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Crisis Communications Lessons from the BP Oil Spill

By: Christi Dixon | 07/30/2010

As a crisis communications planner and media trainer, I've been fascinated  by BP's management (er, mismanagement) of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The communications strategies used by the company have been, at best, inconsistent.

A group of us recently attended a Bulldog Reporter PR University webinar, "BP Blunders & Lessons Learned - Day 99: How PR Can Master Superior Crisis Communications in the Era of 24/7 Media."  Presenter Gerard Braud provided excellent perspective on the lessons we can learn from BP's missteps. 

At Standing we focus on proactive and transparent communication to protect, improve or change reputations -- sometimes this occurs in the midst of an unfortunate situation.  It's a good exercise to evaluate your organization against the latest crisis...and keep the following in mind:

Before a crisis

You've heard it before: the best opportunity to control a crisis is before it ever happens.

1. Keep your crisis plan up to date. Expand your plans to include secondary situations. How will you respond if your competitor has a crisis? If your neighbor has a chemical spill, is your crisis plan activated? Who might be affected by your outside contractors or partners?

2. Build up your bench strength with a wide variety of spokespeople, but quit kissing up to the CEO -- if your executives aren't great spokespeople, don't use them. Using a subject matter expert who has charm, wit and communicates well will go a long way in protecting your reputation.

3. Media train your people regularly, and be sure to match your spokespeople with an effective media trainer. A good personality match fosters a level of comfort so that spokespeople can make mistakes and learn from them. We know this is why Standing's team is often asked to help with media training -- it's more comfortable for the internal communications team and for the trainee to have an objective outside counselor.

During a crisis

1. In a crisis, use your website as a beacon of communication. Include contact information, updates and photos. Consider using a blog format if your website updates are difficult or time-intensive. Prepare several "dark sites" that are ready to launch in a crisis situation. Once a crisis occurs, assign someone to conduct a web audit to remove anything that might be obsolete, offensive or silly, given the situation. (For instance, if you have a safety situation, look out for broad or haughty claims about being "the world's safest.")

2. Follow the rule of proportion. When you're providing facts, always include context. Use everyday language to help stakeholders understand the situation. (The leaking BP pipe was about the diameter of a 5-gallon bucket.) 

3. If you're going to advertise during a crisis, avoid filling your ads with PR speak that can actually make matters worse. Be real. Be honest. Be candid.

4. Don't go tweet-for-tat with your critics in the social media space. Instead, use your organization's social media presence as a newsfeed and to drive traffic to your own site. Arguments and corrections on Facebook and Twitter won't help you in a crisis.

More from BP

While I agreed with most of the presenter's points on crisis prep and strategy, I did disagree on a few points. Braud said denial was the biggest reason companies don't prepare for crises. Maybe I've just been lucky to work with really smart clients, but in my experience lack of time and resources plays a larger role than denial in preventing crisis preparation.

He went on to describe social media as an "optional" part of a crisis communications plan, but I think that's incredibly naive. Social media hosts most of the man-on-the-street reactions and public discussion of a given crisis situation, and organizations should absolutely be communicating through those channels. If your crisis happens online, it's even more critical that you're part of the conversation.

What have you learned from the BP crisis? Has it changed your organization's communications approach?

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