Do and tell: Why social media isn’t always appropriate

  

This semester I get to draw up my very first communications plan for an organization, and I decided to draw one up for an organization that I have a great deal of respect for, the Hospice Center in Richardson. This plan’s main objective is to seek ways of creating awareness of the center, and increase volunteer participation. Needless to say that I immediately thought to myself: “social media is going to play the trick.” I assumed that social media would be the most effective tool available, to show the good people of Dallas and elsewhere, what the people at the Hospice Center do. So I mentioned that as a tactic in my draft communications plan.

It is so easy to fall into the same trap I fell into, by thinking that social media is the only tool, or the best tool available to market an organization’s image. Yes, social media is everywhere and reaches every continent on earth. Yes, almost everyone uses some social media technology and yes, schools now offer classes centered on social media. I even took one of those classes here at the Mayborn School of Journalism, and it saved me from my ignorance of Twitter, Blogging, LinkedIn and lots of other cool social media networks.

By now everybody should have figured out that the social media idea was not a good idea for the Hospice Center, which offers support for people whose life expectancy is measured in weeks or months. I admit I was shocked when Sandy Heitz, the volunteer coordinator at the center told me that social media was not an option for them. I just thought they were being old-fashioned. Anyway, here is the main reason why they have taken that stance: the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prohibits the disclosure of patient information without the patient’s consent. Think of a dying patient, and a grieving family, and ask yourself how many people would grant you that consent. Also think of those consuming social media content, and ask yourself how many of those people would be willing to share the painful details of a private individual’s final days.

The bottom line is this, social media is not appropriate for every business. It is important for people to evaluate the nature of businesses, and look at the laws that govern the operation of that business before jumping to social media as a solution. Also, keep in mind that social media activity is a perfect example of “do and tell.” Social media users expect regular updates on an organization’s activity, and the Hospice Center just can’t do that for the most part. While the Hospice Center is a medical facility, I am in no way saying that hospitals or other medical facilities cannot have a social media presence. The Hospice Center just deals more specifically with a more sensitive and private issue.

Learning PR from a politician…

I can’t believe it’s already November, 2011 has really gone by so fast. So many things happened this week which led us into the 11^th month of the year. Monday especially, seemed like the most news-filled day ever. First, there was Halloween that fell on Monday, and then the 7 billionth baby was born on Monday, and don’t forget Kim Kardashian filed for divorce after 76 days of married life. Monday’s most exciting news in my opinion was however Herman Cain’s reaction to the accusations of sexual harassment by two women. Except if you’ve been living under a hole, you’ve probably heard that the Cain, the GOP candidate vying for President Obama’s job has been accused of inappropriate behavior by two, actually 3 former female employees of the National Restaurant Association. What interests me in this case is how he reacted to the accusations, and how he could have better handled it.

Let me get into some history here. In 1992, USA Today called Arthur Ashe, asking him if he had AIDS.  Ashe refused to comment on the issue, but was told by the reporters that they would pursue the issue despite his stance. Remember how AIDS was regarded in the early 90s? I do. Those who had the disease were stigmatized, people avoided them, and many people viewed he disease as a curse. Also, most people thought its victims were responsible for acquiring the disease because it was a sexually transmissible disease.

 There are certain similarities between Ashe’s and Cain’s stories. First of all, both men were public figures when approached by the media with accusations levied against them. Cain is a former business executive, and a presidential hopeful; Ashe was the first black player ever selected to the United States Davis Cup team and the only black man to ever win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, or Australian Open. While Cain was given a specific number of days by Politico to comment on the allegations made by the two ladies, Ashe was warned by USA Today that their investigation on the issue will continue.

Ashe’s handling of the situation was however remarkable, contrary to Cain’s. The day after Ashe received the call from USA Today, he summoned a press conference, where he revealed to the world that he had contracted HIV in 1983 through a blood transfusion. Ashe beat the press to their game, exposed a problem with the health care system, and even caused many to question USA Today’s motives for causing him so much distress. Cain on the other hand did nothing but raise more suspicions on his innocence. Based on his handling of the accusations, I learned the following things:

• o   Don’t lie. Isn’t that such a simple and obvious rule? Even the Bible advices people not to lie, and judging from Cain’s situation this week, not lying actually saves you a great deal of trouble. Remember Anthony Weiner? 
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• o   Don’t issue contradictory statements. George Romney’s withdrew from the presidential race in the 1960s because he changed his stance on the Vietnam War, saying he had been brainwashed into supporting the war by US military and diplomatic officials in Vietnam. When you take a position on an issue, stick to it, lest people think you are inconsistent.
• o   Don’t ignore the media on matters of such magnitude. That just fuels their suspicions that you are hiding something.
• o   Don’t yell at reporters when the story doesn't die down, you infuriate some people and stop looking like a potential president.
• o   Hire a PR person who can teach you all these things
• o   Most importantly, if you are aware that there are skeletons in your closet, draw up a strategy that you will use in tackling the issue if that skeleton is ever exposed.

There is always something PR professionals and students can learn from the campaign trail; Cain’s predicament has been a real learning experience.

Meet the experts

This week, my class was honored to have not one, but four professionals working in the PR and news world speak to us. NBCDFW’s Omar Villafranca, Denton PD’s Ryan Grelle, Dart’s Morgan Lyons and my former boss, Buddy Price from UNT were gracious enough to spend a Wednesday evening us, and gave us useful tips on how to succeed in our chosen careers. Most importantly, those gentlemen opened up about the hardest parts of their jobs. If they can successfully navigate through those tough situations, then I believe it is a testimony of their talent and skill.

Buddy is the news manager at UNT’s news service. Previously, he worked as a reporter for eleven years, held a position at IBM, and even co-owned a company for a while before his partner bought him out; that’s just a summary of Buddy’s resume.  He has worked for corporate America, and now works for a public institution; he has been a reporter, now he is in charge of media relations.  One of the challenging aspects of his current job is the difficulty of controlling the amount of information that is disclosed at a public institution. IBM for example, he says had a tighter grip on what information was released about the company. I have had the opportunity to see what the UNT news service does, and it isn’t always a fun job of just dealing with the media on positive stories about the university. They manage crises and aim to protect the university from negative press. As much as companies might want to disclose their information, certain things can become a PR nightmare if made public.

Ryan Grelle is the Public Information Officer for the Denton Police Department. This is the second time he’s speaking to a class I’m taking, and he is always full of interesting insights. If you follow Ryan on Twitter (@DENTONPD), you might not need to watch TV certain nights, because he tweets 911 calls. I think Denton PD was the first to tweet those calls in the US, or among the first to do so. Ryan’s challenge in his capacity as communications officer is getting his colleagues to tell him information when things are about to blow up instead of keeping him in the dark till the last minute. Nobody likes practicing reactive PR if they can avoid the situation beforehand. You are more likely to find an effective solution to a problem if you have enough time to think.

The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) transports over 2000 people day. Well that implies that business is good, but it also means that they have dissatisfied and satisfied customers.  I believe that it was easier for companies to hush the negative comments their customers made about them a few years ago, but that has changed thanks to social media networks. If a dissatisfied customer decides to complain about a product to the whole world, he/she can do so, and that’s not good for any organization. I’m sure Morgan, who is Dart’s Media Relations Director, has to handle such situations on a daily basis. He however says the hardest part of his job is trying to navigate changes in the way information is delivered.  He says they at Dart are trying to figure out how to make use of the new tools that are available, and cut the clutter in their releases, because news media offers even less space for stories than traditional media.

“Everybody wants to be on the news,” said the NBCDFW reporter, Omar Villafranca. Though he did not say that this was the hardest part of his job, I’ll assume that it is difficult for him to deal with people who think that every aspect of their lives is newsworthy.  Omar told us about this man who sent a picture to their newsroom of hail in his backyard. Great picture, but Omar said after taking a closer look, they discovered that the ice was perfectly shaped. Whoever saw only square shaped hail?

I belong to the tribe of Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn...

I come from one of the most beautiful countries in the world, blessed with resources, and people. What makes us unique and special is the diverse nature of the Cameroonian population. There are about 19 million Cameroonians, spread across ten regions, and we belong to over 230 different tribes. Many of these tribes share a few things in common; however many of them have customs, food and local languages. Many years ago, one thing that was common to the entire country, was the tradition of storytelling. Tribal elders, surrounded by their families, and particularly young people sat around a bonfire at night to tell stories. This was how tradition was passed from generation to generation, that was how culture was preserved.

That was a long time ago anyway, and my country and many other parts of the world that practiced such traditions have moved on. Tribes are no longer the country or local places they used to be for the most part. There were no phones back when our elders told nighttime stories by the fireside; none of those people ever dreamed of a computer. Those tribes were established based on geographic locations, and shared history.

How then can Steve Lee, APR, CEO of QuickSilver Interactive assert that we live in tribes, and all thanks to social media? Social media technologies might be storytelling tools but have they don’t pull people together, they’ve pushed us apart. I Skype with my friends instead of paying them actual visits; I text them any interesting stories I have from the day, instead of sitting with them to talk, I submit reports to my boss via email. How then could Steve say that we live in tribes?

He’s right, and this PR guru and social media expert is often right about a lot of stuff (he was wrong about his baseball jersey bringing the Rangers luck if he wore it during a game). Look at the spirit of a tribe, and not necessarily the traditional aspects of it and you will make sense out of Steve’s claim. Tribes are made up of people who communicate with each other, share common interests, influence each other and who have a relationship with one another.

Who are your friends on Facebook or Twitter for example? These are people you communicate with, have a relationship with, and they are probably capable of influencing you, and vice versa. Isn’t that a tribe? The social media tribe is one modern and cool tribe. Don’t forget, you may relate to other in a tribe more than others, so even that person you added to your Facebook friends list but do not communicate with often is a member of your tribe.

I share details of my life on Facebook with my family and friends, exchange news tips on Twitter with my course mates and people who have similar interests with me, share YouTube videos with my friends, and seek for professional guidance from LinkedIn. Those are my different tribes. In it are people from my family, church, school, and even my actual traditional tribe in Cameroon. Social media tribes bring people together, and give them an opportunity to tell their stories or others stories without inconveniences.

Like Steve said, we have moved circle from the traditional tribes to the social media tribes. TV, radio, books and newspapers may attract a following, but none has as much of an impact as social media technologies do. Knowing this, it’s left for businesses to figure out how to sell their products, ideas or image using these tools. If I get an online coupon from one of my favorite stores, I am most likely to tell my social media tribal relatives, and that might influence a couple of them to patronize that store.

Social media tribes exist, and they are beneficial not only to their members, but to organizations as well. Thanks for the lesson, Steve.

Making the best of negative press

“Red Cross Teaches First Aid To Taliban.” Oh no, how could they? That is just not right. Those were some of the thoughts I had when I first read this headline in my PR class last Wednesday. It is the title of a Huffington Post article published last year, and for a second, I hoped they had the information all wrong.

This is what comes to my mind when I think of the Red Cross worker: a smiling young nurse in a white uniform and a white hat on her head, bearing a red cross. That’s the image movies left in my head. The point here is that I know that this young lady and her colleagues always help those in need. If you are sick, if you are a victim of a disaster or if you are fighting a war, these wonderful people come to your rescue.

Well for your information, the Taliban also battle such conditions and are actually described by the Red Cross as combatants. They receive assistance for the Red Cross just like soldiers from other countries that signed the Geneva Protocol would. These people according to the Red Cross deserve humanitarian aid and equal treatment. Remember the mandate and mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC):

“The work of the ICRC is based on the Geneva Conventions of 1949, their Additional Protocols, its Statutes – and those of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement – and the resolutions of the International Conferences of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. The ICRC is an independent, neutral organization ensuring humanitarian protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence. It takes action in response to emergencies and at the same time promotes respect for international humanitarian law and its implementation in national law.”

Enough said about why the Red Cross did what they did. Let’s look at this from a public relations perspective.

 This could be a PR nightmare for the organization, depending on how it was handled; it could have been one of the worst things that ever happened to an organization. Let’s see how this could have impacted them. The Red Cross is staffed primarily by volunteers; actually, volunteers make up 92% of their staff, says Anita Foster, chief communications officer for the Dallas Area Chapter of the Red Cross. Would all the volunteers especially those from countries with bad relations with the Taliban understand that the Red Cross’ neutrality and its commitment to helping all people? What about their donors? Would all their donors still contribute the money they do if they think that there is some likelihood that a cent of it might benefit the Taliban?

However this is not all bad news for the Red Cross or any organization facing a similar situation. I believe that for an organization such as the Red Cross which is over a hundred years old, this offered them an opportunity to educate the public on what they really are, what their mission is, and where they serve. People were already paying attention to them and so they were likely to successfully pass across such a message at that time.

I am not sure how the Red Cross handled this situation, though I know they handled it well. However, here are some ways in which I think How they could have done it?

• ·         Public statements to the press explaining why the Red Cross offered those lessons to the Taliban.
• ·         In-house communication with their staff explaining why they did what they did, and reminding them of their policy of neutrality.
• ·         Press appearances might even be more convincing, as the spokesperson could answer more questions than a sheet or paper or an email might.
• ·         Lastly, don’t forget social media. Do not fail to respond to worried, disgruntled or confused followers. If you leave the comments to flow unanswered, then they just keep coming in. Also state your mission on these platforms.

Ethics or Law - Where does PR fall?

This week, the United States and the world in general lost one of its finest pitchmen and visionaries in the tech world. Steve Jobs, 56, co-founder of Apple, died this past Wednesday after suffering numerous health complications for the past couple of years. I learned of the news in my public relations class, which we fondly call a knitting club, because every Wednesday night, nine ladies, the professor included, meet for a seminar in PR at the Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism. There wasn’t a better place for PR students to hear that sad news but in that class. Our professor, Samra Bufkins was quick to bring up an ethical issue which I was completely unaware of before Job’s demise- was Steve Jobs to report his illness to his investors?

Apparently, companies are required by the law to report all the facts necessary for an investor to know before making an informed decision to buy or sell the company’s stock. Most of us know by now that Steve Job’s health battle started in 2003 when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Though he underwent surgery which was expected to treat this rare form of curable pancreatic cancer, he later suffered from various health issues and even underwent a liver transplant. He took medical leaves from his position as Apple CEO and finally only resigned in 2011.

What classifies as information needed by investors when making the decision to buy or sell stock? That remains unclear and so from the legal point of view; maybe it was okay for the Apple CEO to keep his health issues private. He was after all, just an individual like you and I, and hardly anybody expects us to report our health conditions to stakeholders, ever. Actually, scratch that, because as an international student, I had to report my health status before stepping foot on American soil. Why do I bring up my experience, it is just to show that an individual’s right to privacy is not absolute. Ethically, Apple owed it to their stakeholders to inform them of his health problems.

Many people linked Apple to Steve Jobs, and I’m sure they’ll still keep doing that for a very long time. That is why it was important that the investors know who was in command of the company while he was CEO.  I’m sure that people always expected to see the genius in a pair of jeans and a black turtleneck wow the crowd with some latest invention Apple was sending out at Apple conferences. At least, I did. How do I know that- in 2009, Apple stocks dropped 7 percent after Steve Jobs announced that he was taking a six-month medical leave.

My point from this whole experience is not to judge the company and tell them that what they did was right or wrong; or to tell lawmakers to better define the law requiring company honesty about their leaders’ health conditions. My main concern is how this fits into the PR world. I am no expert in public relations, but I believe that Apple’s PR department could have handled the whole debate better. They are famous for reporting that Jobs was suffering from a “common bug” when he appeared at Apple’s annual developers conference in 2008 looking frail and thin. Knowing the connection between Jobs and the company, maybe it might have been better if they had tried to use his sickly image to the company’s benefit instead of letting speculations and imaginations run wild.

Sometimes it is a blessing to have a person like Steve Jobs head a company, because he generated so much positive content for his organization. On the other hand, the PR department just witnesses a nightmare if such an iconic figure heading that organization like Jobs faces challenges such as Job's health issues. Apple can’t change what happened months and years ago, but PR professionals in other firms can certainly learn from the Apple example and spare themselves some criticism, spare the public the speculation, and their investors some extra worrying and confusion by not doing what Apple did.

Stop boxing yourself!

Should journalism schools offer both PR and journalism classes to all its students? We had a short conversation on that subject in my public relations class this week; well I don’t think I said a word on it then. However, that got me thinking and though I have an opinion on the issue, it may be useful to get some more insightful thoughts from everyone reading this blog, so I hope you all chip in on the topic.

I got my undergraduate degree in journalism and mass communication back in my home country, Cameroon. It was a hectic and stressful 3-year period, probably the most academically challenging times I have ever faced. As JMC students, we were required to take photojournalism, research, news writing, publishing, public relations and advertising classes, and all this in 3 years. Did I mention that we were also expected to participate in quantitative research projects, and work for the campus newspaper and radio station? Does that make some of of us graduates of that program a little confused about our career goals? Maybe! Does that exemplify the adage: “jack of all trades, master of none?” Maybe! However I think like myself, many of us knew exactly what we liked the most even though we were bombarded with all that information. I for example knew from the first semester that my heart belonged in a radio station and thankfully, that remains a huge media industry in Cameroon. Our training also gave us more versatility in a failing job market. If I couldn’t find a writing job with a media organization, I had the option and qualifications to apply for a PR job or something else.

Because I am taking a PR class and not a news writing class I’ll address the following personal tips to my fellow PR students.

·         You need to know how to write news articles. If you learned how to do that but you’ve forgotten, polish your writing skills. You have to realize that PR professionals also write when working for certain organizations. I actually learned a lot about writing from the media relations experts I worked with during an internship at the UNT News Service.

·         Realize that the difference between the journalism and PR is not that great. Journalists and public relations officers both have the duty of providing the public with the necessary information for decision-making. In doing his/her job the PR person may conceal some information about an issue unlike most journalists, who always want to disclose as much information as they can. However think of it this way:  if you are capable of distinguishing between newsworthy potentially damaging information, then you can work in a newsroom.

·         If you have room for an elective course and there is a chance of you enrolling in a news writing class, grab that opportunity

The job market is bad and the benefits from acquiring extra skills by far outweigh any inconveniences it may cause. You may need to switch jobs in search of better pay or for some other reason and it just might help to have some extra skills in your bag to see you through this phase.