Yet another crisis has hit the Gulf region of the United
States.Hurricane Katrina is still firmly in the minds of Gulf Coast residents,
and Aprils Gulf rig explosion along with the BP oil crisis has given us
unfortunate lessons on corporate irresponsibility.But, adding insult to this
eco-disaster, is the way that BP is handling its public responses and public
relations to this tragedy.  CEO Tony
Haywards quotes of desiring to get his life back, broadcasting heartfelt yet
media polished responses, and spending of millions of dollars to repair BPs
image, make up communications that only flow in one direction from BP to BP
to consumers.However, in this age of two-way conversation, the availability of
social media has proven to be useful not only for Internet Marketing experts
promoting to consumers, but companies needing to keep healthy dialogue going in
times of crisis.In BPs defense, part of their investment for image improvement
did go into some social media.According to Reuters news service, BP bought some
ads and top search results on Google. Search terms such as oil spill directed
users to a list of YouTube video responses from BPs point-of-view. The Search
Engine Marketing ads were set to intercept people who might run into negativity
about the BP brand.This was BP exercising pure damage control.Still, the search
result was not designed to solicit two-way communication. For most online
users, BP is doing the same thing online that theyre doing in their traditional
PR efforts.BP is not trying to build upon newspaper and television efforts by
trying to engage, they are just talking AT consumers with their side of the
story.Executives at BP are not hearing what consumers have to say, and if they
are hearing, they are not responding.With so many consumers being tech savvy
and expecting to be part of the conversation with businesses, especially ones
involved in such major incidents, it would be only detrimental to a business to
remain one-sided.So what can other businesses come away with from BPs PR
blunders? When negative press comes a firms way, the natural instinct is to
want to run from the story and or only tell your side of events. The first
thing most businesses should do, if they havent already, is communicate with
the public through all the traditional and non-traditional outlets such as
television and print and social media sites and services.Still, the best method
in regards to reinforcing transparency is through the use of social media.Whether
it is a simple Facebook page or uploads from Youtube, the technology is in
place to assist companies that wish to be open.Today, because of the
instantaneous state of uploading video and pictures, audio along with
thoughts and ideas corporations cannot keep the public at arms length any
more.People trust that public corporations, even in tough times, will show that
they are not hiding any news that pertains to them, their public or the world
at large.BPs handling of this oil spill could have had a complete different
outcome in terms of Public Relations had they simply taken advantage of the
social media tools available to them.At worst, BP would have kept their battle
limited to the cleanup efforts, rather than further image damage control.

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