The Giant meets an unfair Headline

Yesterday, a post on the Dallas Morning News Investigates Blog gave a curious headline that called into question the communication openness of a popular local theme park

"Six Flags Over Texas now says the Texas Giant roller coaster will remain closed all day today -- the third straight day of a mysterious safety problem at the Arlington amusement park."

The headline and first line of the post struck me as strange because from a PR perspective, any opportunity to effectively communicate a situation relating to an error with the Texas Giant (a popular wooden roller coaster) that could impact the safety of patrons would be well worth the time to research and explain.

And that is exactly what the spokeswoman did when asked by the Dallas Morning News (DMN) writer, "what kind of error?"

"I haven't been given that information yet...I'm just holding tight until the engineers provide me with that information...Our priority right now is getting to the root of it and making sure that we get it up and running safely. To me that's the No. 1 priority. I'm in constant communication with them. When the time is appropriate they will let me know, and I will convey that information to you guys. Until that time there is nothing else to share." [source]

Time to Share
So the PR person explained the situation based on the information she had at the time and expressed a willingness to discuss it further after receiving more information and yet the investigative reporter goes with a They won't talk headline. Um, what?

This is an unfortunate example of the type of unfair characterization on the part of a media outlet to suggest impropriety and obfuscation when in fact there clearly was a willingness to share. Perhaps it was done sensationalize the story a bit, which judging by some of the comments on the post was how at least some people thought. Other comments took the side of the concerned public and was pushing for more questions and inquiry. Other commenters attacked each other over previous comments. Still others called into question the reasoning behind the DMN covering something as silly as a roller coaster temporary closure. At one point in the comments, the writer interjected:

"I'm not speculating. Everything may well be fine. I'm just asking questions. That's my job. When people don't answer the questions, that makes me more curious. Think about it: If you ask your kid a question about what's wrong and they don't answer, don't you get more curious?"
[emphasis added]

Exactly when did the PR person not answer his question? In fact, later in the evening a local radio station's Web site had an update posted on the coaster situation as well as a new post today (with yet another They won't talk headline) was provided on the DMN blog since more details were ready to be released.

Big Picture Time
The temporary closure of this popular wooden roller coaster doesn't really reach level-critical since nothing much happened in this situation at the amusement park beyond a problem was detected, a decision was made to suspend operations, and details were explained when they were available.

Communication Carry-out: PR professionals need to guard against speculating on any situation in which we do not have all of the information. We need to wait until we have enough of the truth to share that would help shed some light on a situation. I applaud how the Six Flags spokeswoman handled the information release, it is just unfortunate that a decision was made to muddy-up the truth for the community. What do you think?

Good communication tactics stand up to fire test

A towering flame just beyond one's backyard is quite possibly one of the most disturbing things a homeowner can see.  We recently had one such flame:

To quote Alfred E. Neuman, "What, me worry?" 
In any other circumstance, a fire of this magnitude so close to a neighborhood would be quite alarming. However, thanks to some effective corporate communication tactics, Chesapeake Energy alleviated fears, doubts, and general concerns.

The issues: Chesapeake Energy determined a need to conduct flaring operations at a location just west of my neighborhood to "more effectively assess a natural gas well’s production capabilities and determine areas where pipeline is most needed to begin transporting the gas to market." [source] From a PR perspective, their problem included the proximity to neighborhoods and area businesses and what needed to be done to help educate the community.

They kept it simple: From my perspective, the Chesapeake Energy communications tactics employed stem from a strategy which is heavy on community education and engagement.

• We were first informed of the planned flaring operations via a letter from the company explaining the procedures, safety, and general information. 
• The letter included a link to their Web site dedicated to answering additional questions on these and other relevant drilling-related topics divided by neighborhood. 
• Lastly, a sign was placed at the entrance to gas well that gave relevant and useful information such as permitting, 24-hour supervision on-site, an emergency number, and of course their Web site again.
  (If you look closely, you can see the flames through the trees.)

To be clear, I have no connection to Chesapeake beyond concerned neighbor to one of their natural gas wells. In fact, I didn't think much of the initial letter when I read it. We, like most families in our neighborhood I am sure, were startled by the fire. (I even joked about it on Twitter and Twitpic.) Nevertheless, there was a good lesson here for communicators who want to avoid not having coporate messages heard.

Communication Carry-out:  With the right tactics and tools (even the simple ones) you can achieve effective communication enlightenment: message sent — message received. This is just my way of highlighting what a corporate communications win looks like from a member of the community.

What do you think? The comments are yours.
(Note: As a sat down to write this post, the flaring operations ceased.)

The Dialogue of Village Idiots

I wasn't going to write this evening until a blogging challenge was given by Jason Falls:

I am not sure how serious (if at all) he was at issuing this writing version of Taboo. This intrigued me since forms of those words are in my blog's masthead. (It least it's not in the blog's name like Valeria Maltoni.) Naturally, "village" and dialogue" came up as worthy alternate words.

There is a point here, trust me.

Earlier today, Michael Jackson passed away. The uncontrollable speed at which the news, rumors, dialogue,  conjectures, and lies spread today was pretty phenomenal via traditional media and the social web. There is no doubt others will cover this from a news/communications/social media/celebrity perspective (among others) ad nauseam.  

[Enter the Village Idiot] In contrast, an example of textual spew came from celebrity blogger, Perez Hilton who suggested Jackson was "lying or making himself sick." 

This of course caught the attention of the masses and rightfully so caused a backlash. Some have even suggested this was done as yet another way for him to be edgy and polarizing. I thought it was just stupid.

My lesson: I don't care who you think you are, being human is more important than being a blogger.

Obfuscation vs. PR's legitimate role

Image by stonehouse_ via Flickr

Our local PRSA chapter recently held a luncheon with a panel made up of publishers/editors of local weeklies in an attempt to hear how they were doing financially and how PR people and journalists could work together on news stories.

What attendees received was a peek at the reality for these journalists:

From the GFW PRSA Blog -
During the Q&A, Lee Newquist, publisher of Fort Worth Weekly, was asked how PR practitioners could be of the most value to the weeklies. As part of a longer response, Newquist answered, “PR companies, at least on the journalism side of what we do, are problematic because they’re in between (us and) the person with the real answer. I don’t want to talk to a PR person whose sole role in their career is to spin it and make it sound good."

Blake Ovard, managing editor of The Star Group weeklies, echoed: “All of the cities have a PIO, and their job is to keep you from getting the story, so they don’t understand why I don’t want to talk to them. They say, ‘Well, I have all your information.’”

I wish I could have attended the luncheon.

I did, however, interact with a number of fellow PRSA members who did attend as well as follow along some of the quotes from Twitter.

I think what seemed to ruffle the feathers of some in attendance was what has come to be seen as the typical broad-stroked summation from journalists that PR people block the news gathering process. This is simply not the case, at least not always. Are there PR people who do a horrible job for their organizations or clients. Yep. But the same is true in any industry (up to and including journalism.)

Speaking from a communication professional's perspective, it is true that for public information officers, sometimes we have to get to the information tucked away inside our government agencies. We understand and appreciate the journalists would prefer to speak directly with the internal expert and source and to be quite honest, in most cases this is our preference too.

However, there are times when we cannot provide information for privacy, personnel protection, and other various legal reasons beyond our and the organization's control. It is highly frustrating when these actions are then turned around and interpreted as obfuscation when our hands are simply tied.

Perhaps the panelists didn’t fully appreciate the host organization is made up of PR professionals who hold to a PRSA Code of Ethics,which state in part:

HONESTY - We adhere to the highest standards of accuracy and truth in advancing the interests of those we represent and in communicating with the public.

LOYALTY - We are faithful to those we represent, while honoring our obligation to serve the public interest.

FAIRNESS - We deal fairly with clients, employers, competitors, peers, vendors, the media, and the general public. We respect all opinions and support the right of free expression.

If you hope to reach your community and your community members find local weeklies useful, then the strategy dictates paying attention to and functioning in tandem with these media outlets. If your community does not find local weeklies relevant, move on.

Perhaps our organizations would be better served if public relations professionals work on being better as well as look to what could be in store for our profession and for journalists.

Related articles by Richie Escovedo with Zemanta

• Looking for the ethical intersections
• 5 Ways a Community Manager Can Help Your Media Outlet
• Journalism vs PR: Head-knockin' issues
• Journalism vs PR: The dialog begins
• J-School to Public Relations: Selling Out or Buying In?
  

Twitter Hint for School Districts

I have been running a Twitter account for our school district for a little over a year now. It started as an experiment as part of our communication department's exploration of social media tools. I still recommend school districts use the tool and I am thrilled to see a growing number of school districts in our state that have found Twitter useful.

It's ok to broadcast
There seems to be a running debate about whether or not Twitter should be used as a broadcasting tool as opposed to a conversational tool. I believe that for school districts, a simple broadcasting Twitter stream could be an advantageous tool to provide useful information, updates, and links for the district community. 

I recently stumbled on another alternate use of Twitter,
Announcement Update Page

Twitter creates unique Web pages for each tweet. These pages could be re-purposed as announcement pages pretty easily:

Post an update on Twitter, locate the URL -

then drop in a link to that URL from the district's homepage (or other appropriate location.)

What you get is a ready-made district announcement page (if you've branded the profile to your school district) without having to create new or updating existing pages on the district's Web site.

 

This came in handy a few times last year when we had some things that required attention, but that really didn't merit a full production of press release or district announcement page. Plus, it was really fast.

I know this isn't ground-breaking stuff, but speaking as a school district communications/PR professional, I can assure you it is very convenient and should be considered if you are thinking about using Twitter for your school district.

Do you think this is a worthy solution for a common problem? Do you have any other alternate uses for Twitter? The comments are yours.

Related articles by Zemanta and Richie Escovedo

• Twitter For Churches and Non-Profit Organizations
• 7 Uncommon Uses for Twitter
  
• Texas School Districts on Twitter
• Social Media Tools for School PR

Look up every once in a while and dream

Clouds are so cool
Originally uploaded by vedo's pics

Stop what you are doing and look around you.
What do you see?
More importantly, who do you see?

Take a moment or two (or ten) and think about what is really important to you. It is easy to get caught up in the various business and complex pressures that we forget (or fore go) our purposes and dreams.

It's time we start pursuing our big dreams instead of granting the small wishes of others.

Are you a dreamer?

-=-=-=-
Thank you for indulging me in a short diversion away from normal posts on communications, public relations, education, and a bunch of stuff in between. Now back to regular programming.