Yikes! Big Data...too much to mine for the gold?

When you see the words "Big Data" of what do you think?  The information produced by your company?  Facebook?  Twitter?  LinkedIn?  Newspapers online?  Information storage for Amazon?  Take one of these entities alone and attempt to decipher how much storage would be needed to store their information. The truth is we cannot even imagine what it takes.  Big data is a term used to describe the exponential growth and availability of storage, both structured (data defined by their type and relationships to other data) and unstructured (not organized in a pre-defined manner).  Unstructured data accounts for more than 90% of the digital universe.  Let's put this into perspective.  "If all 7 billion people on Earth joined Twitter and continually tweeted for one century, they would generate one zettabyte of data".  We almost doubled that amount in 2011.  Here are some examples:  for every 30 minutes that a Boeing jet engine runs, the system creates 10 terabytes of operations information and a four-engine jumbo jet can create 640 terabytes of data in a single journey across the Atlantic Ocean (multiply that by 25,000 flights flown each day), every person in the world having over 215 million high-resolution MRI scans per day.  Moore's Law states that "power of technology hardware doubles every 18 months." Wow!  Can we possibly store this much information, much less be able to analyze it efficiently and use it effectively?

The answer is yes!  It requires smart management.  For many, "Big Data" would be considered clutter.  However, when an organization utilizes the proper tools to keep their information organized according to its various publics and stakeholders, it turns into organizational gold!  We have to mine through the digital dirt for the valuable contents to be revealed.  This leads to more accurate conclusions and predictions of the digital data being utilized.  There are tools that organize data into the proper security bracket to which it belongs, minimizing duplication, how power is routed to supply these command/storage centers, and tools to aid in search and analysis.  The goal is to "extract value from chaos."  

How do we do this as communication professionals?  We need to be continually aware of the changes and advances developing, make adjustments accordingly, and systematize the processes by which we do our research and analyze the plethora of information that we encounter.  Big data can be used to predict future purchasing habits, political canvassing and communication being streamlined, improved weather forecasting based on technology implemented in mobile devices, increasing doctors' performance and knowledge of patients/prescriptions/symptoms, fairer pricing based on different variables per person, recommendation engines used by companies such as Netflix and Amazon, allocating police resources by predicting where and when crimes are most likely to occur, and so many more.  "New ways of linking datasets have played a large role in generating new insights. And creative approaches to visualizing data—humans are far better than computers at seeing patterns—frequently prove integral to the process of creating knowledge." (Shaw)   There is actually a Master of Science degree now offered in Predictable Analytics.  Obviously, big data serves an integral and necessary function when used appropriately.

What are some advantages to having such a vast array of information available to us?  One is the convenience it offers.  There are so many things we can do from home now, and we are better able to communicate with our political leaders.  The converging and unifying of technology, community, devices, and various industries provides many wonderful opportunities.  As communication professionals, we need to be the catalyst in building confidence instead of intimidation within our organizations regarding digital clutter.  How do we do this?  We continually work with IT to develop programs that efficiently analyze the data to improve our business results, we stay involved in social media and aware of how are publics view our organization and how we can improve what we offer by improving the integrity and security of our data, we need to analyze and understand the information available to us and make well-informed decisions, we need to archive old application data and streamline new application deployment with test data management, integration, and data quality, and we need to make sure the teams around us are properly trained and involved.  A community environment is essential in creating and maintaining a vibrant and visionary organizational culture.

In his TED talk video, Clay Shirky posits, "What happens when a new medium all of a sudden puts a bunch of new ideas into circulation?  It changes society, the more ideas there are in circulation, the more ideas there are for individuals to disagree with, and more media always means more arguing.  That's what happens when media space expands."    Therefore, as communication professionals we must embrace "Big Data" and media convergence because it is not going anywhere.  We need to have our information organized, easily accessible, and easy to retrieve.  We need to take ample time to utilize what is available to us to minimize the ability for our stakeholders and publics to "argue" facets of our organization.  In regards to the "Invisible College" Shirky discusses, he refers to the sea of information and properly using tools such as social media and digital media organization tactics to be more prepared to make more reliable arguments.  

Peter Hirshberg says (quoted by Edwards), "We're not in the business of keeping media companies alive.  We're in the business of connecting with consumers."  If we are not connecting with our consumers and providing them an organized way to communicate with our organization, we are running on a treadmill while the digital world around us is running the Iron Man.  This requires viewing "Big Data" as an asset and sparkling sea of information that propels our organization to the next level.  In applying effective strategies in the communications world, we cannot operate off of fear of "Big Data," but relish the opportunities available to us to effectuate credibility, reliability, trust, growth, new standards of effective operation and communication, and expedite the vision of the organization we represent.

Does your organization embrace "Big Data" and use it to their benefit or are there obstacles in the way?  What are the obstacles?  How does your company embrace it and how do they use it effectively?  Thank you for joining me on the quest to understand the benefits of "Big Data".

 

Are traditional media dying?

How often does this (sitting down to read a newspaper and drink a cup of coffee) actually happen anymore?  I still consider myself a spring chicken.  However, the Internet was still nonexistent during my childhood.  I am absolutely not digital-phobic.  However, I still love holding a book in my hand and smelling it (don't judge) as opposed to a Kindle.  I love going to the bookstore with my frappuccino and reading a magazine off the shelf.  I love holding my Bible and seeing all of my notes and being able to add new ones and highlight.  I still love seeing my grandmother sit in her recliner with her drink and a newspaper and working the crossword puzzle out of it.  She loves discussing the news, and especially politics.  My dad loves his iPad, but he still holds and reads the printed newspaper every day.  The truth is that newspapers are drastically cutting their employment and many are now only distributing their newspaper half the time.  Another thing of the past was talking on the landline home phone.  Now many people do not even use cell phones to talk and discuss issues.  They text and use social media platforms.  I have always enjoyed hearing the inflection and emotion in the voices of the people with whom I am talking.  I especially love to see their face and expressions.  A true laugh out loud moment is a million times better than seeing on a screen.  

With the Internet and digital media becoming such powerhouses, where does this leave traditional media and newspapers?  Dr. Padgett, our professor for this class, brought up an interesting point.  If newspapers are becoming extinct, why are billionaires such as Amazon's Jeff Bezos, John Henry (commodities investor), Rupert Murdock, and Warren Buffett buying newspapers?  "Smart people don't become billionaires by investing in wrong things" (Padgett, 2014).  Newspapers in smaller markets have less competition for audience and advertisers and have a more established clientele to maintain growth.  A strength for many newspapers is they are keeping up with the digital curve.  They are offering their newspapers online and linking with other credible companies to provide the up-to-date news coverage that this asset-light, time deprived, immediate gratification seeking generation needs.  Many digital news consumers consider traditional news media outlets such as newspapers and television stations more trustworthy and comprehensive, whereas Web sources are more convenient and accessible.  The key is for credible news organizations to align themselves with "new media" that ensures the reliability of the information and reporting.  Online commentaries, many times, provide unoriginal information that do a disservice to those needing enough information to make well-informed decisions regarding politics, local laws, community duties, etc.  In 2013, the Pew Research Center concluded that only 14% of people they surveyed could answer four basic questions regarding current events. 

 This generation tends to gravitate towards what catches their attention first.  Jacek Utko is a designer that has helped his local newspapers to reinvent themselves and greatly increase subscription numbers.  He says, "newspapers are dying because readers don't want to pay for yesterday's news, advertisements follow them, and our laptops and tablets are much more handy".  His idea is to "treat the whole newspaper as one composition, like music.  Music has a rhythm of ups and downs, and designers are responsible for this experience.  Design can change your workflow and branding.  It can completely change your company and change you".  Although many in the N-generation (cyber teens) are looking to be entertained, they can still be well informed.  Newspapers do not have to be all black and white and boring.  Google's chief economist, Hal Varian, believes that digitally distributing news for publishers will be tremendously beneficial if they "can also radically redefine their product and means of reaching consumers".  This is where strategic communicators need to understand the pertinence of a strategic plan to minimize costs while still reaching the goal of the message and how it is disseminated to its stakeholders and clientele.  We need to be a strategic link in the puzzle that brings back the type of quality of journalism that holds those in power and government officials accountable and is able to provide investigative information that is accurate, while meeting the digital needs of today's society and increasing profits for newspaper organizations.

Utko says, "We just need vision, inspiration, and determination no matter the circumstances". Let's discuss the vision of the aforementioned billionaire, Jeff Bezos.  Although Amazon lost money for nine years, Bezos continues to "prioritize long-term investment over near-term profit.  That's how great, enduring companies are created or transformed-by building a strong infrastructure, products, brand, and deep relationships with customers.  By contrast, too many news companies have been paralyzed by the tyranny of short-term horizons.  Implicit in the mastery of the long-tail strategy (providing products and services not only for the big sellers but the smaller ones and consumers with unique interests) is the idea that a big company can serve each customer with precision, in part by deploying sophisticated data analytics and in part by using technology to efficiently deliver good service to small numbers of people".  Again let's consider what we have discussed and Bezos purchasing the Washington Post.  What is his vision?  The world is now the relevant market for Internet companies and "becoming the world's leading news outlet covering policy and politics, not only in Washington but in capitals around the world, and covering more topics more deeply".  I would surmise that one aspect that inspires him is raising the standard of the quality of journalism being disseminated.  His determination speaks for itself.

The landscape for newspapers and how we obtain our information is obviously going to continue to change.  For the newspaper organizations with the vision and inspiration to reach their unique audiences with quality news coverage while not stalling on the digital highway, I believe their future is bright.  It will be very exciting to see traditional media form a healthy relationship with digital media and where it takes us in our learning capabilities.



For my readers, I am excited you are continuing my journey with me as I near the end of my Master of Science in Strategic Communications degree program. This class in Strategic Communication and Emerging Media is going to be impelling, and I look forward to navigating it with you.  I will be posting weekly blogs pertaining to our class readings and videos.

Thanks, Dr. Padgett, for sharing the above comic!

Welcome to my Strategic Communication and Emerging Media class

Hello everyone!  I am excited to be entering my last term for my Master of Science in Strategic Communications degree.  The subsequent posts are going to take us on a journey through my Strategic Communication and Emerging Media class.  It is going to be exciting, and I look forward to your constructive feedback.  Welcome!

Women finding balance

The world of communications, especially when you focus on the strategic standpoint, is extremely exciting.  We have discussed effective leadership and being a strategic communicator from a personal level all the way through to effectively leading a corporation with a clear vision.  For many women, being intellectually challenged and stretching her leadership muscles in the corporate world can be extremely difficult when trying to balance it with a family.  Sheryl Sandburg says, "Women struggle the most between professional success and personal fulfillment".  Luckily, with technology rapidly advancing and social media taking on various roles, the opportunity for women to spread their creative wings to fulfill this desire is growing exponentially.  For example, many women are working corporate jobs from home, creating and maintaining blogs that attract sponsors and a large following, and entrepreneurs are starting their own businesses based from their home.  

I agree with Sandburg on a couple of points regarding women who want to remain in the work force or are coming back into the work force.  First, she says to "sit at the table".  This means we do not need to underestimate our abilities and we need to have confidence to negotiate for ourselves in the corporate world.  Instead of sitting on the side of the room quietly we need to be sitting at the table with confidence knowing we deserve our own success (this is defined differently for each person).  Healthy competition is lucrative in many ways, whether in a corporate setting or from home. 

Second, Sandurg says "don't leave before you leave".  In other words, remain focused on your vision and keep your foot on the gas pedal until something changes between your personal and job worlds (i.e. deciding the become a stay-at-home mom).  Continue looking for new opportunities for growth and advancement.  If the choice has been made to continue being present in the corporate world after beginning a family, make sure your job is challenging, rewarding, and that you feel like you are making a difference.  Finding that balance can be very difficult, especially
if our job is boring because we put on the brake pedal too quickly.

 John Maeda discusses in his TED talk "How art, technology, and design inform creative leaders" how our computer can be thought of as our spiritual space of thinking.  This is an extremely stimulating thought for a woman in search of balance who might need to blend her corporate and family lives.  Maeda states that "technology makes possibilities, design makes solutions, art makes questions, and leadership makes actions".  Art is an entity where some questions may not have answers.  For a woman seeking balance creative leadership expands her world.  A creative leader is interactive (see previous blog) as opposed to the traditional leader who practices one-way communication. She improvises when appropriate as opposed to following the manual.  The creative leader loves to learn from mistakes (visionary blog) as opposed to avoiding mistakes.  The creative leader resembles a jazz ensemble as opposed to the orchestra model of a traditional leader.  The creative leader is open to unlimited critique and taking risks(transparency blog) as opposed to limited feedback and sustaining order. 

 

Whether a woman wants to exercise her mind and abilities in the corporate world, at home with her family or both, creativity is the operative word in finding balance and we can do it!  Success and happiness look different for each person.  We simply need to give it all our very best and stay focused on the goals before us.  I have enjoyed tying these blogs together and I look forward to continuing in the future.  My blogs may not be on a weekly basis as this particular class is coming to an end.  However, we will be communicating again soon!

Avoiding filter failure

Would you generally describe society today as patient or impatient?  Relaxed or fast-paced?  Having plenty of quality time or never having enough time?  Seeking truth and valid knowledge or simply looking to be entertained?  I think most of us would agree that the second answer to each question is the one we would give and that is very unfortunate in many ways.  Dan Gilbert in his TED talk "Why We Make Bad Decisions" says "our brains were evolved for a world in which people lived in very small groups and rarely met anyone who was terribly different from themselves, had rather short lives in which there were few choices and the highest priority was to eat and mate.  THIS IS NOT the world we live in today".  We have evolved in many wonderful ways; however, our ability to effectively make sound and responsible decisions/choices has basically been left behind by the pace of technology, lack of time, and pure laziness.  The amount of information we have available to us today is staggering.  JP Rangaswami says "there is no such thing as information overload.  There is only filter failure.  We have to start thinking about how we create diets and exercise within ourselves to have the faculties to deal with information and to have the labeling to do it responsibly."  He asks a very important question:  What would happen differently in your life if you saw information the same way you see food?  Would you be healthy, content, and energetic or would you be obese, disease stricken and lethargic?
In my previous blog I discussed decisions we make with our children and making time for what matters.  This goes for anything of importance in our lives, including our business practices and how we implement and measure them.

One of the main things a strategic communication leader can do to help clients understand an evaluation that includes both tangible and intangible aspects of a program is that while communicating the business numbers (tangibles) such as referrals, sales, ROI, and analyzing web numbers the intangibles have the opportunity to play out naturally in the way we share, listen, react, and talk with our clients.  Understanding and experiencing intangibles is completely different than having hard copy measurements.  I have no doubt we will progress in the area of measuring emotional reactions when our brand is presented through social media, clients feeling respected as a person and not just a number on our bottom line, transparency (we have covered the importance of this well but not necessarily how and if we can measure it), the effectiveness of two-way communication between a brand and its clients, and a person's influence among their different networks and how it affects our company and brand.  The intangibles are what drive a consumer to our brand over our competitors.  We all have the ability to be more educated now than ever before with all of the information available to us.  Being able to appropriately filter the information and make well-rounded decisions is where many intangibles come in including how we handle crises.
The intangibles range from our employees to our stakeholders to our potential clients.  We can take a resume and actually call referrals to measure a potential employee's actual experience.  A background check can let us know to a certain extent a person's citizenry and moral code.  The intangibles are measured with how that employee attaches him/herself to the company's vision and how they perform according to that vision.  Then, from within the company how are we communicating effectively with our employees as well as with our publics?  We can indirectly measure these intangibles based on the success of our tangibles such as consistency in the value of our products and systems.  How do we measure our "why", the transparency of a company and its leaders, the effectiveness of our vision, and what sets our leadership apart? We might not be able to completely measure intangibles.  However, we have a responsibility to connect with people from a human perspective and not just an institutional perspective, be a positive influence, recognize those who contribute to the value of our brand, be trustworthy and transparent, acknowledge the value of our employees and leaders as well as our publics, and be proactive in creating a healthy two-way communication environment.  The tangibles will look much brighter! 

How do we measure intangibles and how well our filter is working on a personal level?  We are overloaded with information that simply is not true and by motives that are selfish and dishonest.  How do we know we are using discernment and making knowledgeable decisions?  Two cases that are headlining the news right now are Paula Deen and the Trayvon Martin case.  Let me ask some questions.  Do you personally know Paula and/or Trayvon and/or George Zimmerman?  Have you watched the entire Martin/Zimmerman trial yourself?  Have you read the actual depositions with Paula Deen versus her accusers?  Have you been getting your information about these people from the National Enquirer and fascinating stories on Facebook and talk shows or from verifying the sources and facts yourself?  Are the conclusions you have deduced racially driven? We should strive for truth and knowledge and appreciate the plethora of information we have available to us while keeping our filter clean and at maximum performance level.  When we do this we are able to walk through this fast-paced, technology driven life consistently making decent choices. This is not always the case,of course.  We are also able to spread truth and growth through word of mouth, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.  This is especially true among professional communicators.  Here is an example from one of our leading professional communicators that, I believe, could have been improved upon by just as effectively providing the same historical approach for all aspects of racial degradation (since the majority of his speech was regarding emotions/reactions based on racial history and experiences) and challenging everyone to take the time to make educated evaluations and handle the situation with actions that would edify each race instead of validate the concerns he proposed.  I reiterate everyone.  What happens when pool water goes through the filter?  The filter catches all the crap, including the hidden particles, and flushes clean water out at an accelerated rate through the jets.  Wouldn't it be marvelous if the majority of social media and communication professionals effected this kind of outcome!  Tangible results would be astronomical because the intangible elements would cause them to soar.  Rangaswami also told us to "balance our diet to make an effort to prevent diseases and toxins."  Our personal relationships, social media relationships, business and professional relationships, as well as the relationship between an organization and its key publics should positively impact the well-being of each other.  For the public relations relationship this involves impacting the economic, social, political, and/or cultural well-being of the other entity.  Let's strive to be the pool water coming full force out of the jet!
 
Joy:  An abiding (resting, dwelling, remaining in) sense of happiness.

Let's Enjoy Our Children! A Persuasive Appeal

What are two things that are scarce in our society today?  Available quality time due to increasing demands for it and face-to-face interaction due to the explosion of social media.  Yet as parents these are two things that our children desperately need and want.  Who wants an emotionally healthy and stable child?  We all do.  Who is a perfect parent?  No one is.  However, we can strive to be the best parents for our children that we can and enjoy the journey along the way.  Veola Vasquez with Focus on the Family says in her article “Emotional Development” to “Be purposeful in guiding your child's emotional life. Focus intentionally on his emotional needs. These needs are just as important as his cognitive, physical and spiritual needs. Some ways to do this are:  1.  Build a strong bond by spending quality time with your child. Experts agree that parents who interact regularly with their children — beginning in infancy — develop stronger bonds. 2.  Stay emotionally in tune. Connect with your child on an emotional level. Attempt to understand what she is feeling. When she is happy, be happy for her; when she is sad, cry with her. 3.  Model healthy emotional relating. Your children will mimic the way you handle emotions and the way you relate to others. By managing your own emotions in a positive way, your children will learn to do so as well. 4.  Teach children how to handle negative emotions. Doing this well does not come naturally. Children need to be taught how to handle defeat, deal with conflict or be angry in a healthy way. Children who are taught these skills early are better able to handle negative feelings as adults.”  All of these things take time.  Harley A. Rotbart, M.D. from Parents magazine reminds us that we only have 940 Saturdays typically between a child’s birth and them leaving for college.  260 of those are gone by age five.    

From where do we find this time?  First, we need to remember that it is the quality of time, not the quantity.  We need to take the minutes we have and turn them into memorable moments.  And, when we make it enjoyable and create little traditions along the way we find ourselves carving out more time with our children and actually looking forward to it.  Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell, M.D. say in their book The Five Love Languages of Children, “Quality time is a parent’s gift of presence to a child.  It conveys this message:  ‘you are important.  I like being with you.’”  This is going to look different for various situations such as single parent homes, number of children, whether one or both parents are working, etc.  I have worked a full time job from home with two children, I have been a single mom with a part time job from home, and I am now a married stay at home mom with three children and I am in graduate school.  The seasons of time I have had with my children have varied greatly and now my 13 year old is becoming more independent and spending time away with his friends so our time is beginning to look a little differently.  Some ideas that don’t necessarily require a lot of time are eating breakfast together and praying for the day or taking them out to breakfast before school, going to have lunch with them at school, stopping for a moment when we get home from work with no distractions to hold their hand, look in their eyes, and find out about their day, let them help cook dinner even if it gets messy, take their favorite book and have a picnic at the park, take them out for an ice cream, have movie night with popcorn, go for a walk and take crazy pictures of each other along the way, include them in grocery shopping and let them pick out ingredients for their favorite meal, play a board game together, build a fort with them, make a little flower garden together and regularly check it together, go to the library and do story time together, and leave them encouraging notes wherever we can to surprise them and remind them one more time that we love them.  Have a bedtime routine that is packed with meaning, even if it is five minutes.  We need to make the most of every moment we have with our children and show them how important our time is with them.  This will impact generations to come also.

           

Another easy way to make the most of the time we do have with our children is to understand their love language and let that be our primary focus with each child.  Chapman and Campbell list the five love languages as physical touch, words of affirmation, quality time, gifts, and acts of service.  Each child has a primary love language that best communicates love to him or her.  We can learn how to transfer our heartfelt love for them to the hearts of our children.  For children with their primary love language as physical touch, “a tender hug communicates love to any child, but it shouts love to these children”.  These children are usually very touchy, feely because they are speaking their own language.  For the children with words of affirmation as their primary love language, “words are powerful in communicating love.  Words of affection and endearment, words of praise and encouragement, words that give positive guidance all say, ‘I care about you.’  Such words are like a gentle, warm rain falling on the soul; they nurture the child’s inner sense of worth and security.  Even though such words are quickly said, they are not soon forgotten.  A child reaps the benefits of affirming words for a lifetime.” For the child whose primary love language is quality time (with even more emphasis than normal) it means giving that child your undivided time.  It includes positive eye contact, sharing thoughts and feelings, quality conversations, storytelling, etc.  For the child whose primary love language is gifts, the “most meaningful gifts become symbols of love and the child must feel that his parents genuinely care through the other love languages”. We need to “give less rather than more and carefully choose gifts that will be meaningful rather than impressive.  When your child has the primary love language of acts of service, they tend to appreciate things we do for them on a different level.  “The ultimate purpose for acts of service to children is to help them emerge as mature adults who are able to give love to others through acts of service.” 

           

A fun idea would be to set up a date with your child and go through the quiz in the book to find out what their love language is and discuss it with them.  Find out what things mean the most to them and celebrate their individuality.  Share with them specific reasons you love them and remind them how thankful you are that they are yours.  This face-to-face time never needs to be replaced by social media (texting our children even when we are in the same house, Facebook instead of going through pictures together, tweeting messages that can be shared through a hug or laugh or tears, etc.).  Dr. Christopher Healy from NC State University says, “The written word can be so hard to discern because of the lack of voice inflection, eye contact and facial expressions.  As the newer forms of communication boom in popularity---texting, emailing, and tweeting – the human emotion gets further and further removed from the message”.  Let’s turn off the television and our electronic devices and spend some quality time with our children. 

          

For various reasons we all tend to be physically and emotionally drained at the end of most days.  As parents we also need to give attention to our own physical and emotional health to be able to make the most of the snippets of time we have with our children.  Some things we can do are put the phone on vibrate and listen to relaxing music on the way home from work, stop the car before we get home and pray, take a few minutes to get a cold drink and change into comfortable clothes before settling in with the family, have a set bedtime for the kids and grab a magazine and get in a bubble bath to wind down for the day, light candles and play music while cooking dinner with no electronics and create a relaxing mood for the entire family, and we cannot be afraid to sometimes let our children know we cannot wait to spend some time with them but we need to take a breather first.  We have real emotions also and they need to see us be honest and handle them in a constructive way.  We have good days and bad days; wonderful seasons in life and some that are not so great.

          
From this point forward, let’s be the best parents we can be and maximize the time we do have with our children and create lasting memories and keep their love tanks full.  We as parents have made mistakes and will continue to make mistakes; however, we can set the example and be an encouragement to parents around us that quality time with our children is vital and blesses our hearts as well as theirs.  Neither our lives nor the social media world with falter because we turn off our iphones and love on our children.  Let’s have fun!  

Leadership and Crisis Communication

  Ten or fifteen years ago when a crisis occurred, companies had at least a 24 hour period to reconcile what had happened and put together an effective plan to communicate with the public, stakeholders, etc.  Now, there is little to no time.  For instance, when Flight 1549 crashed in 2009, Kevin Smith reported the incident on Twitter within two minutes after the crash occurred.  Because Southwest Airlines was already engaged in social media they knew immediately about his posting and responded within 16 minutes after his first tweet.  They were able to be proactive and respond in real time to this crisis of attack on the company and they did so by interacting directly with Kevin Smith and others on Twitter.  Dan Landau says, "Today with social media platforms like Twitter, posting a tweet is like having a press conference with the world.  Organizations must begin to understand that today, anyone can be a journalist and individuals can report whatever they want to anyone in the world in just a few seconds".  Let's think about this for a moment.  This has many good implications for those motivated to compliment and help a company.  However, we are discussing crisis communication.  Any person including those with no moral compass, no decent standards of citizenry, severe lack of intelligence, and narcissism can now communicate to the world in a split second basically anything that entertains them at the moment.  Let's all pull our hair out right now!  An example of this is when Domino's Pizza had two employees post disgusting videos of how they were contaminating the food. The main problem is that consumers are able to generate information and that information go viral quicker than crisis communicators are able to appropriately respond to a crisis incident.  Eddie Obeng said, "all the rules are gone.  Instantly in this environment all the possibilities which turbulence brings are available." One thing that Domino's could have done differently is respond the second they were notified of what was going on with a statement letting everyone know they were investigating and verifying all information, they apologize for any and all inappropriate behavior that did not represent the integrity of the company, and assure everyone that it would be handled and that Domino's would keep everyone up to date as the process unfolded.  Then, once they had all the information and knew the videos were valid and created by actual employees they could, in more detail, outline their strategy for responding to be truthful as well as avoid lawsuits.  The fact that Domino's had to implement their crisis strategy plan in the midst of an actual crisis has put them in an excellent position to be proactive if a crisis happens again.  

Online crisis response plans must be an integral part of marketing plans if the company wants to remain in charge of its reputation instead of its antagonists.  We have to realize what a powerful force social media is because it allows information to be shared instantly with anyone in the world, people all over the world are using it, and it is extremely easy to use social media to spread information immediately to a wide audience.  The wit of Domino's team to respond using the same mediums (i.e. Twitter and YouTube) that were used to distribute the critical information and videos so they could take charge of the situation was ingenious.  It showed respect for its customers by reaching out to them where they were (online social media sites) and by being empathetic and genuinely concerned. This is also why Southwest Airlines was successful in their crisis communication response because they fought viral with viral.  Domino's made sure its publics understood that swift and appropriate actions were being taken to remedy the situation and make sure it did not happen again.  They practiced transparency, which placed them ahead of the marketing curve (we discussed transparency in my previous blog).  This case is a realistic example of the massive impact social media has on public relations practices and the systems that need to be integrated into PR to control crises and reputation management. 


There are many things that can be done by a company to place itself in a healthy position to deal with a crisis when it occurs.  It starts with leadership.  A leader should be someone who is prepared to manage the crisis and protect the company's profitability, reputation, market position, and have systems in place for the human resource managers.  If the franchise owner at the aforementioned Domino's would have used professional judgment and took the time to hire employees with a strong work ethic and integrity, this crisis could have been avoided.  The female involved had already committed multiple crimes that were part of her public record.  Wooten and James tell us in their article "Linking Crisis Management and Leadership Competencies:  The Role of Human Resource Development" that "crisis leadership demands an integration of skills, abilities, and traits that allow a leader to plan for, respond to, and learn from crisis events while under public scrutiny."  Neil Chapman helped with crisis communications during the BP Deep Water Horizon oil spill and explained that these abilities in leaders and CEOs is vital because part of their job is remaining effective while under extreme pressure and fatigue. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjb196dB0VY  He said that Tony Hayward did a fabulous job prior to the oil spill in having systems in place for successful communication between the proper agencies and establishing what the roles and responsibilities of the various communicators were.  Hayward also established a strong sense of teamwork striving for a common goal.  The human tragedy was that eleven people lost their lives.  Chapman said you cannot "PR that away".  It then turned into an enormous environmental disaster and BP's messages had to be very clear:  

1.  They had to attack the source of the oil, 

2.  They had to clean the oil from the water, 

3. They had to defend the shore, and 

4.  They had to restore peoples' lives.  

Two things that social media really played into during this crisis in a negative way were it overshadowed the fact that BP was reacting to and operating under the United States government and Tony Hayward was attacked because of comments he made under extreme pressure and fatigue even though it was not mentioned that he had done several hundred beneficial interviews along the way also.  Effective leaders need to be prepared for crisis management by being "able to sense early warning signals that announce the possibility of a crisis, having the ability to avert crises and prepare should they occur, having the ability to maintain damage control by keeping the crisis from expanding to other parts of the organization or its environment, being responsible for implementing short and long term plans designed to help resume business operations, and to encourage learning lessons from the crisis to come out better on the other end".  Bill George with the Wall Street Journal said "a crisis provides the leader with the platform to get things done that were required anyway and offers the sense of urgency to accelerate their implementation".  Eddie Obeng says, "The real 21st century around us isn't so obvious to us.  So instead we spend our time responding rationally to a world that we understand and recognize but which no longer exists.  Technology is accelerating things exponentially and the key is implementation.  Make things happen!". http://www.ted.com/talks/eddie_obeng_smart_failure_for_a_fast_changing_world.html  Tim Tinker in his article "Eight Best Practices for Applying Change Management in Crisis and Emergency Events" says "capturing stakeholder insights during an emergency enables the strategic leader to drive long-term direction and evaluate programs for their inherent risks and benefits". 

Some things that are vital in gaining back some control, organization, and maintenance to communications especially during a crisis are partnering with the public and listening to their concerns, being honest and transparent, remaining accessible to the media and meeting their needs, being compassionate and empathetic, practicing patience and be good-humored, remaining calm, and using credible sources.  It would greatly help also for employees and consumers to "learn how to accept uncertainty and ambiguity while organizations are grappling with these new directions with social media and remain calm, patient, and positive.  Constructive criticism actually helps a company learn through a crisis so they can effect change and improve.