I recommend checking out the BP web site where the main page is entirely devoted to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. I felt the need to blog about BP’s public relations and social media efforts surrounding the oil spill after reading my classmate’s blog, Adding to the Noise, about how BP has tried to advertise that is an “energy” company versus an “oil” company for several years now.
I was disappointed and disheartened by the video that BP posted of its chief executive, Tony Hayward, visiting the oil spill response efforts. While I do commend BP for using video updates to show the progress of the relief efforts, much of the video focuses on Tony shaking hands with workers and telling us that they are going to win this war. Aren’t they only fighting a war with themselves? Isn’t BP’s oil spill dumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the ocean, BP’s only enemy? Why do the majority of photos on the site feature Tony sitting in meetings discussing the issue? Where is the heartfelt apology and the scenes of BP executives rolling up their sleeves and jumping on a boat to have a first hand look at the destruction? Why isn’t BP telling us what we really want to know, how much damage this has caused to the wildlife, our beaches and the livelihood of our fishermen?
BP’s site provides a link to the Deepwater Horizon Response site where you can obtain the latest information and follow the response efforts via Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and RSS. Visiting this site was slightly more comforting in that it’s not about executives shaking hands, it’s about people working together to create a solution while providing the latest information to the general public.
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May 14, 2010 at 10:35 pm
Lindsay
I’m glad that someone is talking about this. Crisis communication is so crucial, and not everyone does it right. We were actually talking at work the other fay about how BP should handle this, and my first reponse was, “All you can do at this point is apologize”. I think that Toyota Motor Manufacturing handled their recall crisis well with their apology commercials, and I would have hoped to see something similar from BP. Tiger Woods, on the other hand, was not a prime crisis communication example by keeping quiet for so long, having a limited press conference, and then producing an unemotional commercial with his father as the narrator. Crisis communication is key, and I think you’re right in saying that BP hasn’t quite hit the mark yet!