Making information work

An excellent example of social media gone nuts is the current affair of Britney Spears shaving her head, and generally doing lots of crazy things. Now, apart from doing the crazy things, she is doing something much more destructive - she is ignoring/not seeing/shunning the discussion online. There are videos of her shaving, of her tattoo, and of her flipping off the photographer - and the discussion is reaching far and wide.

This is an excellent scenario for testing corporate crisis communication using online social media.

First, Britney needs to take charge of the conversation. Gather the conversation where you can get an overview. How? Either by initiating a conversation on any of your already existing channels, like your official webpage, a social networking profile, or perhaps even a new blog. Time is of the essence, however, so I wouldn’t get a new domain going for just this purpose. In addition, creadibility is vital, so the official website is probably the best channel.

Remove all that is there, and start a blog. (Remember to let people get past the blog to the “regular” site via a clear link (although of course, your site is “under construction” now…)). The post should be clear, professional, and explanatory. Tell us why you did what you did, and open the post for questions. Put up a policy for the format of the comments (no swearing, abusive language etc.) and let people respond. After a couple of hours, gather all the questions, and answer them one by one in a new post. Repeat over and over.

Now, we need to use rich media to calm the crisis. Create video of yourself looking crazy hot without hair. Make it funny, positive. Smile. Tell us how much you will save on shampoo. How much more sleep you will get by not having to clean your hair for hours a week, etc. etc. Post videos to YouTube, embed from blog. Take new headshots, post to Flickr, embed on blog. Let a friend interview you, post a downloadable Podcast on your blog.

Now you need to ensure that I can feel calm in knowing that your point of contact is the best place to go for updates. Create a “in the press” section of this new blog. Link to all articles you find, and let visitors to your site grade/comment the links. Also, ensure that I can subscribe to the new blog to get daily updates on how the situation is unfolding.

I think this would be a superb plan. It wouldnt hurt, that is for sure. And as I said - this is an excellent example of a crisis, and it will be terribly interesting to see the results, and how Britney’s PR-team will handle this.

David