A lot has been written about the BP oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico which resulted in 11 deaths and a massive oil spill. BP has been getting reamed in both mainstream news outlets and social media. Since positioning themselves as the ‘Green’ oil company, they are being held to a higher standard on the environmental front, and a huge disaster like this could prove to be quite a challenge and leads to the ‘greenwashing’ debate.
While they have issued a few statements including an intent to pay for the clean up (but not accepting responsibility for the explosion), little has been done in social media to help improve the current public perception of the company. Whether this is at the advice of lawyers, PR, or simply no one wanting to be the face of the accident, BP was putting on a clinic of how NOT to handle a crisis in the social media age. Recently, this is beginning to change and BP is learning quickly that social media connects people and their opinions much faster than ever before.
Here’s what BP did early on in it’s social media response:
- Accident occured on April 20, 2010 – No word on BP’s efforts via Twitter until April 29 pointing visitors to their website links
- BP Began slowly incorporating hotline numbers for volunteers and concerns in the early days of May – staying traditional and not utilizing social media’s uniqe ability to organize and mobilize quickly
- The Deepwater Horizon Response Facebook page was established, posting links back to BP site much like the Twitter account
- Very sterile and corporate approach where little was said or offered in the way of responsibility or acceptance
The latest from BP in response to the oil spill:
- Humanization efforts underway
- Twitter and Facebook pages showing photos and videos of BP workers handling the cleanup as well as issuing messages direct to the public
- Video released by BP Group CEO on cleanup efforts
- BP reaching volunteers directly through social media, providing easy access to information
- Cleanup Facebook currently close to 10,000 likes (or fans) and growing
Quite a significant improvement and a total 180 from it’s previous stance. Still, it’s too early to see how this entire saga will shake out, but it’s clear that somewhere along the way BP received some major consulting help in the area of social media. They key will be to see whether or not they learn from this experience that it’s important to not only be ready to mobilize on social media at anytime, but keeping an eye on your public perception and interacting with the general public can go a long way in preserving your reputation when accidents happen.
Whether or not BP does what is in the best interest of the public and the environment, as opposed to their bottom line will ultimately seal their fate. Bad news travels much faster than good news. All the social media savvy and PR dollars in the world won’t save you when you’re hiding something. Just look at the latest from the Huffington Post on 7 Secrets BP Doesn’t Want You to Know and I think you’ll agree: The BP PR team will be working overtime for quite some time.
