21C Communication Campaign – What A Ride!

Over 10 years ago speaking at Women in Finance Networking Breakfast the question was asked “How will the the Internet impact on business communication, nee marketing?’

Before I could answer an assertive voice from the attractive audience answered “Not much!”

Why?

“Advertising does the trick.” said another.

Then, ‘Cold calling really works!”

“We use direct mailing”

“Our data base is huge and everybody gets an email about new our great new finance product!”

“What do you think Christian?”

If the comments from the floor were any indication, we just didn’t have aclue about the internet, communication, marketing  and sales.

At that stage,, Year 2000, nobody could image what was going to happen over the next 10 years and many are still stuck in 20C ways.

The real challenge is how do we integrate traditional media and the new internet media.  Next time I’ll outline some of discoveries of some of the best communication innovators of the past five years.

Cheers for now and remember “Live for Life and Life will Live for You”  Christian.

The quality of your communication is the response you get.

Issues and Crisis Management

Ignoring an  age care issue is like bomb wait for detonation.

Once the fuse is lit, the issue quickly becomes a crisis, often under the extreme scrutiny of stakeholders – government regulators, aged care agencies, residents, relatives and media.

The management of issues and crises, however, can be a beacon of good management, creating confidence and trust for your stakeholders and in your organization’s management and operation.

That is the aim of Taking Control of Issues and Crises program is enhancing confidence and trust.

At the heart of effective Issues and Crisis Management is to:

• Identify honestly issues and their level of risk – high, medium or low.
• Established 24/7 lines of communication to key management
• Collection and communication of information that provides the facts and context for a clear understanding of the issues and crisis.
• Manage External lines of communication
• The establishment of an issues and crisis team
• Clearly identify the roles and responsibilities of each member of the Issues and crisis management team specifically designed for your organization
• Develop a communication plan that could, for example, involve:

• Federal and State agencies
• Ministers and their media and policy aides at Federal and State level
• Board of Management of the aged care facility
• Executive team of the facility
• Staff
• Residents and primary contact relatives
• Police, if necessary and
• Traditional Media (TV, radio and print) and new media (internet and social media)

Case Study

Recently our organization was involved in a crisis that involved the in-appropriate sexual behaviour of a male resident towards women with dementia and women who where too embarrassed to discuss or give evidence in the alleged offences.

The staff was made aware of, but did not witness, the alleged offences.

Some of the women made the staff aware of the alleged offences, but would not give evidence when the police were called to investigate the allegations.

In addition, the law did not protect the women with dementia, who were as defenceless as children.

In the case sexual abuse of children, third party evidence can be sought and used as evidence in the prosecution of an alleged offer.

This is not the case when adults who have dementia are subject to sexual abuse, although they are not cognitively competent.

In this case, the crisis revealed a major issue for the industry and the legal system.

With the help of members of Taking Control, the facility executive team managed the crisis with minimum of fuss, and no media exposure.

Taking Control has worked with many organizations with difficult issues and crisis.

For information or immediate support please contact Christian Peterson on 0418 303 667 (all hours). This contact number has been on since 1992 and will answered immediately or within minutes.

Why? We now have a 24/365 news cycle and internet availability which the media and citizen journalists monitor social media and other internet sites for news stories vexation rumours or claims.

The Death of Spin

The other day a particularly nasty newspaper article caught my eye.

As part of the torture process, the police of the Middle East country anally raped a man using a wooden pole. Using a mobile, videoed the torture and humiliation of the innocent man.  Sorry about the graphic description.

To intimidate his family, the police then sent the video to the mobile phones of the man’s family and friends.  Disgusting, horrific, brutal, but unfortunately torture and intimidation are part of the culture of some countries, including the good guys.

The police concerned denied their brutality until it appeared on My Space, an internet site.  My Space is a website where anyone can place messages, photos, and videos, quickly and simply.  My Space is a place frequented by millions of internet users.

The police media unit tried to deny the allegations of torture, but had not counted on the police video reaching the world, particularly main stream media.

The message here is that with the World Wide Web, ordinary citizens can easily get their messages out to counter act ‘spin’ doctors.  Now some of those citizens can be vexatious, as was the case in three aged care facilities in last year.

In one case the vexatious claims were made by a disgruntled employee and two residents who convinced a popular nightly TV program to air their ‘grievances’.  A website was also used by an ethnic organisation to spread the allegations, which were without foundation.

The World Wide Web is also  Citizen Journalists, people who aren’t formally trained as journalists, but have instant access through the Web to millions of potential readers, listeners and viewers.  They may report allegations without checking their sources’ motives and integrity.

For example, a number of leading American companies have suffered at the hands citizen journalists who have made un-informed claims that have damaged their business. In some cases the companies did deserve ‘outing’ for poor services and faulty products; however, others did not deserve the treatment they received.

And then there are internet Blogs, short for Web logs. A blog is a place on the website where you can log onto and write what you think, and what you believe you have seen or what a friend told you.

Reporters from the  media regularly monitor certain websites to pick up leads for a story,

So the message is that trying to spin a crisis is not possible as the facts and claims will be found out.

Before the World Wide Web, you could spin a story for a month or two, before the truth, or a version of the truth, surfaced in the media.  Today, the chance of spin being ‘un-spun’ is far greater and will be done in record time, sometimes in hours not days or months.

One of the steps to counter spin, whether true, partly true or false, is to use the communication keys for tough situations:

The keys are

• Regret,
  
• Responsibility,
  
• Remedial Action and
• Resonance

To learn how to use these keys check out Making Media Magic under the Communication Skills tag.

Next Friday,February 19 Publicity Magic.

Christian Peterson

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