Blue Helm

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a huge disaster. I am sad for all of the damage to the environment. I’m sad for the massive economic repercussions this has and will have on the local and national economy . I’m sad that BP was not prepared to deal with something like this. It’s just a terrible situation.

While the actual oil spill has been terrible, the PR around the oil spill has been just as bad. I’m not going to talk about BP in this post; they have all sorts of problems I could talk about. Click here to read an interesting post about some things BP’s PR could have done better. Click here to see some parodies on BP’s response.

My focus today is on the Obama administration and their PR problems. People are upset, and rightfully so. They are mad at BP, they are mad at the damage to their beaches and businesses, they are mad at Obama, they are just mad. They don’t care who fixes the problem, they just want it fixed.

It’s been very interesting to watch Obama and his response. He is mad and wants to figure out whose “booty to kick” (he didn’t use the word booty, but you get the idea). He is very defensive of his administration and spends a lot of time explaining that he is very angry at what’s going on. I’m sure people are happy that Obama is mad, but the problem is that people aren’t seeing action.

So what should the government do? I believe they should better explain what they’re doing to stop this catastrophe. If they’re consulting with experts about how to clean oil spills, then tell us. If they are planning on sending resources to aid in the clean up, send out a press release. If Obama just gave an earful to the CEO of BP, then tweet about it. This is simple PR!

In this new age of communication, when people can find anything they want by typing it into their search engine, when people can vent their frustrations on blogs, Facebook and Twitter, good PR is a must. But it goes much further than having good PR. Your organization has to be willing to do and to change if necessary. If all you’re doing is talking, then people will call you out on it.

What do you think?

In honor of Presidents Day I have to give props to President Obama for doing so well in the social media realm. Whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, or somewhere in between, you can’t deny that the man has done wonders in reaching out to The People via social media. As I’m writing this he has over 7.5 million fans on his Facebook page and close to 3.3 million followers on Twitter. No one else in the political arena has anywhere near as much online support. Sarah Palin, who seems to be the next most popular political figure on Facebook and Twitter, has just over 1.36 million fans on Facebook and barely 80,000 followers on Twitter. The number of her supporters pales in comparison to President Obama’s.

In addition to having large numbers of supporters on the major social networks, Obama has done a great job galvanizing his fan base. Outside of his official pages, there are thousands of groups, profiles, YouTube videos, websites, forums and blogs supporting his cause.

Obama has proven himself a worthy campaigner. Edelman, one of the top independent PR firms in the world, wrote a great report on how Obama used social media to win the 2008 Presidential Election. Click here to read the report.

A warning to all politicians

President Obama isn’t the only one who has used social media effectively to influence elections. A more recent example can be seen in Scott Brown’s surprise victory in Massachusetts. As of Jan. 1, Brown had over 70,000 fans while Martha Coakley had just over 13,000. Click here to read this Wall Street Journal report for more telling statistics about the Massachusetts election.

If you want an idea of who may or may not win their elections this upcoming November, just compare how the candidates are doing in the social media race.

Politicians beware; do not ignore social media!

Bill O'Reilly

I was watching The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News last week and heard the controversial host say something unusually distressing. One of his guests mentioned Facebook and Bill immediately rolled his eyes said something to the extent of: “I don’t even know what Facebook and Twitter are, and I don’t care.” (I have searched tirelessly on the Internet for a video or written transcript of the segment, but couldn’t find anything. I’ll keep searching.)

This sounds very bad coming from the highest-rated cable news host. Bill O’Reilly, a seasoned reporter known for his opinions and analyses of current events, doesn’t know or care about social media? Bill, if you’re reading, please accept my humble advice and change your mind about the biggest phenomenon to change the way we communicate since the mobile phone. Here’s why you should think twice about your ambivalence toward social media:

1. Social media changes the world every day, for better or worse. Barack Obama’s campaign arguably won the 2008 presidential election through its consistent participation and interaction with younger voters on social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube. Sarah Palin and other potential candidates currently drive their grassroots political movements through social media. And perhaps most stunningly, the recent protests in Iran over alleged election fraud was largely organized and broadcast through Twitter.

2. Social media is changing the dynamics of our modern media. Once-powerful newspapers are succumbing to bankruptcy at alarming rates. Why? The emergence of cable news is one possible explanation. But blogs and citizen journalists are attracting more and more Americans, undermining traditional media outlets and forcing them to evolve. No one could have envisioned such drastic times for newspapers and the mainstream media. Who’s to say social media won’t dramatically change the potency of Fox News or other cable news outlets within the next decade in a similarly unpredictable way?

3. Social media isn’t going away. It may change over time, but like other communication megatrends of the past few decades (the internet, personal computers, cell phones, etc.), social media is a powerful networking and conversation tool that unites friends, strangers, businesses and families. It won’t be abandoned any time soon.

4. Hundreds of millions of people use social media every day. As a news anchor, someone who reports on the prevailing trends of our society, shouldn’t you care? You alienate your viewers and listeners by saying you don’t know what Facebook is. Roughly one third of Americans actively use Facebook. This is an astonishing statistic. Many of these Facebook users undoubtedly listen to you and trust your judgement of what’s important news. How should they interpret your utter lack of interest or knowledge concerning something so revolutionary, so innovative, so vital?