Readiness in Action

Recent events around the world continue to remind us of the threats and opportunities available to organisations in New Zealand and overseas.  Communication is an area that requires a lot of readiness work prior to an event so it was interesting to hear about the steep learning curve BP's media team went through with Twitter and the importance of keeping an eye on social media during a response. 

It would appear that a person guessed the actual password for BP's Twitter site and proceeded to send tweets globally... 'We bring oil to your shores'.  They then went on to sell t-shirts picturing the BP logo, a photo of the oil slick and the words 'We care - we bring oil to your shores'.  Around one million dollars worth of t-shirts were sold over several days.  The money was then apparently given to a company taking BP to court. 

This scenario highlights the importance of monitoring all communication (including social media), having quality passwords in place, and having plans B and C in place (which in this case might have been shutting down the original Twitter account or creating a new account in response). 

We are considering running a media workshop.  Let us know if you are interested in this.  Liaise with us further as we have an excellent media person in mind to work with us and if the interest is there, we will run a public course.