Big oil face off

It seems we have the oil and gas giants positioning themselves post BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill. First we had Shell boss Peter Voser attacking BP over oil well safety saying, ‘Shell would have drilled this well in a different way and would have had more options to prevent the accident.’

Now we have Chevron hedging their bets and taking a more cautious approach. Richard Cohagan, managing director of Chevron UK, admitted their new deepwater drilling campaign off the Shetland Islands could cause an oil spill of greater magnitude than BP's Gulf of Mexico disaster. He went on, ‘Deepwater Horizon has given us a new perspective on how bad things could be.’

If you watch Chevron’s advertisements they tend to be very caring and sharing and this line from their UK Chief would seem to fit with this approach. Whether it amounts to anything more than spin over substance is another matter.

Facebook and Twitter in times of crisis

How can Facebook and Twitter best be used to overcome a crisis?

Twitter
The use of Twitter by newspapers and broadcasters is extraordinary, given that it’s all done in 140 character chunks. Your company must monitor Twitter mentions of your brands, products and services.

Have a Twitter account set up ahead of a crisis and use it – get conversant with what it can do, use it for marketing so that if a crisis does strike you’ll be ahead of the game and can get information out quickly.

Storm warning
You can’t defend a brand and its reputation if you’re not listening for signs of an impending problem. One under reported aspect of the BP fiasco was that they didn’t think to scoop up relevant BP ‘identities’ on Twitter.

@BPglobalPR sounds like a legitimate arm of BP’s PR machine, but it wasn’t. BP was ‘brandjacked’ on Twitter with tweets appearing such as:

‘Please do not take or clean any oil you find on the beach. That is property of BP and we WILL sue you.’

What does this say about the effectiveness of BP’s PR team in time of crisis? How did an enterprising joker on Twitter manage to fly under the radar using BP’s own name and logo?

Facebook
Facebook is a great tool for talking directly to all your stakeholders. Create a corporate site in “normal” times and get to know its uses and abuses. In a major crisis you may need a corporate response page where you can post comments and pictures that refer entirely to the on-going incident.

Social media crisis management must dovetail with any existing crisis management plans you have in place. In many ways traditional best practice in crisis management is reflected in the brave new world of social media - it’s just that it now all happens at the speed of light.

Communication Strategies: a new book from Jim Preen

To survive an incident, organizations need more than a successful communication strategy – they need an incident communication plan. This book helps organizations to take control and start planning their response immediately.

An incident is often provoked and inflamed by the media, and inept incident communications will only make things worse. Packed with case studies, this practical guide shows how it is possible to overcome and actually prosper in the full glare of the media.

Communication Strategies demonstrates how to implement and deploy a thorough incident media strategy. Based on BS 25999-1, the British Standard for business continuity management, this invaluable book covers diverse elements including:

* The importance of call cascades
* How to run successful press conferences
* How to set up and run an incident press room

This book would help communications teams in medium/large companies; risk managers; business continuity managers; and PR professionals.

Contents of Communication Strategies include:

* Introduction
* Types of incidents
* Determining the contents of your plan
* Press gang
* Strategy layout
* How the strategy migrates to a plan
* Press conferences
* Holding statements, press releases and templates
* Coping with the press pack
* Media monitoring
* Call takers
* Information, fact sheets and general know-how
* Post-incident evaluation
* Testing the plan
* Communication plan checklist
* References

Voted 'Book of the Month' by Quality World, the magazine of the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI)
"...provides a wealth of practical guidance to help prevent a stressful situation unravelling through poor information management in an unguarded moment."

Buy the book here

It’s good to talk when things go wrong, says CEO of Crisis Solutions Dennis Flynn

One of the most common problems in crisis management is poor communication. It’s not just communication to the outside world that catches people out; it’s often an internal communication breakdown that can turn a run-of-the-mill problem into a full-blown crisis.

If the operational staff that are solving the problem aren’t talking to the senior team tasked with updating customers and the general public, then everyone ends up with mixed messages and the crisis spins out of control. Just ask outgoing BP chief Tony Hayward. Practising the art of communication through proper integration of operational and communications teams before there’s a problem can help avoid this scenario, and minimise the consequences of the crisis.

It is not uncommon in companies to see board level members becoming isolated and out of touch with what is going on at operational level. When the appropriate communication channels are not put in place, responsibilities and expectations on all levels can become blurred, which can raise a state of panic when a crisis occurs.

It is very difficult for the head of comms at an organisation to be in two places at once and provide accurate information to the board while dealing with things at operational level. It’s important that employees on all levels train and practice communicating regularly to each other and that board level members proactively converse with operational staff.

Undertaking exercises that allow everyone to have a voice means that the senior team can become more in tune with the organisation’s operations, which can be vital in reacting to a crisis situation.

In order to create an effective link between the operational level and senior team, the logistics of an organisation’s communications channel needs to be considered. For example, using runners to gather news from each level of an organisation and provide updates to the senior level can be an effective way to improve the reactions of decision makers.

The role of a communications team can be vital in the event of a crisis, as messages need to be relayed to stakeholders as to the state of the business. However, a comms team can only be effective if it is in the crisis comms ‘zone‘. Communications teams are often accomplished at issuing good news about the business, but in order to cover bad news that can affect the company, they need to be aware of the nature of the industry they are working in and how to spot a crisis emerging. A fully proficient comms team can then have an advisory role in proceedings rather than simply delivering responses from senior management.

In order to minimise the effects of a crisis, it’s imperative that operational staff have a voice to influence senior level members. This can be achieved by putting the appropriate communications channel in place and making sure that the executives work with operational staff to train and practise communicating process issues.

Being able to spot a crisis is obviously important for both operational and comms staff. Having a comms team that is knowledgeable of the company and potential industry issues can ensure that accurate and timely information is given to senior management so that the correct decisions can be made when a crisis occurs.

Dennis Flynn is CEO at crisis management specialists Crisis Solutions

Shell boss attacks BP

You will no doubt have noticed that the boss of Shell has launched a blistering attack on beleaguered rival BP over the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Peter Voser said his company would never have made the mistakes that led to the death of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon rig and the biggest environmental disaster in US history.

'Shell clearly would have drilled this well in a different way and would have had more options to prevent the accident from happening,' he said.

There has never been much love lost between Shell and BP. Old hostilities have renewed now the worst of the BP Deepwater Horizon fiasco is largely over.

Peter Voser’s comments have to be seen in light of the fact that before the oil spill Shell had seen BP overtake it as Europe’s biggest energy producer in terms of market value. While the disaster was ongoing it would have looked unseemly for Shell to attack BP – now the gloves are off.

There must be a lot of Shell workers and executives out there wondering whether it was wise of Voser to make these remarks which would come back to haunt him if Shell were to suffer a similar disaster.

It’s probably no more than a PR thrust at BP but of course if BP needs money to pay for the clean up then Shell would want to be in place to pick up any assets that came on the market at the right price. Perhaps a little canny positioning is going on.

Don’t forget Shell’s own past is far from spotless. In 2004 they massively over estimated their oil reserves and were forced to pay out £200 million in fines and compensation.

Two big oil and gas beasts are at each other’s throats again.

The return of the Lizard

The Lizard has been away - I think you will have noticed - but he's back, stronger and more powerful than ever. Watch this space!