Posted by Rosemary Sorg on Mon, May 24, 2010
The ramification of this disastrous oil spill to our precious environment and eco-system will not be known for years to come. We also have no clue of the economical devastation that this spill will bring to Coastal communities. Some experts are predicting that Louisiana's fishing industry alone could potentially face a $2.5 billion loss. When disaster strikes, here are 4 Social Media Strategies to keep in mind for your company, lessons learned from the BP oil spill.
Mistake #1 - Not asking the SM community for help. BP, TransOcean, Halliburton and Deepwater Horizon Oil all pointed fingers at each and wasted so much time instead of coming together as a "team" or asking the public for assistance in trying to come up with a solution that would get this environmental disaster, which is being called a "worse disaster than the Exxon Valdez tanker spill," under control. BP's CEO, Tony Hayward as interviewed on the "Today Show" stated, "It wasn't our accident, but we are absolutely responsible for the oil, for cleaning it up, and that's what we intend to do."
Mistake #2 - Not being Transparent, open and honest. Instead of being transparent, honest and upfront, they lied about how many barrels of oil were spilling each day, trying to protect their reputation. They originally stated that 1,000 barrels of oil were spilling each day, when in reality that figure is closer to 5,000 barrels. Many scientists believe the real figure is higher still, which is heartbreaking.
Mistake #3 - No social media strategy! BP's so called "Human Energy" boasts of being "progressive, responsive and innovative," we can see by their lack of initial presence in social media sites like Youtube, LinkedIn, facebook and twitter that they are far from progressive, responsive and innovative. Another lesson to learn here is that social media is on 24/7 so be prepared and do not be caught off-guard with No social media strategy when disaster strikes. Be proactive, be transparent and be honest. Your customers will appreciate that more and will become your legs in spreading your news faster if you engage and interact with them in an honest and transparent way.
Mistake #4 - Avoid more Bad PR! In another PR catastrophe, BP has been offering $5,000 payments to coastal residents in exchange for giving up their right to sue the oil giant over its deadly oil spill. Between the environmental damage and the economic losses to many of the people who made their living in these coastal communities, $5,000 should be an insult to these hard working Americans. I love
Todd Defren's blog, where he describes this best by blogging: Catastrophic environmental destruction + Willfull ignorance + Cynical payola = Bad PR.
Brand Keys, a research firm that tracks customer loyalty, said that the company's reputation with the general public has been soiled and it has fallen from top to last in rankings of customer loyalty among the seven largest oil companies. I would love to hear your sentiments on BP and their ongoing missteps.
Posted by Tom Allinder on Mon, Jan 04, 2010
Finally we are live on Hubspot’s CMS! It was a long time coming but, I have a few excuses. Due to the interest in inbound marketing, we have had so many new clients coming onboard. Service to the client is first you know!
I would really like to thank all of the HubSpot Partner Companies for their insight and input regarding our business. We are relative newcomers to the inbound marketing business and we still have a lot to learn.
In particular though, I would like to thank Dan Ronken, founder of PullnotPush.com for his help on several fronts. Dan is a true professional and I value my relationship with him so very much. He was instrumental in helping us with a number of issues with the website.
We still have much work to do and we are looking forward to a big 2010!