8 bullseye tips on social media from the U.S. Army

Earlier this month, the U.S. Army Social Media Handbook was released to the public.  It is a solid guide of practical tips for anyone engaging in digitally networked dialogue, whether for personal or professional use.

Many of the tips promote networking caution in the interest of saving lives on the battlefield (and at home) and also to save individual and troop reputation.  From a crisis management standpoint, I thought these eight tips were standouts:

1.  “All leaders must communicate social media expectations…” (p. 4)

So many organizations provide protocols that define out-of-bounds online behavior for social networking.  It’s probably equally beneficial to illustrate the expected behavior.  This approach provides the most clarity if the organization is pressed to take corrective actions.

2.  Warnings on geotagging and location-based social networking (p. 5)

These warnings may be obvious to protect troop locations.  Perhaps it is less obvious to consider how this seemingly innocent location-disclosure can harm personal privacy or sensitive corporate information.  As one example, keep in mind that hackers love to collect information – including where you’ve been and when – before they infiltrate.

3.  Online relationships – keep it professional (p. 6)

Following this very obvious guideline can keep many corporate executives out of HR trouble, or out of the courtrooms. 

2011 crisis management trends

Public Relations Tactics, a monthly publication of PRSA, interviewed me and other PR veterans to solicit 2011 trends.

For those that don’t subscribe, here were my three published prognostications:

  • The “forced transparency” birthed by WikiLeaks (and likely to be copied by many others) will cause crisis management challenges for businesses everywhere.
  • Social networking crisis planning will evolve from “separate addendum pages” to more fully integrated with every aspect of crisis management.
  • The importance of the crisis plan was finally understood last decade; I hope the importance of experienced crisis leaders and teams must be as widely understood in the next.

As an added bonus to my blog followers, here’s one 2011 trend that PRSA did not print:

  • I think Shonda Rhimes’ new TV show (about “crisis PR”) will finally set the record straight on the real world of crisis management:  spinning celebrity stories over a cellphone during wanton make-out sessions in a booth of an expensive restaurant!  YEAH!

 

Were there any trends I may have missed?  Use the comments section below, please.

Jan. 25 update:  Ketchum President Rob Flaherty provides his thoughts on “The Changing Crisis Management Landscape” through this podcast done for American Airlines’ audio series called “The Executive Report.”

Poll: Impact of crises today – deep or shallow?

Courtesy: Stuart McMillen, based on work by Neil Postman

 

Although penned more than a year and a half ago, I recently stumbled upon a thought-provoking cartoon by Stuart McMillen and based on text by Neil Postman.  I’ve posted two key panels to the left, but clicking there will take you to the entire cartoon. 

In full, it concludes that Huxley’s fears have become more prevalent than Orwell’s, and that the public has an “almost infinite appetite for distractions.”  Information and entertainment overload are thought to be contributing factors.  We are hyperlinked, super networked and gadget consumed.  (For example, how many travelers do you see toggling through email, Twitter, AP news and Angry Birds apps when in an airport?  How many of you are those travelers?  I’m partially guilty.) 

If the Huxley fears are accurate, it raises an interesting question for crisis/reputation managers.  

Does a crisis today have more impact or less impact than, say, a decade ago when bad news came from fewer focal points? 

By example, I’d venture to guess that the public was more informed about the Toyota recall or the Qantas’ emergency landing (caused by a faulty Rolls-Royce engine) than a decade ago.  But is the impact the same as a decade ago?  

Continue reading Poll: Impact of crises today – deep or shallow?

Bad hype, good hype?

Earlier this week, I stumbled upon another tasty infographic from David McCandlessClick here or on the image to see the interactive graphic on his website:

Source: David McCandless

 Titled “Mountains Out of Molehills:  A timeline of global media scare stories,” McCandless illustrates some media coverage imbalance on threats that did not materialize into high fatalities. 

From this, you could conclude that this is bad hype – in the interest of higher ratings, the media stokes public fears and sensationalizes uncertainty.  You may be right. 

Alternatively, you could conclude that this is good hype. 

Continue reading Bad hype, good hype?