The internet has become an integral part of the business environment.
From a public relations perspective it is important to ask which channels are best suited to reaching your target audiences. The answer for many businesses will be the internet.
Many businesses have recognised that they need to have an online presence in order to strengthen and maintain open communication channels and relationships with stakeholders and potential clients.
For these businesses it is imperative that they stay on top of the current internet trends affecting their target audiences behaviour. The trend to watch at the moment is the increasing use of social media.
BP have tried to use social media in their crisis communications response to the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico. You cannot enter into social media as a back up plan. For businesses engaging in social media there should be a social media strategy in place.
Sharon Gaudin’s article on Network World, ‘BP Fails to Exploit Web 2.0’s Potential,’ explains how BP should have already engaged in social media applications before the crisis.
BP PLC has mostly failed to take advantage of an unprecedented opportunity to use social networks to at least partially blunt a public relations nightmare that started two months ago when an oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico , causing a massive spill.
“They’re playing by old rules,” said Patrick Kerley, a senior digital strategist at Washington-based PR and crisis communications firm Levick Strategic Communications.
“Dealing with a crisis has totally changed because of social media. They didn’t get that,” said Mr Kerley.
The company apparently had no strategic plan in place for using social networks to defend its response to a crisis. “It’s too late for companies if they don’t use social media right away when a crisis strikes,” Kerley said.
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