Social Media and Crisis Planning February 13, 2008

Case Studies Virginia Tech Red Cross FEMA Press Conference Lessons from Hurricane Katrina

During a crisis there is an expectation that an organization will efficiently communicate with customers, employees, communities and media. However, the added ability to manage inbound feedback and messages makes the overall crisis response more effective.

Strategies for Implementation Participate in Social Media Build a credible voice “Dark” portal or channel Design a system that simplifies

Meeting Needs of Stakeholders Internal vs. Eternal Is the technology pervasive? Multiple channels of communication Push or pull? An opt-in system One- or two-way communication

Meeting Needs of Communicators Pulling the trigger on messaging, who decides? Comfort with the tools Where social media fits in the overall strategy Business continuity and crisis communication

The Communicators Toolkit When to consider a proprietary platform o When your corporate reputation is dependent on communicating well in a crisis o When there is a need to securely communicate with far-flung employees o When it is likely that the core areas of the organization will be exposed to a crisis or natural disaster over the next five years When there is no budget o Blogs and other publishing platforms o The power of RSS and syndication: tools (conversion of info to different formats) o Twitter/SMS tools

Features to Consider Content-management module Multiple channels of communication – push, pull and two- way Secure site to ensure employee privacy Dynamic external News Room External hosting to support continuity Robust data security and transfer procedures

Off-the-Shelf Solutions

Matrix of Social Media Tools + Second year $12,000 ($3/employee); ++ Can be added with customization and additional cost; * Fee for WordPress is one-time design fee Employee Site PushNews Press Site Manage ContentRSSSMSPhone Annual Cost Employee Outpost ●●●●●●● ++ $17,000 + MessageOne ●●●●●●● $36,000 WordPress WordPress * ++ ●●●● $5,000 * Amerilert ●●●●● ++ $4,400 PIER ●●●●●●●● $10,000

Contact Information Kami Watson Huyse, APR My PR Pro Blog: Communication OvertonesCommunication Overtones Ike Pigott American Red Cross Blog: Occam’s RazrOccam’s Razr