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January 17, 2005
Telling Everyone You're OK - A Key Element In Crisis Communications
Have you ever noticed that one of the first side effects of most disaster situations is that the phone lines in the area immediately go down?
I don't know what first crossed your mind when you heard about the Sumatra earthquake and tsunami, but for me it was people's faces.
Steffie, Subandriyo, Eischa, Yuswan, Ibu Hetarihon, and dozens more of my friends made during the 14 months that I lived in Indonesia. I wanted to know if they were ok, if they were directly affected, and most importantly, what I could do to help.
There's a consumer insight here. I believe that the first thing people think about in disasters is how it affects the people they know, or maybe just know of. That's why the phone lines go down - calls to check.
We've talked a great deal about how every company needs a crisis communications plan to handle any kind of crisis. And for most companies, their crisis communications plan doesn't kick into action unless they are directly involved.
Consumer behavior says that's not the way to do it. It says that if there's a crisis in your area, your customers, clients and friends want to know your status...
Even if you're not affected.
Imagine your reaction if you were to receive a note like this:
Posted at 09:28 AM
January 15, 2005
Communications - They're a Changing
It's Wisconsin, it's January, and our famous state lived up to its reputation last week.
We had a snow day...big deal.
But something interesting happened at my kids' school that tells a great deal about what's going on in communications today.
School was cancelled at noon that day, because the brunt of the storm would be hitting during normal bus transportation time.
At 11:00 one of the students (who had run home during a free period) saw the announcement on the news that schools would be closing at noon.
She picked up her cell phone and text messaged another student Cori, who happened to be in physics class to give her the good news. Cori, (in typical teenage fashion), felt her phone buzz, read the message, then stood up and interrupted the teacher to announce that school was being cancelled. Cheers erupted.
The teacher told her to sit down and stop disturbing the class, as the teachers would certainly know about these things before the students would hear about them.
Cori sat down, but instead of taking physics notes, she text messaged ("texted") another student in another class, who announced it to her class, then texted it on to others.
5 minutes later, almost every student in the school knew they were going home.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, the announcement was made that school was being cancelled.
Why is this a big deal? Because it's a symbol of what's happening in today's world.
Posted at 01:08 PM
What's That Again? Unconscious Tree
One key element of police blotters is that the need to report everything as they experience it. Here's a couple of examples that you may find interesting:
"Tree down, 5:45 p.m.: The sheriff's department reported a tree lying unconscious in the road on Carpenterville Road."
We tried to revive it, but the tree was just unconscious!
Or this one:
"Donuts were reported loitering in a field on Opening Hill Road."
You know that loitering is serious crime - we're just going to have to confiscate these donuts...
Posted at 10:41 AM
TV Weatherperson's Day
I love Wisconsin weather - at 10pm two nights ago my temperature gauge read 50 degrees and we were in the middle of a pounding thunderstorm. At midnight last night it read -5 degrees. Now that's Wisconsin!
In this part of the world we pay attention to our weather announcers - sometimes our lives depend on the information they provide.
But Joan Stewart reminds us that when it comes to celebrity status, the TV weather people are at the bottom of the totem pole. While the news anchor is invited to host a glitzy charity ball, the weather guy is asked to cut the ribbon at the opening of the local ice rink.
So imagine how surprised forecasters are when they receive cookie bouquets on February 5, "TV Weatherperson's Day," courtesy of Cookies by Design. The bouquets are even personalized with each TV station's logo.
Posted at 10:00 AM
