Category: Uncategorized

Ah, your website. It’s awesome. Easy to navigate, eye-catching, and
well, it’s got everything about your agency in human-speak finally
after years of rewrites and doldrums. (Or maybe that’s my
organization’s website.) The members of the public that stop by love
it, and more and more of them are doing that. Hell, you’ve even
segmented your audience giving folks exactly the information they’re
looking for in the simplest way.

But are you hitting all of your audiences? Maybe not.

A few weeks ago, PRDaily had a post
up on crafting a
webpage for the media. What a neat idea! My first thought when
reading about this was a historical reference for press releases, and
obviously up to date contact information.

But then I started thinking about government agencies, and what their
websites look like (generally bad), and if they have media pages
(usually not). While PRDaily is usually geared towards our friends in
the private sector, I think that we as government folks can still
learn something about best practices from it. I wonder, should we
start building media pages on our websites?

Well, let’s think about what that entails. Like I said above, a
release archive (and if we’re asking for the stars, why not a search
function; find all documents about E. coli, etc.) and contact
information. In fact, the article is very focused on having good, easy
ways to get in contact with someone on the PR staff. Easy enough,
though I know of no agency that posts the PIOs cell phone number
online (as the article recommends).

None of that sounds too hard, right? So let’s step it up a notch. Why
not have your media page have bios of key Directors and Managers (both
short and long)? Why not have descriptions of what each part of your
organization does? (This is a good one, I think. The article talks
about an About page, but the difference between what McDonald’s does
and what the Philly Health Department does couldn’t be greater. For
starters, we don’t just do one thing, we do dozens of things. And too
many folks—reporters included—cannot describe the difference between a
lead abatement program and an asbestos abatement program. Why not help
them out?)

Again, we’re not yet moving mountains. Most of this stuff probably
already exists, so posting it shouldn’t be too difficult. So let’s get
crazy. Why not post video footage and audio clips (both easily done
using the tools found
here)?
When you post a new press release, video the Commissioner saying two
or three key quotes. Post mp3 audio clips too so your local news radio
station can get on the air more quickly with soundbites.

So besides some making the job of lazy reporters easier, why do this?
Well, for one, they’re usually not lazy, they’re overly busy, and by
making things easier on them makes it more likely that your stories
will air. Instead of tracking down a spokesperson’ phone number,
calling, leaving a message, and waiting on a callback, they’ll know
right away what an ozone alert day is, and why it was called. Boom,
straight to print.

Another reason is that your PIO is too busy. Seriously, how many times
do you or members of your communications staff get phone calls for the
exact same information over and over.? Where did Dr. So-and-so
practice before… How many apparatus does the Department have
available… Etc. Etc. Etc. All of that background is easily posted on
a website and potentially saves the reporter from having to call you,
and saves you from having to talk to them.

The final reason has to do emergency communications, and how being
first is akin to setting the tone. If the first thing the media hears
is citizen reports of death and doom, and they head straight to your
website and only find happy, happy articles—none of which talk about
your day-in and day-out emergency response planning—well, then you’re
already seen as being behind the incident. Sure they could click
around a while, but c’mon, really? We both know that ain’t happening.
But, if you’ve got a ten-second clip of the Commissioner saying we’re
aware of the incident and are actively working to learn the scope of
it already posted (literally the FIRST thing you should do in an
emergency), well madam, you’ve just set the tone for the media. Sure
it’s not consistent, approved messaging, but when no one understands
exactly what’s going on, platitudes help.

My recommendation? Seriously consider a “Media” button on your
agency’s website. Your local reporters should get tons of use out of
it, and if you’re ever unlucky enough to have national or
international media stop by after a disaster, well, they might just
find the best intro to who you are and what you do—without having to
call you.

Hi!

So, yeah, it’s been a while. Stuff happens.

Let’s think big.

Frankly, I wonder about the changing face of what we do and wonder if
we’re not too much in the weeds. Too much focused on the minutiae of
our work to see the larger goal.

Is our goal to create a “viral” campaign or message? Should it be?

More and more I’m starting to think that it’s not—well, it shouldn’t be anyway.

The goal should be to create a campaign that is good enough and
interesting enough for people to interact with and forward to their
friends. That’s the essence of a viral campaign, you say? Sure, but we
should do more.

The goal should be to integrate one’s messages so deeply into our
public’s lives that their conversations are sprinkled with the
information we’re continually providing. The post-campaign era, if
you will. Your ideas are taken by members of the public and passed
off as their own stories, enhanced by their own experiences and
flavors. Your goal should not be to communicate an idea, but to plant
a bed of ideas and let the earth, sun, wind and rain grow your garden.

For emergency comms, this has the double benefit of ensuring that your
publics don’t need to be reminded to look to you in an emergency,
because they already are. You’re their friend (and not in the Facebook
sense), their neighbor over the fence with all of the latest
information.

The question is, how do you become that friend, that trusted advisor?

I argue that it’s simple. You do it by being a friend and trusted
advisor. Communicate constantly, about things that are relevant and
interesting, and do it in a way that allows for growth and maturation
of the relationship. Be a human being, not an approved message.

Okay, I’ll admit it, I rubberneck. You know what that is, right? Can’t
take your eyes off an accident? The term comes from people who crane
their necks around while driving their car to see an accident pulled
off to the side of the road. Invariably, they drive slower and cause
much of the traffic backup associated with minor accidents.

Now, you admit it, too. You’re a rubbernecker. Maybe you don’t gawk at
crash scenes or flashing lights, but who among you said,
“Representative Weiner is a jerk and a liar, and his lack of a guiding
crisis voice makes this something that doesn’t really affect me?” And
then stopped watching? Almost none of you, right? I watched, and I
knew almost right away that it was such a poor effort on his part that
it wouldn’t even make good blog fodder.

So, why bring it up, you ask. Because the reason that situation would
make for a poor blog post is because it mirrors seemingly every other
PR crisis out there. No plan, no forethought, no common sense, and a
complete lack of understanding about how crisis communications works
today. Think back at all of the big public immolations this year and,
at their root, weren’t those the reasons why the situation invariably
went from bad to worse?

We online “cluckers” (we cluck at others’ misfortune and shake our
heads solemnly at the afflicted’s bad fortune and foresight) do our
thing and move on when the train wreck is out of the news. “Shoulda
known better.” And then back to our day-to-day.

Wouldn’t it be more productive to instead take the opportunity to
insulate yourself, your agency and your clients against such a thing
happening to you? In fact, I’d bet that Rep. Weiner’s communications
director probably did the same thing we did after TEPCO or Deepwater.
He or she clucked and shook her head and did nothing to make sure that
didn’t happen to them. Why? Because they had a plan. Just like you and
I have a plan. And it’s good. You know because you wrote it yourself
back in ‘97. Just like Representative Weiner’s office did, and TEPCO
did, and everyone else who’s been the subject of our rubbernecking.

With that in mind, I’d like to point out this great
post
on Bill Salvin’s blog, View From the
Bridge. In it, he implores you to
review your crisis communications plan—now. He purports to have seen
plans that list executives’ pager numbers, and fax numbers as
dissemination modalities. Does this sort of thing sound like your
plan? Do you think it sounds like Rep. Weiner’s kind of plan?

Bill gives us three great things to help start the process:

• Check your notification procedures: Is there anyone on the list that no longer works there? Be sure to test some of the phone numbers.

• Check scenario assumptions: Let your imagination run wild and test the plan’s assumptions against the most horrific scenario you can imagine.

• Confirm integration with external agencies: Are the right external agencies included in your plan? Have they seen your plan? Have you seen their plan?

The most important thing is to take the plan off the shelf (dust it
off) and read it. Then do it again in six months or a year. I like to
tie reviews to specific calendars, so it’s easier to remember, rather
than the crazy vague “annually.” Its almost the end of the government
fiscal year. If you live by that schedule, now is a great time to get
ready for the next year. Or do it by the calendar year (that week in
between Christmas and New Year’s is always so quiet anyways). Or even
your birthday!

Just do it now, and get on a real schedule of keeping it updated. Help
keep us rubberneckers from gawking.