The Leading in a Crisis Podcast
Interviews, stories and lessons learned from experienced crisis leaders. Email the show at Tom@leadinginacrisis.com.
Being an effective leader in a corporate or public crisis situation requires knowledge, tenacity, and influencing skills. Unfortunately, most of us don't get much training or real experience dealing with crisis situations. On this podcast, we will talk with people who have lived through major crisis events and we will tap their experience and stories from the front lines of crisis management.
Your host, Tom Mueller, is a veteran crisis manager and trainer with more than 30 years in the corporate communications and crisis fields. Tom currently works as an executive coach and crisis trainer with WPNT Communications, and as a contract public information officer and trainer through his personal company, Tom Mueller Communications LLC.
Your co-host, Marc Mullen, has over 20 years of experience as a communication strategist. He provides subject matter expertise in a number of communication specializations, including crisis communication plan development, response and recovery communications, emergency notifications and communications, organizational reviews, and after-action reports. He blogs at Blog | Marc Mullen
Our goal is to help you grow your knowledge and awareness so you can be better prepared to lead should a major crisis threaten your organization.
Music credit: Special thanks to Nick Longoria from Austin, Texas for creating the theme music for the podcast.
The Leading in a Crisis Podcast
EP 47 Tips for leveraging social media in a crisis: and analogue vs virtual command posts
Discover the secrets of crisis management on social media with our special guest, Destin Singleton, a seasoned corporate communications expert. Recognized as one of the top 20 business management podcasts in Texas, we're thrilled to bring you Destin's insights on effectively navigating localized incidents. From discussing the merits of creating temporary local social media channels to sharing strategies for engaging communities, this episode promises to equip you with the knowledge to build trust and maintain strong stakeholder relationships. Destin also recounts a riveting tale of handling a sudden marine crisis in Anchorage, highlighting the indispensable role of preparation and media relationships in crisis situations.
Explore the delicate balance between technology and old-school methods in crisis communication, particularly within a Joint Information Center. We dive into the benefits and challenges of using digital tools like Teams and Jetty while emphasizing the need to keep internal teams informed, illustrated by the American Airlines incident. Understand the importance of strategic hashtag creation and controlled narratives during a crisis, and the value of understanding Public Information Assistance Team roles. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to enhance their crisis response strategies and build robust communication frameworks.
We'd love to hear from you. Email the show at Tom@leadinginacrisis.com.
Hi everyone and welcome back to the Leading in a Crisis podcast. Happy to have you with us today. As you know, on this podcast we share stories from the front lines of crisis management and we're happy to have a frontline crisis expert with us today. So we're continuing our conversation with Destin Singleton, a very experienced corporate communications professional, who's going to share some of her stories with us today. And, of course, mark Mullen, my co-host, is with us as well. Hey, I have a news bulletin to tell you, because I just got a notification yesterday that our podcast has made it into the top 20 best Texas management podcasts. Data mining company called Feedspot. They aggregate data and share data on a contract basis, but they also track podcasts, and so they just notified us that we were number 13 in the state of Texas for their business management podcast.
Speaker 1:So kudos to the team and to all our listeners who helped make that possible.
Speaker 3:That is truly amazing and I do love your podcast. I am an avid listener from the beginning and I you know I recognize and fully empathize with situations that your other guests have been through, so I hope this is just as useful for one of them.
Speaker 1:Terrific. So, destin, I want to talk to you a little bit about social media, and particularly in a crisis situation. We all know social media is just taking on a life of its own. There are so many aspects to this and it can be daunting actually when you think about it, because you know your company probably has a Facebook page or two, you've probably got an Instagram account, certainly you've got a Twitter X account and you know who knows what else is coming account. So there's all of those things going on and you know you want to, I guess, leverage all of those when you get into a crisis situation, but you know it can be a little daunting to work through that. So, as you think about dealing with social media in a crisis, particularly, you know, a local, more localized type incident, what are your thoughts on best practices for doing that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you. So definitely, what I counsel my clients essentially is in a crisis, you need to be listening, you need to be engaging and you need to be, you know, publishing yourself, and so, like, as long as you're kind of thinking through and are able and prepared to do those three things, you're in a much better place. Prepared to do those three things, you're in a much better place and I actually, with my clients, run them through a social simulation tool that helps them do that in a safe way when we are doing tabletop exercises. However, when you're talking about kind of the landscape as a whole, so say, you are a multinational company, publicly traded large, but yet you have an incident in a smaller community that is really impacting that community.
Speaker 3:Yes, it might have a broader reputational impact, but it may not affect all of your stakeholders. So one thing that is a bit of a best practice here is to, you know, really focus on the hyperlocal, if that's where the impact is, focus there. So there are multiple ways of doing that and we can talk about a few of those in a bit. But it may not be that you want to use your global social media channels, but it may not be that you want to use your global social media channels.
Speaker 1:You know that's always an interesting bit of a conundrum, right? Because, yeah, you may not, because your corporate channel is probably globally focused. So you're talking to stakeholders all over the world when you're dealing, when you're posting to that channel, and it's probably run by the headquarters social media team. But, yeah, when you get down into more localized events, you need probably a different handle or different account that you're posting from for that. So would you counsel then local facilities to kind of have their own Facebook pages, their own Twitter accounts and that for posting locally?
Speaker 3:There's yes and no, so it really depends on their broader reputation program in that community. If there is a need to have your own channels locally and you have the staff and the ability to maintain it and, you know, utilize it fully. You don't want to establish something and then leave it cold. What you want is to build that trust and that stakeholder base through those channels. So if it exists, that's great. If it doesn't, and you find yourself in a situation where there is a need for hyperlocal communication, you can certainly establish them.
Speaker 3:If there's a unified command, then it would potentially make sense for the unified command to establish, you know, local channels. If there is not, then the incident right could be just a command, not a unified command, and so you know, in that way you can turn it on and turn it back off, you know, as the need arises. So you know this is part of the beauty of the web. You have the ability to create and decommission as needed. And then, of course, you can certainly use your broader channels to push to the local. You know your broader global stuff.
Speaker 3:But essentially the other biggest thing, in addition to publishing, it's about listening and engaging in the channels that already exist, meeting people where they are right. That's just basic stakeholder engagement. And so if you know you're we talked a bit about just a moment ago an organization that might already have those existing you know local Facebook page, for example, then they potentially are already connected to the other local Facebook pages or community groups, or it might be the neighborhood that is right next to your facility, and all of those are really important. These are the people that live, work and play in your community.
Speaker 1:So, having those existing relationships, or at least knowing where they are and having in your crisis plan- and this can be a little daunting, particularly know then the complexity of posting to those accounts can become quite intense, right, and so trying to leverage company messaging with there could be a problem, but if it's internet specific, then a unified command type social media account makes perfect sense.
Speaker 1:The other thing I've seen is, well, where I've seen it most effective is like municipalities and police departments, right, who are getting more and more astute about using social media to keep people informed, and I have a case study that I share with clients about a chemical release from a small chemical facility up in Atchison, kansas, some years ago, and it forced a shelter in place, kind of across the town, and people were trying to figure out well, what about the schools? Are the kids okay, are they being evacuated, what's happening? And so the community's social media page, through City Hall, became sort of the clearinghouse for that, as well as the police department, and people were posting information onto the municipality Facebook page, and it just became that natural sharing channel for all that information channel, for all that information. So that I think one of the challenges, though, is figuring out where are people going to do that, right? Which place are they going? Is it a Facebook account somewhere. Is it Twitter, and who's running that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's part of having it in your crisis plan. You know, evaluating that stakeholder landscape ahead of an event is key. Just your, tom, your example, I mean I in my, you know, smaller community, there was a lockdown at the local high school and if there was a place to find information, there's a local newspaper, but it's daily. You know there's in which a lot of communities don't even have Right. So, let's face it, there's news everywhere. So we're lucky that we have a paper, but they did not. They did not publish, they did not post anything.
Speaker 3:It really was the local police department and and and anytime something happens in this community, the first place people go is to the socials, right, and in particular, facebook, instagram, that sort of thing. So, and there are community groups within these channels that ideally, you would be already be joined, you would already be engaging, and I noticed that here in Texas, utilities, right, they've been through many issues of their own since that winter storm Uri and been through many since, and what I see is that utilities join and engage in local groups in order to be listening and engaging in these groups ahead of time and so taking a page from seeing what happened there and really again meeting your stakeholders where they are meeting your stakeholders where they are.
Speaker 1:How do you feel about the issue of hashtags and trying to establish a hashtag for your particular incident? I mean, I hear conversations pro and con on that and in my view, I'd like to try and set the hashtag and it'd be, you know, x incident response as opposed to company explodes, community hashtag, right, and so what's your thoughts on dealing with the whole hashtag thing?
Speaker 3:I again pros and cons. I do so. It's an aggregator. A hashtag is an aggregator, right, so that you're allowed. That allows you to hashtag X response, um, or you know whatever the the name of of the incident, or or um, you know, it could be hashtag, you know playing, or whatever it is Right, um, and so that aggregator is an opportunity. It's an opportunity for you to listen and to hear the conversations that are happening about you. So huge pros. But you can't control what people are using. So it's great to be able to try to. If you are establishing your own unified command or command socials, establish your hashtags then as well, and you could just call it the name of the response, just as you're calling the name of your new X account, and allow you know, like, if you can set that tone yourself, then that's a great way to do it. But again, it's an aggregator. You cannot control how people are using them or what they're using. But it's an opportunity.
Speaker 2:Yeah Right, your aggregator may not get visited like their aggregator does.
Speaker 1:True? Yeah, that's absolutely true, and you need to scan and find out which is the most popular hashtag, which is getting the most traffic. So, but it's to me it's always an interesting conversation. Try and set a hashtag that's less inflammatory than what you know. A group that's anti your company might set up.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Hey, what other quick topic I'd like to just cover with you. Destin, while we have, you is just thinking about, you know, the first hours of a crisis response and walking in cold to a situation and getting things organized and all of that. It can be very daunting, especially if you haven't been going through exercises and practicing this. But I wonder if you have a you know, a particular story that you could share around the challenges that you would face walking in cold to a crisis response.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we talked a bit earlier in another episode about practice, practice, practice, and not only pulling your plans out and evaluating and practicing those, but also fully understanding and practicing how ICS works, what your role is in ICS, and practicing multiple roles, because you never know where you're going to be deployed. And so I'll tell you just a quick story of what happened to me in 2012. It was New Year's Eve and I had I was out camping with my family and I get a call. It was about 10, 11 am on New Year's Eve and I had two small kids. So they said hey, can you be on a plane by two or three in the afternoon? And I was about an hour or so away. So we packed up, packed up the littles and got in the car. I found a friend who had a winter coat because I was heading to Anchorage. So it was essentially.
Speaker 3:I was working for Shell at the time and there was a marine incident. There was a vessel that had broken from its moors and was a potential reputation, you know, issue for the organization, as well as wanting to make sure that everyone was safe. So I was being sent in as a media spokesperson. I was to be the APIO for media. But so I borrow the winter coat, I have a hastily packed bag and I walk on and on an airplane. It was a private jet because, no, you couldn't get a commercial flight on New Year's Eve and get you there quickly. So it was myself and a couple of other responders and we were on our way. No briefing, there was no time. No briefing, there was no time. Um, there was limited people on the ground, um and um, and they were preparing for the first press conference. So no briefing, only a minor update, while we were boarding, about the current situation, um, and then I, you know, got there, dropped my bag, um, and walked into the Joint Information Center and I was handed literally handed a ringing phone.
Speaker 1:Glad you're here. Yeah, hold this hand grenade, will you? We'll get you the pin later.
Speaker 3:Yes, and so I answered and I said, if you wouldn't mind, please hold just for a moment. And thankfully I had been a spokesperson for the company. I dealt with media. I had lots of, I had lots of relationships with media of preparation, know your role and understand where you would most likely play and understand how that role works in ICS. And then essentially briefed myself by utilizing the status board and, you know, looking at the, the, you know the 209s, you know using all of the ICS, like looking at what the current situation is. And they even had rumors on the board. Right, they had. And so I just looked and it took me 30 seconds to be ready enough to answer that phone. So just utilize the tools that exist and trust your instincts. I was a spokesperson, so I had talked to media plenty.
Speaker 1:Let me take you down a little sidebar here, just around status boards, because, as you know, companies are using more and more technology and virtual command posts to you know, to manage incidents. And you know I grew up where you walk in the room and you've got post-it notes on the wall. Each is a different status board of you know facts that you know rumors, you know a production schedule for your press releases and FAQs and all of that and it's very analog kind of approach. But you can stand in the room and get the big picture of how things are operating. Right. Your incident commander could walk in the room and instantly get a big picture view of what you're working on, how efficient you are managing resources here and that. But you know it seems like that's, you know, going by the wayside, I guess, when you're using teams to manage a response. What's your take on the technology versus analog approach?
Speaker 3:Ah, um, I also grew up in the analog world, um, so I, I get it and that was an analog situation. But I have seen, um, uh, my clients and I have seen, and, and I've also with the, you know, iep type software. I've seen it work, but in particular for a joint information center, it is super helpful to have you know both and having staff dedicated to making sure that it is up to date and being utilized fully.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Mark. Any thoughts on this one?
Speaker 2:I'm just agreeing with what I hear. There's no point in adding something to that comment, except one thing I think we need to remember for the JIC and I've seen this in real events and in exercises both we make the assumption that all of our audiences are external, but the truth is, the JIC is a source of information about the total response and what's going on for the people in the room too. And that's where, again, do it on teams, if you want, or do it by covering the window into the room you're working from, but don't forget that you have an internal audience as well. And, by the way, that's something in that American Airlines accident they made very clear that they were speaking and informing with their employees, which I just think is really critical.
Speaker 2:And the one challenge with Teams my own experience is it's a great tool, but every organization tends to set it up the way they want to set it up. So the first thing you have to learn is is where are you putting the 201? Where are you putting the 209?, and so on and Dustin, real quick too. Another thing on this is think about how much things have changed since 2012. If that happened today, you would have been on the phone on the plane, with your laptop open, looking at anything you needed to look at, and so we live in a world where we can get information and deal with it much more rapidly. We have to remember that everybody around us does too, though.
Speaker 3:Does too, too, though Does too Exactly, exactly, and you know, another big part of the lesson there, too, was not only we talked about practice, talked about trusting your instincts. We talked about, you know, status board as one of the tools, but you know, we're also utilizing a system that allowed you kind of like a CRM for this kind of situation. There are multiple tools, but one of them is currently called Jetty Right, so that's a system that a lot of my clients use and that is super helpful, because you can walk into a situation where you have a shift change and everyone knows which stakeholders have called, what they've been told. You have a list of the people that you could reach out to. So I mean, there's you know, to utilize the tools that are out there and be prepared, be trained on them.
Speaker 3:And also another big lesson and I was lucky to be working for a company like Shell, who had I had trained multiple times a year. I had trained with the Coast Guard. I knew my stakeholders, I knew the people that might be sitting next to me. You know it was, you know, a big lesson about ensuring that you have those, that you have those relationships, and I also had worked with, you know the PIAT, which is the Public Information Assistance Team.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so this is the Coast Guard's kind of rapid response team where, within 24 hours, if it's a large enough maritime incident, they will send um at least two people um to support, um, to to work in the communications department. Um, it just an incredible team, and I had worked with them before I had understood their priorities, um, and so that's uh, you know just, you know putting yourself in that situation ahead of time, because you know, as you know, having a role like a, you know an external role like a, like a spokesperson for a large organization, it's just part of your job, and being ready for that hand grenade was that it was. It was great, well, good you know there.
Speaker 1:We should spend an episode or two just walking through the refresh of and best practices for running a JIC or PIO team and how to keep things moving Right that's what the exercises are for an episode and dive into that at some point too, because it's always a good refresh for listeners just to think through how this is. You know what are the different sections under the PIO and what are they all supposed to do, and how do I manage? You know status boards and tracking media inquiries. It's a very complex type of situation and it takes a little practice to do it. Well, Destin, thank you again, Mark. Thank you as always, sir, Good to see you. And that's going to do it for this episode of the Leading in a Crisis podcast. We do thank you for joining us. If you want to reach out to the podcast, you can email me at tom at leadinginacrisiscom, and we'll see you soon for another episode, Take care.
