My focus of Turner's post was the Tornado that swept through Jackson, Tennessee, absolutely destroying the campus of Union University in early February. With this example, he shows how blogs and social networks have become vital in getting through a crisis successfully. After the tornado hit, the university's web site was down. Friend of Turner and News Director of the University, Tim Ellsworth, knew that word needed to get out fast to parents and other concerned citizens. While writing a news release, he discovered that just minutes after the destruction, Turner's friend, Steve McCoy, had already posted regarding the incident. Making a smart move, Turner decided to comment on McCoy's post using the information from the news release he was writing. This turned out to be an effective way to inform the public and to reach those who were seeking this information. Within minutes, parents, alums, friends, etc. began turning to this blog for the latest information. Less than a day after the big blow, Chris notes how there were more than 200 bloggers posting comments, information, pictures and videos regarding the tornado. In fact, this turned out to be a great way to connect the students to their parents.
The use of blogs in this situation was an effective maneuver for spreading the word in this time of crisis. President of Union University, Dr. David Dockery was praised for making himself accessible and visible. Fortunately for him, I believe that due to the blogs, much of the pressure was taken off of Dockery. Had parents not been able to receive any sort of information, there certainly would have been growing concerns and frustrations, which could have caused Dockery's leadership to be questioned. For about a month, Tim Ellsworth updated his blog regarding the recovery effort in order to continuously get new news and information out there to those who needed it. All in all, this tactic, to me, was brilliant. It just makes sense to turn to immediate and interactive social networks such as blogs to receive and share vital information during a crisis.
The Big Blog Company suggests that the blogs role during a crisis includes:
1. to disseminate the facts, staying ahead of the news cycle
2. to project a company's message
3. to combat error and squash rumors
Blogging as crisis management is suggested to be done by one person in the company who then reports to the CEO in order to verify facts. The point of using a blog as a tool is to record company's management of a crisis, to correct errors, and to report facts. By providing accurate information regarding the company, and NOT opinion, this can be an effective PR tactic. Also, as Turner suggests, part of a crisis communications plan should be assigning a person to monitor blogs in order to respond appropriately to others who are writing about you or your company.
1 comment:
Kit, thanks for stopping by my blog and giving me a shout out. As you may have seen I'm trying to track what our company is doing to transition to the impending wave of social media affecting the way companies do business. Hope the crisis post was valuable to you.
Good luck with the studies and pursuing IMC. I think you are getting a strategic degree at a most interesting time as communications fields are on the verge of getting the apple cart rocked. -- Chris Turner
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