Here’s a scenario for you:
1. Let’s imagine for a moment that you are one of the largest companies and most well-recognized brands in the world.
2. Let’s also imagine that your company/brand is having a very difficult time with public opinion and PR lately because you have created an ecological and economic catastrophe of almost Biblical proportions.
What would you do?
Chances are that on the communications side, you would create a crisis response plan as robust as the damage itself. You would create a web page on your site to keep the public informed, provide updates on the actual response, post photos and videos of what you are doing to fix the problem, and respond to questions, criticism and anything else that comes your way. As a company with enormous resources, powerful connections and deep pockets, you would spare no expense: You would hire the best PR firms, the best web design firms, the best attorneys, and the best crisis communications monitoring and response professionals on the planet. Right?
Well, if you are BP, yes… and no.
On the traditional web front, I have to admit that BP has done a stellar job. The company’s Oil Spill Response page is very well designed, full of well-produced content, and stocked with helpful resources. Moreover, it is currently the default landing page for BP.com, which is smart. Anyone entering www.BP.com is automatically redirected to the Oil Spill response page. Here’s a screenshot:
So A+ on the traditional web front. Someone at BP deserves a pat on the back. No question.
But someone at BP also owes BP’s senior management an explanation. Because you see, in 2010, creating a pretty website to control the message isn’t enough anymore. Not by a longshot. PR, online/digital reputation management, crisis management require a little more savvy and understanding of media in 2010 than it did in 1995. As Nestle learned recently after Greenpeace brought the company to its knees using only YouTube and Facebook, PR professionals not well-versed in the world of Social Media and Social Networking sites are essentially as effective as a deaf and near-sighted sentry: You cannot defend a brand and its reputation if you cannot guard it, and you cannot guard it if you are not listening for signs of an impending problem.
While BP’s PR machine is busy creating content on their website and spreading it out via its official Twitter and Facebook accounts, it somehow completely missed two crucial steps:
1. BP didn’t think to scoop up relevant BP “identities” on Twitter. Like, for example @BPglobalPR (We’ll come back to that in a second.) That a company of BP’s stature wouldn’t have someone on staff (in PR, Marketing, Legal, etc.) making sure that the brand’s identity is safe and sound on a Social Network as active and rapidly scaling as Twitter seems… strange, especially in 2010.
2. BP doesn’t seem to be monitoring key channels properly. Not in terms of what “key channels” mean when it comes to crisis management and digital reputation management in 2010. This apparent disconnect from the present state of media and communications management betrays a knowledge, insight and skill gap similar to that displayed by Nestle earlier this year that is frankly surprising, given what either company probably spends on retainers and other services dealing with PR and brand management.
Case in point: BP’s unchecked brand hijack (or rather “brandjacking”) on Twitter.
Here’s what’s going on: Since May 19th, someone on Twitter has been publishing updates under the @BPglobalPR handle” complete with a crisp BP logo and a profile identifying them as “BP Global PR”. Here is their very first update:
As a first contact, not a big deal. But then, things got a little more interesting:
You get the picture.
Funny stuff, unless you’re BP, and in particular, unless your job – at, with or for BP – is to make sure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen. I can only assume that when BP writes big fat checks to its PR partners and assets, they expect them to be on top of these things, as well they should. Evidently, that may not be the case.
Let’s reframe this for a second: Will anyone mistake these updates for actual BP missives? Not likely. (Although a few people did, initially.) The updates are obviously a joke. But what does this say about the effectiveness of BP’s PR team in this time of crisis? What does it also suggest about BP’s interest in listening to the public? On the whole, what does it say about BP’s communications, brand management, and reputation management teams? I will let you answer those questions for yourselves.
My biggest questions today are these:
1. With millions spent on PR, crisis communications management, brand management, reputation management, how did an enterprising joker on twitter manage to fly under the radar for a week now, in plain view, using BP’s own name and logo? How? BP, are your PR and communications experts purposely blowing this off, or do they not understand how much their job has changed since 1995? (5/24 Update: According to an interview given to Adage a few hours after this post was published, it seems that both answers may be accurate.)
2. Compare the fake BP twitter account to the real BP twitter account. What is wrong with this picture? Which one looks real, and which one looks fake? How does this happen?
Update: Although http://www.bp.com indicates @Oil_Spill_2010 as its official twitter account, Shannon Paul (@ShannonPaul on Twitter) was kind enough to point me to another official BP account on Twitter: @BP_America. Here is what it looks like:
Good to see that BP does, in fact, have a branded Twitter account. Next step: Linking to it from the BP website.
(Tip: If your company has a Twitter account, it doesn’t hurt to add it to your website’s contact/media/resources section.)
5/25 Update (This space moves fast): Some changes were made to the @BPglobalPR account’s appearance since Monday 24 May. New logo:
3. How does the fake BP twitter account have more followers (in other words, more reach and influence) than the real BP twitter accounts? (5/25 Update: Only 10 hours after the posting this piece, @BPglobalPR now had already scaled to over 16,500 followers. 24 hours later – see image above – over 26,800 followers.)
Perhaps BP should consider hiring the guy behind the fake BP account. By all accounts, he seems to have accomplished more with a free twitter account, a healthy dose of wit and a few burritos than BP’s entire PR machine could manage in spite of its enormous budget, resources, and access to top PR, communications and digital talent from around the globe. The lesson here may be this: If corporate juggernauts like Nestle and BP can be made fools of this easily – in the era of the participatory web (which is no longer an emerging shift) – then perhaps it’s time for the corporate communications world to retool.
Five years ago, I interviewed with a large PR firm in the midwest. They were interested in speaking with me because I had a blog, I had worked in manufacturing, and they were trying to understand how to break into the blogosphere for some of their clients. The most senior executive in the meeting – a respected PR industry veteran – angrily explained to me that PR was about controlling the message, that it had always been so, and that it would always be so. And that her firm would never deviate from that course, no matter how many people became bloggers. (To which I replied “okay, so why am I here?” A story for another day.) Anyway, the point: This was 2005. Just five years ago, THAT is what the mindset was in the upper echelons of the Fortune 500’s PR firm universe. Less than two years ago, when I still worked within the Fortune 500 world, I routinely dealt with HR managers who were only vaguely aware of LinkedIn, PR managers who had never heard of ZDnet, Mashable, or even Twitter, and Digital managers who had never worked with WordPress. I know this is difficult for those of you who live, work, and truly exist in 2010 to grasp the full measure of what I am saying, but it is important for everyone to understand that a significant portion of the workforce today (even key management roles) is not up-to-date at all. Many of the people making crucial decisions in the business, manufacturing, marketing, communications and PR worlds today are five, ten, sometimes fifteen years behind the times. And when they are, this sort of thing happens.
In the end, once the fat checks have been cashed and the pretty reports and powerpoint decks have been presented, the result is still this: Those retainer fees and hefty salaries and seemingly impressive resumes didn’t stop the embattled brands/clients that paid dearly for them from the kind of embarrassment that my 15-year-old could have crushed with a laptop and about 15 minutes of light typing. There is absolutely no excuse for that lack of readiness and professional proficiency at the Fortune 500 level, and that is a problem that needs fixing. The time for paying lip service to the “Can you handle Social Media” question has come to an end.
So here are a few tips to avoid this in the future:
1. Monitor all currently relevant channels, not just the ones that were relevant to your field ten years ago. If you can afford tools like Radian6, Scoutlabs and Webtrends, get a demo today. If you can’t, free tools exist, not the least of which on Twitter is simply… running keyword searches, including your company name. This is not outrageously complicated.
2. Hire people who understand the Social Media space. More to the point: People who work in it every day. If you are a PR firm, hire someone who gets this stuff. If you are a PR firm’s client, ask that your PR firm hire someone who gets this stuff. A few hints: If they claim to be “certified” in Social Media, pass. If Social Media “Guru” or “Expert” is in their title, pass. Want to find someone who didn’t convert to the new Social Media religion three months ago? Look for references here and here.
3. Understand that experience in the Social Media space varies greatly depending on the function. A Community Manager, for example, may not have the skills and experience to help you integrate Social Media across the enterprise, or measure the effectiveness of your Social Communications programs and campaigns. It is worth noting that there are specialties within the Social Web management world, and that the “Social Media manager” designation is far from being one-size-fits-all.”
4. Don’t leave this to the last minute. Invest in these “new” channels now. Start listening, monitoring and understanding them, even if you aren’t ready to say anything yet. Learn to listen before you learn how to engage.
5. Make sure you don’t leave yourself (or your clients) open to brandjackings. #BrandManagement101.
Until the laggards catch up though, I will continue to enjoy watching @BPglobalPR ridicule BP’s PR machine, one irreverent tweet at a time.
Other posts on the topic:
Published before this post: John Taylor’s “BP gets brandjacked on Twitter“
Published after this post: Adage’s “Why BP isn’t Fretting over its Twitter impostor” and Raymond Lutzewitz’ “Satire, a dangerous slope: BP Case Study” and of course, there’s also this (from The Guardian): “A Crash Course in PR, from the folks at @BPGlobalPR“
And things get weirder still: Time reports that BP’s official account may have been hacked.
Brand Building and Online Marketing Blog 
This is SO critical, and so sad that BP got shanked by someone smarter about social communication and more timely… for nothing, really, except to amuse themselves.
I wish companies got that PR control doesn’t mean today what it did in 1999. That ship has sailed – like it or not. That BP has not yet interceded, though I’ve seen you and some friends discuss this account online for about a week, is even more frustrating. For all they are doing, they must not be ‘listening’ for online mentions. Maybe at their level the volume is deafening, but I doubt they’re listening at all.
“…it is important for everyone to understand that a significant portion of the workforce today (even key management roles) is not up-to-date at all.” A lot of people on our side of the SM fence do NOT get that – we just have to keep trying to help them see what’s missing as you’ve done here in this post.
You and I met over the topic of brandjacking, a year and a half ago I think. Will we still be talking about this in another year, two or three? 🙂
Kristi
1. You said “shanked,” which tells me you’ve been watching 80’s prison movies again. 😀
2. Yes. @BPglobalPR is giving BP the proverbial finger on the interwebs, and the joke is squarely on them. Specifically on BP’s comms and PR team(s), which are not only painfully out of their element, but are being outclassed by a kid on a computer with zero budget.
3. My mother refuses to learn how to use e-mail. My best friend refuses to learn how to use txt/sms. Many of my peers refuse to listen to Lady Gaga, even out of curiosity. The fact is that people get stuck. It’s something that happens. They wake up one day and decide “no, I’m not changing with the times anymore. Change is stupid. It isn’t relevant to me.” That’s where these problems start happening: As long as it is your job to do X, you must stay current with anything that makes you the best at doing X. The notion that technological, social, cultural or best practices advancements are somehow no longer relevant to a person is a complete abdication of further professional relevance. Whenever I hear an executive scoff at a major shift in customer culture or behavior, all I see is a guy who would rather be playing golf than fighting for his company’s future. And that’s bad.
4. Yes we will. 3 years from now, 5 years from now, 10 years from now.
Looks like BP set up a new facebook page in response to Twitter: http://www.facebook.com/stoptheoilspill
I was glad you took some time to look over this little situation. Well…it is not little. But, imagine if this was BP for a second. I know this is a bit off base, but imagine if someone was hired to create this account to divert some small bit of attention from the lack of transparency on BP’s current SM strategy. Yes, crude as it may be and sometimes either distasteful or “funny,” but implementing the rhetorical intent of providing some “comic relief” from the madness. They could either be destroying their own brand or maybe even diverting attention away from their own in-abilities to release any information. Basically, the information they might release could create a larger liability than account like this? Now, I understand that there is a sense of conspiracy theory in this thought process, but it could make sense in some parallel universe!
I am glad you tackled this topic with the same thoughtfulness and thoroughness needed to dissect this animal!
BR
Likewise, it could just as easily come from a frustrated BP employee, (even within the PR mechanism) lashing back at what they see as their own leadership’s failure to do their job. So yeah, I hear you loud and clear. The source and the motivation behind it could be pretty varied. Let me know when your post is up so I can link to it. 🙂
Olivier,
Your interview story above reminded me of something.
About a year ago, one of my clients was working with a global management, image and PR company who represent many of the top sports people and celebrities. During a meeting with one of their senior guys, we started talking about social media. He told us that he was trying to keep his clients off of Twitter because they were still trying to figure out how to control the message.
I would love to be able to say that during the course of the rest of the meeting I constructed a beautiful, Socratic, elegant and forceful argument, convinced the executive of the error of his ways, and in the process turned the entire sports image management industry on its head, but, alas…
A year ago? Really? Shhheesh. So sad.
I’ll be interested to see if there is another PR flub in handling this.
Will they publicly go after the brandjacker giving the entire situation more visibility?
It just makes me cringe when organizations don’t simply
own that they could have done better (and then do better) but instead they deflect their own responsibility in a mess like this by attacking. They just end up looking like the cranky old man on the block who doesn’t quite get the youngsters.
Eric, I just attending a publishing conference this weekend and they talked about authors marketing themselves via social media. They warned about authors who might not be very good with social media. If their persona or job does not entail them being controversial, they could really create a PR kerfluffle with stupid posts (Scott Baio, I’m looking at you!).
Did you know that Scott Baio and I are twins from completely different parents? Oh yeah. It’s science.
Laurie, nothing we hate more around here than stupid posts! This is serious business; no place for personality and random silliness. Just look at Olivier’s Twitter feed sometime for proof… 🙂
Olivier,
Great post! This illustrates an important point and should send a message to all companies/corporations with a brand to protect. Since Social Media is an ever changing, constantly evolving medium it is paramount that they hire individuals who will keep themselves educated. In my opinion, perhaps they are too comfortable. Too secure. A fat cat is a lazy cat. >,<
Well said.
Good post, Olivier. My guess is that BP public relations intentionally decided not to use the corporate logo for their Gulf Oil Spill profile, perhaps to try to distance the brand from the disaster. Seems silly in retrospect, but I’m sure the pr team was scrambling in the early days and decisions were not always well thought through.
I can also somewhat excuse the pr team from not snapping up every possible iteration of their brand name on social media. Where would that begin and end, and would it really stop someone from hi-jacking the brand name in some fashion? Doubtful to me…
What is rather inexcusable, though, is the lack of social media monitoring and proactive engagement. And while this may be the fault of an outdated pr policy, I think it’s just as likely the resistance/ignorance stems from the very top of the organization. How many times have you sat in an executive meeting and heard the president or CEO say, “Twitter? Facebook? LinkedIn? We just don’t need that.” And if they do agree to a presence, they invest as little as possible in terms of money, talent and time since it’s just not viewed as a priority.
You’re right. They don’t get it. (Until they need it, that is.) As my grandma used to say, you can lead a horse to water, but…
@JenaJean
Point 1: Jennifer, I am certain that you’re right. I can almost hear those deliberations now. 😀
Point 2: True. No company can anticipate every single permutation of their name. However, very large companies/global brands would be served well to generate a comprehensive list of potential account names, and claim them. a) Just to be sure, and b) just in case they decide to use them some day.
Point 3: Dead on. Although I am sure that some PR firm somewhere is getting paid fairly well to “handle” that “social media stuff.” I’d ask for a refund.
Yeah. Awesome post and it hits the point hard. If you want to see a big company crumble in 15 minutes, all they have to do is trip over something and everyone is all over it. Then they have a mess on their hands. Whoever that PR person was who said, “PR is about controlling the message” will never truly understand it until a 15 year old kid crashes the whole company and leaves her jobless. You can’t control the message and you never will.
This is why I love this space and will probably be here for the rest of my life. It never truly gets dull here does it? 😉
It can get pretty dull. But don’t forget this: Every generation aims to topple the previous one. Today’s renegade kids crashing the system will become tomorrow’s out-of-touch execs. Be careful. The more you’ve accomplished, you have to lose, the weaker your resolve wants to become. The key is to keep that spirit alive all the way to the end. Never become the system. Always move it forward. Always test its limits. 😉
Very good post. They do seems to forget that people are there customers in the end.
Great post Olivier,
Aside of the social media side my perception is that the whole situation has been – and still is – handled very badly.
In my humble opinion they have botched the response to the matter at hand from day one and are struggling with the PR side in addition to that. Their public appearance looking at the top brass people side seems indecisive, uncertain, slow and really careless every step along the way up till now.
It is one thing to make up a quality webpage but this does not help when the communicators do not live up to the standards set by the page.
This is going to be a horrific debacle when it is all said and done with the PR side being probably the smaller problem after all.
Again, another quality post from you, thanks!
Manfred
QLI International
My first thought on this whole crisis is how do we have smart enough people to put a platform in the middle of the ocean and drill for oil, but not the smarts or foresight to fix a leak. Perhaps the engineers from BP need to step aside and let the guys from Pampers, Huggies, or Band-Aid have a go.
As for the Twitter account. My theory is that the impostor got a little too much publicity too fast and BP took too long to shut him down. They took too long deciding how to deal with him. Once he got so many followers and media attention, they didn’t want to appear like the bad guy and do even more harm to their already tarnished reputation. Perhaps this is a long term ploy that BP will eventually release as something they monitored, but allowed to happen because they are humans after all and wanted to show the world that they have the ability to laugh too.
I don’t know this will all play out but my guess is that BP will eventually admit they made a mistake in dealing with this situation, put a positive spin on it, and turn it into positive PR to help rebuild their brand reputation. That is, if they have the foresight to do so.
Not to excuse BP, but the “incident” really had little to do with BP. The contractor doing the work (Halliburton) for BP is directly responsible for the disaster. Is BP responsible for bearing the responsibility of cleaning up the mess? Yes. But BP itself shouldn’t be blamed too much for the spill itself.
I agree with your assessment. Thanks for the comment, Chris.
BP may have contracted to Halliburton but the oil rig and this whole incident have BP stamped all over it. It may not be their fault directly, but they are taking the brunt of the media attention.
To be honest, I don’t care who’s at fault. I just want someone to step up and stop the bleeding before any more damage is done. The long term effects are going to be catastrophic if it’s not fixed soon.
Well yeah. No question. I just want to make sure that with the three companies involved in this disaster, all three of which are responsible in equal measure yet for different reasons, we don’t end up singling out one company and giving the other two a pass. BP deserves the public’s anger, but it shouldn’t bear that weight alone. Know what I mean?
I agree with you. I just think we’ll have to wait and see if the other companies stand up and shoulder some of the load.
Very good post. Keep that work
Deepwater Horizon Response – and its Twitter feed @oil_spill_2010 – is a collection of federal agencies that provides oversight of BP and is dedicated to securing the well, fighting the spill offshore, protecting the coast and minimizing impacts on the environment and local economy. While the response includes BP, @oil_spill_2010 is not part of BP PR.
Noted on the “branding” for our Twitter feed. Not everyone’s first choice.
-LCDR Hoeft, Online Communications Coordinator
I kind of figured, yes. 😉
Thanks for the clarification, Sir.
Nice post.
However, while I despise BP and have for years, I think you set up a bit of a straw man argument against BP’s PR here. That is, there is NO WAY any company can cover all possible Twitter permutations. Tell me – Would you have snatched up BPGlobalPr? How about BPGlobalNetwork or BP2Public or BPMediaMatters or….BPBananaEatingSocialVoiceofReason? Point is, it doesn’t matter what the @name is….when the intent is obvious lampooning.
No business can protect every last possible permutation of @name+xxxxx
The larger issue, not mentioned, is that we mistake this sort of Twitter tomfoolery for substantive social change. Measuring Twit followers does not equate in any way with pressure on BP or Obama to move toward a future free of fossil fuels.
Todd, you’re right. And @BPGlobalPR might have fallen through the cracks. I’ll give you that. But big global brands like BP need to learn that claiming as many logical permutations of their brand name on a service like Twitter is crucial moving forward. And for 2 reasons:
1. Protecting themselves against cybersquatters and… well, this.
2. In case they end up needing those accounts
Here’s a (very) short list of accounts BP should have claimed a year ago: @BP @BritishPetroleum @BP_America @BPamerica @BPglobalPR @BPglobal @BP_Global @BP_PR @BPamericaPR @BPinvestorRel @BP_CMO @BP_Europe @BP_Australia @BP_CustomerServ etc. Are we talking about potentially claiming a few hundred accounts? For a company like BP, yes. It is someone’s job to do it. Whether they bank them or use them, is up to the company. Can you completely protect yourself against an usurpation like @BPglobalPR? Probably not, but you can make it pretty difficult for someone to do it. 😉
Saying that they should hire the guy who runs the fake Twitter account is ludicrous. The only reason it has more followers is because it’s entertainment, and people value entertainment over information any day of the week.
I agree: The entertainment value is driving the traffic. No question. But it doesn’t change the fact that the individual behind the @BPGlobalPR account knows more about a) using twitter and b) creating value than the folks managing BP’s real web presence and Social Media activity. I am not basing my tongue-in-cheek recommendation on the follower count alone. I am basing it on the individual’s superior knowledge and fluency of the space.
As an aside, that BP’s official account only has a few thousand followers in the middle of a crisis of this magnitude is strange to me. In terms of reach (which is pretty important for any corporate communications effort) is paramount. Yet, BP’s twitter feed had not, as of yesterday, found much of an audience at all. This, to me speaks to two fundamental problems on the BP communications side of things: 1. BP does not know how to use Twitter to increase its reach, yet. 2. BP does not know how to create value in the Social space yet. This guy knows how to do both. So yes, though I was joking when I suggested BP should hire him, the fact remains that he could teach them a thing or two about both of these things, entertaining humor or not. 😉
Thanks for the comment.
Well, they’ve changed the logo for the @BPglobalPR account again and are using a default Twitter background. Screenshots in your new book should probably be kept to a minimum. LOL!!
🙂
Told ya. Publishing is going to have to catch up with the velocity with which things change in this space.
Good to have you back. Nothing to add 🙂
I think this type of attitude exists among people in most fields. In education, for example, there will always be some crusty old teachers who refuse to change with the times.
When I hear a collegue whining about how the students are lazy while using the same old methods over and over again, I cringe. It does no good to bemoan the changes in society and/or the students: if the environment has changed, it’s our job to adapt to it and ensure students can still learn.
Great post and point of view, I have been following the fake account for a while now and have also written up a blog post (not nearly as good as this) http://rlutzewitz.blogspot.com/2010/05/satire-dangerous-slope-bp-case-study.html I would love your opinions, I looked more at the fake account and what that individual is doing. Thanks for the insight Olivier.
Raymond
Love the article.
Curious as to what your thoughts are for companies who have entered the social media world late, who have hundreds of FB and Twitter pgs, names and logos that are hijacked, etc. Do you sick legal after each and every one?
Thank you.
My answer is generally yes, although the idea isn’t to antagonize the squatters and hijackers with a show of force. It’s to get the property back.
Step 1: Assess the situation. Figure out what is squatted/hijacked and what isn’t. Make a list of accounts you should own that aren’t used yet, and claim them. Then identify those that already belong to someone else, and do some research on the activity there.
Step 2: Contact the account owner and the service provider. Politely explain who you are and that you are interested in retrieving the property. Ask if they will graciously help you. (Ask for generosity/free first.)
Step 3: If they are looking for a payday, ask them what they want. Either accept or make a counter-offer. Remain friendly and cordial. The last thing you want to do is become corporate at this point. Think of the psychology of someone who would do this. They will thrive on the knowledge that they are antagonizing a corporate attorney. So stay cool and be cool.
Step 4: Negotiate the settlement. If they won’t budge and they’re asking too much, apply pressure. Explain that they can either get $x now, or $0 later. Also warn them that if they use the account in any way that could damage the reputation or brand, they could face expensive legal action… and that you really don’t want things to get to that. “Look, just take the money. It’s a good deal.”
Now, sometimes, you’ll run into people who just want to antagonize your company and don’t care about anything else. Once you have extinguished all other avenues, THEN get tough and drop them under the bus. The key is to not lead with that. Sicking Legal on someone often starts with a show of force and intimidation, and that is something companies need to be very careful to avoid in this space. 🙂
thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com’s done it once again. Great post!
At this stage of the game, who would even visit BP’s website. They started trying to control information about their predicament as soon as the first survivors arrived onshore. Their message is an oil slick or greasy pond scum ove the clear facts of their bad operation and management oversight.
Sure, but they can’t NOT do what they are doing with their crisis communications page. So… As far as that goes, the PR team is doing its job. They’re going by the book, and judging by their page, it was a pretty good book… maybe 5 years ago. They need the new edition.
Congratulations on a great piece. There needs to be more light shed on this topic so that people can comprehend what this is all about. Reputation Management Company
Great post Olivier. We discussed this in my “Reputation” seminar in Exeter last night. Its interesting that this whole operation has moved so slowly in respect to the social media compass.
Its a classic case of being stuck in the past of broadcast media. If you don’t manage you’re online reputation, someone else will like BP PR Global have in this case. Reputation is about integrity and credibility. BP have failed miserably on both fronts.
Nice Post.
However, I think that there is a big element that is missing. This is not a PR problem. Or an issue to be resolved with clever PR. (And in this case in particular, the PR real or not has not been very good either BTW.)
Consider this, BP’s brand WAS and I stress WAS about environmental responsibility. They were in fact never environmentally responsible. Rather, they used those words as window dressing. Their real brand was about making money.
That attitude, in my view has continued throughout this whole unfortunate event. They were slow to act, they minimized the explosion, and then had a finger pointing session with Transocean and Halliburton before congress. This is not the actions of an environmentally responsible, forget RESPONSIBLE company.
I agree that the loss of control on the PR front is something to examine and think about moving forward. But this was the least of their problems at the time it seems.
Here are a couple of blogs we have posted on this topic as well:
http://blogs.stealingshare.com/?p=1311
http://blogs.stealingshare.com/?p=1292
As always you drop the articulate and piece on the internet. Well done.
Dont you find it puzzling that the account is still up, increasing its following? Perhaps we’ve hurried to make an assumption of an incompetent PR team (or at least that they are not doing their job right). What if this is part of a strategy not to go after such accounts/sources that target BP? It would be impossible even for a company like BP to fight all the posters that are emerging and all the mockery especially through social media. As we all know in social media there is no control over discussions. If you enter the arena you have to play by the rules. Going after people who mock BP or express their resentment for the company would only create even more fury and negative publicity. If you look at the Nestle example the big fuss happened when Nestle removed the video from Youtube which was clearly the most stupid thing to do and was exactly what sparked the viral element in the campaign. WWF could not have asked for a better reaction from Nestle! And maybe my theory could prove to be wrong but its difficult to believe that the BP PR team has not picked this up yet after so many days!
The way they dealt with the fake account was pretty good. They quietly and respectfully asked for a few changes, and the owner obliged. That’s a score on BP’s end, though it probably had more to do with BP’s legal team than its PR dept. It hasn’t engaged the account in the public stream, hasn’t tried to suppress it, and that was good.
So I don’t think that BP failed in the way it handled the account’s existence. The failure was first in not anticipating that something like this would happen, second in knowing it was there (monitoring?), and then being a bit disingenuous about it. The fourth failure was in not pointing to the official BP twitter account on BP’s website. Failure #5 was leading the BP Twitter feed with the @Oil_Spill_2010 account which is itself a trilogy of failures:
1. @Oil_Spill_2010 doesn’t exactly spell “solution.” BP should have called it something else. Something a little more focused on the solution than the problem.
2. The design of the twitter avatar and page looks like someone built it using default settings. It doesn’t look professional at all. It doesn’t seem like something BP, in the middle of this horrendous disaster, would choose to lead with.
3. Nothing about that twitter account implies a BP connection, other than the oil spill itself. That’s a problem. It lacks context.
The PR team wasn’t ready, and for what they probably get paid, that is unacceptable.
A lot to chew on, as always. You make some good points. Such as…no, you said them better…
So onto the disagreements:
It’s interesting – there’s a particular thread that runs through a lot of your work, a thread I take issue with, and it pops up here again as in your Nestle analysis, but I’m afraid I’ll have to save THAT one for another discussion.
For now, let me just excerpt my own blog post from today about this. In particular, regarding your #3 question. How would you NOT expect the fake BP twitter account to have more followers (in other words, more reach and influence) than the real BP twitter accounts?
First, who in his right mind would really want to follow an official BP Twitter account – even during a crisis that involves them?! That would be like watching “BPTV,” some official media outlet of the company. No thanks – I’ll take my reporting from other sources, please.
Actually, I think this story shows one of the weaknesses not of BP or any corporate tooling, but a weakness of Twitter. Twitter is NOT good for extended narratives, which IS what BP should be providing. Rather than tweeting about the situation – dear god, how many tweet updates would I have to read from BP in order to stay apprised of the “Top Kill” situation? – BP needs to be accessible and transparent to other media that support extended narratives and complex situations. Sure, Twitter can be useful to them, and yes, BP can employ Twitter to spread little droplets of news or even engage in conversation, but for the most part BP’s information focus should be elsewhere. Taking the position that BP has failed at social media or Twitter simply because a witty parody account sprang up and garnered press is a bit of an overstatement.
And second, it’s only natural that comedy and satire – with the controversial brandjacking attached – would attract press attention. Social Media is still news – and new ways of using it are news. The BPGlobalPR account is fodder for endless stories from so many angles that almost any news outlet could find one. So it’s really only natural that it would a) attract attention, b) gain followers. It’s a case study in viralicity.
Thanks for inspiring and helping me spend part of my Saturday writing a post while my friends are playing cards in the kitchen! : )
My post is The One Thing BP Is Doing Right In Social Media http://bit.ly/ajFe9m
Twitter works well as an update medium, just like the ticker at the bottom of the screen on most news networks. During a crisis, a company can push out its latest news and relevant resources, with a hyperlink to the root content. The goal here isn’t to earn the accolades of a million followers: The goal for PR at a time like this is to use every relevant channel to get the company’s message across, and impact sentiment.
BP probably spends an obscene amount of money on PR – especially right now. So one would assume that for their money, they should expect to have the best PR team money can buy. Which implies that the folks at BP PR would be at the top of their professional game. Kind of like Nestle, in fact. Look, Twitter is an integral part of the channel/media mix now, and has been for the better part of a year, since it started scaling. For most communications professionals, the writing was on the wall two years ago. So for BP’s PR team to have obviously been… pretty clueless about how to use Twitter, how to manage the BP brand on Twitter, and to have missed the part about monitoring (I’m sure they get it now), suggests (at least to me) that the PR team at BP was pretty much “business as usual” until very recently.
And here’s why I have a problem with it: In every industry, top professionals work diligently to stay current with new technologies, new methods, new skills and new developments of any kind. Some examples: If I am a surgeon, I don’t want to still be using 20-year-old techniques when new and better ones exist. That’s no way to serve my patients, my hospital, or my career. I want to be abreast of every hot new technique or tool that comes along. If I am a sci-fi film director, I don’t want to still be using stop-motion animation to create realistic creature effects. I want to be 100% fluent in CGI technology. If I am a military general, I need to be keenly aware of every new development in weaponry, armor, communications, surveillance, optics and tactics out there. I don’t want to be the guy who still lives in Gulf War 1 era and doesn’t “get” new squad tactics, comms and weaponry. This is no different. These guys aren’t paid to flip the perfect burger. They’re paid to be the best PR team on the planet by the company that needs the best PR it can get. Yet the team as a whole doesn’t seem to be made of the stuff that industry professionals who care about being the best are made of.
The one thing they did right though – in regards to Twitter, since they actually do a decent job of some other things – is the fact that they didn’t go batty over the fake account when they finally caught on. They quietly dealt with it in a way that seemed fair and respectful. THAT, I give them props for. (Or maybe I should give props to BP’s Legal team. I don’t know.)
…unless Twitter doesn’t amount to the hill of beans we (anyone who “evangelizes” about social media) think it does. So a parody account garners 100,000 Followers, casts aspersions on a company, and gets a few press mentions…So what? Maybe Twitter ISN’T the fancy new surgeon’s tool of PR. Maybe it’s an awesome way to engage, drive sales, provide customer support, offer discounts, put a human (?) face to a corporation, etc. But maybe it really doesn’t mean anything in the big scheme of things in a situation like this. Maybe expecting BP to throw some PR resources at Twitter – and, I don’t know, Facebook, too, for that matter – would be a waste of BP’s…energy, lol. Maybe all the energy expended signing up those hundred or so BP account names, and figuring out a good “Twitter strategy,” would be like the oil spilling out of that pipe. Maybe the people in the social media bubble THINK it’s a new tactic that can help win every PR battle or war, when what it really could be in some cases is nothing more than a diversion. BP on Twitter? I don’t know…I’m still chewing on it.
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