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BP Struggling to Contain the Oil Spill Damage, both to the Environment and their Brand

Recently, I read a report that BP, in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, was spending $10,000 per day for advertisements on several search engines for terms such as “oil spill” and “gulf spill.” This was an attempt to ensure that their website, outlining their response, would be at the top of the results page for people seeking more information on the developing story. While it is not an uncommon practice for companies to purchase ads on search engines for terms that describe their services or offerings, I found it interesting to see this tactic used in crisis communications in an effort to have greater influence over a conversation.

The strategy is an interesting one, innovative yet questionable in its ethics from my standpoint. On the one hand, it is a primary focus of PR to ensure that a company stays deeply involved in the discussion surrounding it and its industry. This has been a problem for BP since the explosion and subsequent oil spill began in April. Their PR efforts have struggled to find a voice, perpetually drowned out by the constant (but in my view, deserved) scrutiny from the media. By purchasing advertisements on search engines for related terms, BP is trying to force its perspective into the forefront in an effort to salvage its brand. In that sense, it is simply good crisis PR strategy.

However, the move can also be seen as BP trying to deceive the public and control the news that people are receiving. This feeling of mistrust is well-founded, as through this disaster BP has not always appeared entirely forthright to the public. The worry of BP deceiving people is also real, as some studies report that many people have a hard time distinguishing paid advertisements from unpaid search results. So, since some individuals may mistake BP’s voice for that of third parties; therein lies the questionable ethics.

Regardless of what one thinks concerning the ethics of the matter, this aspect of BP’s PR strategy offers two big lessons that all companies can learn from, even though they may likely never face a crisis situation such as the one at hand. First, it is vital that companies stay involved in industry conversations. In this case the method is debatable, but for most companies this can be achieved through proactive media campaigns, thought leadership, analyst relations, etc. Second, this situation shows the importance of SEO. With so many people getting their news and information from search engines, being a top return for relevant search queries is essential and proper SEO can help in achieving this goal.

By Bess Hammitt

Summer Party 2010 Photos

As promised, we now have some great photos from the Articulate summer party to share with the world:

http://davidgg.zenfolio.com/p342447588

Many thanks to our photographer, David Gardiner Garcia, and for everyone who came to the party!

Articulate Summer Party: The True Start of Summer

Last night was great for many reasons. It did not rain (contrary to Al Roker’s prediction), I had no problem getting a cab on the way home and the latest season of Top Chef started. However, my favorite reason is that last night was the Articulate Communications summer party. Every year, we bring together our employees, clients and friends of Articulate for a bash on the roof deck of 230 Fifth.

This was my first year attending the Articulate summer party, and I was not disappointed! With a staggering attendance of 145 (our most well-attended summer party ever!), we got to spend some social time with one another, without being separated by cubicle walls. We shared apps and drinks with clients and their loved ones, saw old friends from the industry, and I even ran into a fellow NYU master’s alumnus.

Why do we hold these parties every year? Yes, it’s fun to go to dress up, go to a nice venue and socialize. But, the real reason is so we can get to know our clients and potential future clients at a deeper level. There’s a certain surface-level relationship that you can have via e-mail and weekly update calls.  The real relationship begins when we escape our office and have some face-to-face time. We begin to understand one another even better once we move past the purely work relationship and venture into a social environment.

We care about our clients as both professionals and as people. It’s just as great to share some really good coverage as it is to hear that a client has gotten married or had a baby. As our relationships grow, we begin to see how each other ticks and we can work better professionally. Balancing work and play is important to us at Articulate, and if we can have fun while getting to know our clients better, then it’s a win-win!

So thank you to everyone who attended and made this year’s party a success! Pictures are coming soon!

By Ashleigh B. Egan

Growing by Leaps and Bounds – and Babies!

In 2010, I am proud to say Articulate is growing.  So far, we’re on target to be up 50 percent over 2009, and it speaks to the great team we’ve got here and the long-standing relationships we’ve built along the way.  But there is another metric for growth of which that I’m perhaps even prouder:  The growth of the Articulate family.

It’s hard for a small business to not feel like a family sometimes – the good and the bad, the comfortable relationships and the dysfunction, we’ve got it all.  But the birth announcements and Christmas card greetings on the Articulate refrigerator are my favorite reminders of the family we’ve built.

• Megan Garnett’s daughter Siena, just born this February – her mom’s return to work last month was not a moment too soon.
• Bonnie Biggee’s third child and first daughter, Paige, born in March – sons Ryan and Ethan and dog-bro Leo are all smiles, and we’re still trying to coerce Bonnie into moving back to Manhattan from the wilds of Connecticut.
• Shulamit Gershenson’s son Eitan and daughter Gaia, all moving to Florida – though it’s hard to imagine Shulamit there.
• Jennifer Buchhalter’s son Harrison and daughter Marley – Mom Jen is going like gangbusters internally at Cisco up in Boston.

Articulate the business is healthy and happy (most of the time!), and I’m delighted to report the same thing for all the Articulate babies!

Our new Articulate addition, already making an appearance on the blog, Siena:

 

By Laura Grimmer

Social Media and Small Businesses

While social media adoption is on the rise, many small business-to-business companies still view it as a marketing vehicle reserved for large consumer brands or too vast a medium to be tackled effectively by a small entity. A recent study by the Center for Media Research and the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business looked at the relationship between social media and small businesses and found that the technology adoption rates in the U.S. have doubled in the past year from 12 to 24 percent and that one in five small business owners are integrating social media into their business processes.

 

With economic uncertainty causing executives to tighten marketing budgets, social media can be a highly effective and cost friendly marketing tactic and customer service tool used by all businesses.  In fact, 45% of the small businesses surveyed in the University of Maryland study believe their social media initiatives will pay-off financially in 12 months or less.

 

At Articulate Communications we encourage clients to embrace social media as a fully integrated component of their strategic communications program.  If social media is adopted with a targeted, strategic approach aimed at delivering the right message, to the right audience and the right time, a small business-to-business company can see immediate return.  Here’s how:

 

·         Low cost – It’s free to join LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.  Social media is filled with inexpensive or free tools that marketers and public relations practitioners can use to engage with key constituents, energize the client user-base and promote product and corporate news.  The manpower required to write 140 character Tweets or post a question to a LinkedIn group are minimal – even on a small business budget.

 

·         Improve customer service and encourage word-of-mouth referrals -- Happy, vocal customers are always an effective sales tool.  By cultivating these relationships online and establishing a two-way dialogue with customers, businesses can shrink the emotional distance between the company and the consumer.  By actively listening, observing and participating in social networks, companies can not only use social tools to sell directly to consumers but to help consumers sell to each other by turning their most active customers into advocates and encouraging them to take action i.e., product reviews, shared stories, general word-of-mouth activity.

 

·         Engagement with target journalists and analysts – Journalists and industry analysts who follow your company are probably entrenched in social media – in fact, most media outlets today feature blogs penned by beat reporters and columnists. Companies can gain valuable insight into their market and competition through monitoring what journalist and analysts are saying.  Further, PR practitioners are given a direct view into the story development process.  Often, journalists will use social media tools like Twitter to solicit expert commentary and secure interview subjects.    

 

In today’s 24-hour news cycle, journalists don’t have time to seek, schedule and then wait for interviews to happen. They need real-time sound bytes and commentary when news breaks and are increasingly turning to blogs and micro-blogging sites to gathering this information.  For this reason, it’s important for companies to realize the importance of establishing a corporate blog as a primary thought-leadership tool, and for PR counsel to use the blog to support media outreach efforts and press release activity. 

 

·         Dissemination of news and events – Want to distribute a new white paper? Educate users on a new product upgrade? Tout new Web content? Drive Webinar attendance? For announcements that might not warrant a traditional press release, social networks offer a venue to promote corporate and marketing activity and distribute information users crave. 

 

By embracing social media, companies can meet their near and long-term business goals by keeping costs low and focusing on where social media tools and tactics can add the most value.