking news budgets, it’s easier for an editor
to just squeeze one more story out of a reporter, rather than moving on to
something else.

So what does all this mean to public relations
practitioners? Speed is of the essence, Guerrera reports. Also, reputation
management remains key, as it does with any crisis. Loyal customers, employees and
a supportive public will move on quicker than when there are thousands who will
gladly add their own tales of woe to a troubling post.

The Crisis at TCU

Texas Christian University has an outstanding reputation for integrity, both in the classroom and on the athletic field. That’s as it should be for an elite institution with religious roots.

Its excellent image has been sorely tested by this week’s arrest of 18 students, including four players on the Horned Frog football team, for drug dealing. The arrests threw TCU into a classic crisis communications scenario.

Nefarious doings on campus, involving athletes in particular, have been an all-too-common stories in recent years. And in many cases, the respective scholastic institutions have done a poor job responding when things went bad.

TCU may be different. It’s receiving “deserved praise” from the media for getting in front of the story and explaining what it has done, and what it will do, to assure this won’t happen again. An early-on press conference allowed college officials to answer questions, not just read canned statements blessed in advance by the lawyers. Now, football Coach Gary Patterson’s personally on the phone with parents and other interested parties.

It ain’t over 'til it's over for the Horned Frogs, but TCU may come out of this crisis with its reputation intact. The school’s been responsive and transparent – vital points in making a crisis response successful.

And the Winner Is….Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City School District

Last in the series on Award Winning Programs from the 2010 PRSA Del Oro Awards
Award Recipient of a La Plata Award of Merit in the Category: Crisis Communications

When swine flu hit the Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District in April 2009, they had no idea how large the public health matter would become over the course of two weeks. When the Health Department ordered a school to be closed indefinitely, followed by the entire school district, the communications team had to move into crisis mode. The crisis communication plan for these events was fluid and challenged repeatedly due to the changing circumstances. With the help of social and traditional media, the school district was able to relay timely and accurate information to its target audiences.
“I actually had no idea a crisis like the Swine Flu would explode into such a large scale,” said Rebecca Villareal, Communications Officer. “I truly became my superintendent’s press agent for those two weeks. When NPR called to interview her, she was so excited. I think for both of us it was one of those experiences we never imagined we would experience in our careers.”

Public relations in school districts is by no means uneventful, but Villareal reported that this crisis was the extreme. “We had swarms of media - day and night. I mean 24/7. I had the early morning guys calling me at 1:30 a.m. and wanting interviews between 3 and 5 a.m. I did not even know the media was out on the street at that time,” she said. “I am just glad they were okay with call-in interviews for those.”

Villareal reports that the organizations had some key learnings after the crisis, which resulted in strategic changes. The district purchased a Content Management System (CMS) for the website for quicker updates. The Tumblr blogging platform is now used to post cancellations and schedule changes and is linked to the Twitter account for instant updates. As well, electronic marquees that can be managed from one remote site were installed at all district facilities.

Randy Escamilla, APR, is a member of the PRSA San Antonio board and Director of Communications for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.