By Michael Sebastian
michaels@ragan.com
Wonder whether you can sue an online commenter for libel or if you can be sued for anonymous comments on your blog? We have the answers
An anonymous commenter on your company’s external blog attacks the CEO of another organization. That CEO calls the comment libel and threatens a lawsuit. Your executives want your head on a platter. After all, you, the communicator, started the blog.
You tell everyone not to worry. Your company is probably not responsible for that comment.
“[Federal law] says … your Web site cannot be held liable for user-generated content,” attorney Bruce Johnson, a media privacy and law expert, explained. “You are not deemed to be the publisher or speaker of that content.”
Johnson, a partner in the Seattle office of Davis Wright Tremaine, spoke to Ragan.com in October at Ragan’s Corporate Communications in a Web 2.0 World conference. He provided eight legal tips for communicators.
1. You are not responsible for user-generated content on your Web site. If someone leaves scurrilous comments on your company’s external blog, you, the site owner, are not considered the publisher or speaker of that content. A court will not hold you responsible for the content of those remarks. As a result, you are safe against lawsuits—unless …
2. If you take an active role in producing third-party content, then you can be held responsible for it. A recent court case ruled that the federal law protecting Web sites (section 230 of the Communications Decency Act) does not shield Web site owners who take an active role in the comment process. For instance, if your site asks visitors to leave answers to specific questions instead of just providing them with a blank space to write comments then you can be held liable.
Bruce Johnson tells CEO Mark Ragan how—and if—companies should respond to rogue Web sites.
“The extent to which you get more and more involved with third-party content, you may risk losing that immunity [provided by section 230],” Johnson said.
3. Avoid filing lawsuits against Web sites that criticize your company. It is very difficult to sue the person who starts the Web site, Yourcompanysucks.com, Johnson explained. For instance, Ford motor company filed a lawsuit against the owner of the Web site, Fordsucks.com, alleging he misused the company’s trademark. The court ruled against Ford.
“The court went out of its way to basically say there is a First Amendment right to use the name of the company and to criticize the company on the part of consumers,” Johnson said.
4. The courts protect anonymity. Want an anonymous commenter’s real name? You better show the court good reason why. The courts, Johnson said, usually protect anonymity.
“There’s a whole series of court cases requiring the plaintiff to show he has good reason to get access to the name of that individual,” he explained. “The courts [in the U.S.] have created a new protection for anonymity.”
What is “good reason”? You must prove the comment has somehow broken the law.
5. Suing an anonymous commenter is probably not worth it. A company must prove to a judge it has good reason to demand an anonymous commenter’s name. That can be time consuming and expensive, Johnson said. And there's a chance the person lacks assets. So what’s the point of filing a lawsuit? Johnson asked
“You’re effectively squashing a flea with a sledge hammer,” he said. “Filing such a lawsuit is a waste of time.”
6. Sock puppetry is dangerous. What is sock puppetry? It’s when someone, maybe an employee or CEO, adopts a fake online identity and leaves a trail of comments on the Web.
John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, was a sock puppet. Under a phony name, he made comments online celebrating Whole Foods and denigrating Wild Oats, a company Whole Foods ultimately said it planned to purchase.
Don’t do this, Johnson insists. Beyond the brand damage Mackey inflicted when people learned of his online shenanigans, it was potentially a legal issue because Mackey made disparaging comments about publicly-traded companies, according to Johnson.
7. Internal communications is protected from defamation lawsuits, because the courts consider internal communications to be the company talking to itself. So something you write in an internal publication is most likely protected against lawsuits.
8. Don’t falsely advertise in a blog. The authors of your company blog are granted First Amendment rights to spout their opinions. However, when you enter the false advertising arena you lose those protections, Johnson said.
False advertising is when a company includes a false or misleading message in an advertisement. For instance, if a shoe company publishes an ad claiming proceeds from the sales of its shoes go to charity—when in fact they do not—it is false advertising.
That said, blogs have not been subject to this false advertising liability—yet. Why? “Technology is moving ahead of the law,” Johnson said.
Article comments:
Tuesday, December 09, 2008 10:28:25 AM by Tim S
Posters on blogs and blog owners are often protected by "Anti-SLAPP laws" (see Google for definition) being enacted by a number of states - where entities can't sue to quash critisism and can be required to pay the legal fees of those they attempt to sue.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008 10:30:33 AM by Matt
Thanks. Very valuable stuff. People in my company are nervous about the Web in a way that regularly surprises me. This type of information can help calm them.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008 11:04:43 AM by Amanda Vega
We have an attorney client that specializes in this type of thing and also guide us as a social media agency (for over 15 years) to ensure that we aren't putting ourselves or our clients in jeopardy. He also has presentations on this that he can give other firms (shameless plug, I know.) I personally like #3, as you see many clients, especially large brands try to do this. If you try and remove all the bad stuff, then you aren't harnessing the power or opportunity to actually LISTEN to your customers and change accordingly. Also, with regard to liability, there is also something to be said for the liability of your company for what your employees do - so that's another story to be told.
As for sock puppeting - I'm not completely in agreement. Social media participants and zealots are OK with hired hands. They just want it to be transparent. And for the times you use personas to help spread the word - there is value and need for that. Specifically, we have some clients where we are using fake names and pictures of model children for profiles to help with social media response marketing for some clients. The reason being you never want to post your real name/kids pics just in case there are psychos out there stalking you. However you have to note that the person behind the profile is the same identity in essence. If "kate smith" is defined as a mom of three, then the lady behind the name is indeed a mom of three. Another interesting follow-up may be the new laws that are floating around the UK to this regard. Last we heard, it's actually illegal to have a persona!
Amanda Vega
http://www.amandavega.com
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
How to keep your blog out of court
Avoid legal snafus when creating a corporate blog; some thoughts on why corporate blogs are such a bore; Obama’s own speechwriter in the spotlight
Keep your blog out of court: Marketing Sherpa offers advice for avoiding legal snafus when you’re creating a corporate blog. One suggestion: Don’t be too quick to get involved in editing comments. “The more you monitor and regulate user content on your site, the more you’re liable for what is said. … As soon as you begin deciding which comments stay and which comments go, you become more responsible for every comment on the site,” says the article.
Why are corporate blogs so lifeless? Robert Scoble, blogging evangelist and former high-tech exec, says moist companies don’t quite know what to do with their blogs. “Some blogs are like press releases,” Scoble tells CIO Insight. “New, friendly, cuddly press releases, but they’re still only talking about what’s happening in the company and its products. The really hard thing, the thing I haven’t seen too many people do, is what I was trying to do: Be an authority on the marketplace. That really helps a lot.”
Obama as First Speechwriter: In a post-election article called “Battle Plans: How Obama Won,” Patrick Gaspard, political director for the campaign, says that when he was interviewing for the post, the president-elect said, “I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.”
Focus on Favreau: Curious about Obama’s speechwriter Jon Favreau? The 27-year-old speechwriter was profiled in The New York Times earlier this year (thanks to Ian Griffin’s Professionally Speaking blog for the link). The Politico.com Web site speculates that Favreau will land a senior position in the new administration.
Keep your blog out of court: Marketing Sherpa offers advice for avoiding legal snafus when you’re creating a corporate blog. One suggestion: Don’t be too quick to get involved in editing comments. “The more you monitor and regulate user content on your site, the more you’re liable for what is said. … As soon as you begin deciding which comments stay and which comments go, you become more responsible for every comment on the site,” says the article.
Why are corporate blogs so lifeless? Robert Scoble, blogging evangelist and former high-tech exec, says moist companies don’t quite know what to do with their blogs. “Some blogs are like press releases,” Scoble tells CIO Insight. “New, friendly, cuddly press releases, but they’re still only talking about what’s happening in the company and its products. The really hard thing, the thing I haven’t seen too many people do, is what I was trying to do: Be an authority on the marketplace. That really helps a lot.”
Obama as First Speechwriter: In a post-election article called “Battle Plans: How Obama Won,” Patrick Gaspard, political director for the campaign, says that when he was interviewing for the post, the president-elect said, “I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.”
Focus on Favreau: Curious about Obama’s speechwriter Jon Favreau? The 27-year-old speechwriter was profiled in The New York Times earlier this year (thanks to Ian Griffin’s Professionally Speaking blog for the link). The Politico.com Web site speculates that Favreau will land a senior position in the new administration.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
How Marriott communicators responded to Islamabad bombing
Fast response, regular updates and an established crisis plan were key
Roger Conner was passing by his family room television on the way out the door to the dry cleaner and the car wash when something on MSNBC’s news ticker caught his attention.
“It was the first alert that hit the airwaves here, about a bombing in Pakistan at the Marriott. Eight people dead,” he recalls.
The vice president of communications for Marriott International, Conner scrapped his plans for “all those errands people run on Saturday mornings” and immediately called Kathleen Matthews, the company’s executive vice president of global corporate affairs.
After he gave her the news, she called Bill Marriott—“there actually is a guy whose name is on the door, who runs our company,” Conner says—and put a crisis plan into action.
Communicators camp out at HQ for the weekend
By the time the suicide bomber smashed his explosive-packed truck into the main entrance of the Islamabad Marriott Sept. 20—killing at least 40 people, severely injuring hundreds more and setting off a natural gas leak that eventually ignited and destroyed the entire hotel—the crisis team was used to spending weekends at the office.
“We’d been at headquarters for something like three weekends in a row,” says Conner, referring to the team’s response to hurricanes Gustav and Ike. “Fortunately, a crisis communication team exists; unfortunately, there’s a need for it, because our hotels have faced crisis situations before—the most traumatic, or impactful, was 9-11, when we lost a hotel between the two towers in the Trade Center.”
The good news/bad news result is that everyone knew exactly what to do after the Islamabad bombing.
“I live five minutes from Marriott headquarters and within the half hour, I was the first person in the office,” says Conner, who’s been at the company since 1977. “While we can all work remotely, there is more at your disposal at the office in terms of equipment and technology.
”
In the next half hour, five teams of crisis communicators (in addition to many other non-communicator crisis responders) gathered in the Bethesda, Md., office.
The research and writing team is responsible for being in touch with the incident location, “so not a whole of people are calling and bothering the general manager,” Conner says. They’re also responsible for writing the initial statement within 15 minutes and then something more explanatory within the first hour.
The media team receives info from the research and writing team and uses it to communicate with the media.
The internal communication team gets information to employees.
The community relations team is responsible for communicating with the Red Cross or FEMA or other outlets associated with the given crisis.
The logistics team runs around setting up the “war room,” making sure the team has laptops, BlackBerrys and all other necessary tools and technology. “And snacks—they make sure we have snacks!” Conner says. The team also stocks and oversees a remote location in case Marriott headquarters is inoperable.
On stand-by were high-level representatives from a number of departments, like HR and Operations, who could be contacted to make quick judgment calls.
“You need to make decisions quickly in a crisis, so we have pre-identified high-level leaders who must be at our immediate disposal,” Conner says. “For instance, we have a top lawyer ready to clear our statements quickly. He knows we need to be able to get to him. And since not everyone is immediately reachable, there’s more than one on the list.”
First response released in first 15 minutes
Within the first 15 minutes of meeting, the team had its first statement of response up online, a comment from Bill Marriott expressing incredible sadness and empathy at the loss of lives and the injuries to people.
http://www.ragan.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=5AA50C55146B4C8C98F903986BC02C56&tier=4&id=91B34AD7F33643A2A1844267E47C30FF&AudID=3FF14703FD8C4AE98B9B4365B978201A
Roger Conner was passing by his family room television on the way out the door to the dry cleaner and the car wash when something on MSNBC’s news ticker caught his attention.
“It was the first alert that hit the airwaves here, about a bombing in Pakistan at the Marriott. Eight people dead,” he recalls.
The vice president of communications for Marriott International, Conner scrapped his plans for “all those errands people run on Saturday mornings” and immediately called Kathleen Matthews, the company’s executive vice president of global corporate affairs.
After he gave her the news, she called Bill Marriott—“there actually is a guy whose name is on the door, who runs our company,” Conner says—and put a crisis plan into action.
Communicators camp out at HQ for the weekend
By the time the suicide bomber smashed his explosive-packed truck into the main entrance of the Islamabad Marriott Sept. 20—killing at least 40 people, severely injuring hundreds more and setting off a natural gas leak that eventually ignited and destroyed the entire hotel—the crisis team was used to spending weekends at the office.
“We’d been at headquarters for something like three weekends in a row,” says Conner, referring to the team’s response to hurricanes Gustav and Ike. “Fortunately, a crisis communication team exists; unfortunately, there’s a need for it, because our hotels have faced crisis situations before—the most traumatic, or impactful, was 9-11, when we lost a hotel between the two towers in the Trade Center.”
The good news/bad news result is that everyone knew exactly what to do after the Islamabad bombing.
“I live five minutes from Marriott headquarters and within the half hour, I was the first person in the office,” says Conner, who’s been at the company since 1977. “While we can all work remotely, there is more at your disposal at the office in terms of equipment and technology.
”
In the next half hour, five teams of crisis communicators (in addition to many other non-communicator crisis responders) gathered in the Bethesda, Md., office.
The research and writing team is responsible for being in touch with the incident location, “so not a whole of people are calling and bothering the general manager,” Conner says. They’re also responsible for writing the initial statement within 15 minutes and then something more explanatory within the first hour.
The media team receives info from the research and writing team and uses it to communicate with the media.
The internal communication team gets information to employees.
The community relations team is responsible for communicating with the Red Cross or FEMA or other outlets associated with the given crisis.
The logistics team runs around setting up the “war room,” making sure the team has laptops, BlackBerrys and all other necessary tools and technology. “And snacks—they make sure we have snacks!” Conner says. The team also stocks and oversees a remote location in case Marriott headquarters is inoperable.
On stand-by were high-level representatives from a number of departments, like HR and Operations, who could be contacted to make quick judgment calls.
“You need to make decisions quickly in a crisis, so we have pre-identified high-level leaders who must be at our immediate disposal,” Conner says. “For instance, we have a top lawyer ready to clear our statements quickly. He knows we need to be able to get to him. And since not everyone is immediately reachable, there’s more than one on the list.”
First response released in first 15 minutes
Within the first 15 minutes of meeting, the team had its first statement of response up online, a comment from Bill Marriott expressing incredible sadness and empathy at the loss of lives and the injuries to people.
http://www.ragan.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=5AA50C55146B4C8C98F903986BC02C56&tier=4&id=91B34AD7F33643A2A1844267E47C30FF&AudID=3FF14703FD8C4AE98B9B4365B978201A
Thursday, October 2, 2008
from The Swamp
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Why Southwest communicators don't fear Southworst.com
Experts say buying domain names for potential “gripe sites,” like YourCompanySucks.com, is due diligence for communicators
So someone doesn’t like your company. Twenty years ago, disgruntled consumers like this had letters to the editor and bullhorns to communicate their dissatisfaction; today they have the Internet.
Don’t like Starbucks Coffee? Head over to Ihatestarbucks.com to vent. Bank of America ever rubbed you the wrong way? Visit BankofAmericaSucks.com and join numerous other griping customers.
Maybe Southwest Airlines’ open-boarding policy placed you next to the toilet? Type in SouthWORST.com and … Wait a second, Southworst.com directs me to a page on Southwest.com, the company’s official site. OK, try the classic—southwestsucks.com—and … Southwest.com again. How about Ihatesouthwest.com? You guessed it, Southwest.com.
This is no accident. Southwest Airlines bought an undisclosed number of potentially toxic domain names, or Web addresses, in an effort to prevent disgruntled customers from creating “gripe sites” like BankofAmericaSucks.com and IHateStarbucks.com.
“[Web addresses] are really inexpensive, for the most part, so there’s no harm in buying the usual suspects” like SouthWorst.com, Southwestsucks.com and, recently, domain names of company executives, explained Paula Berg, Southwest’s head of emerging media. “What’s the harm when it can help prevent some PR crises down the line?”
A recent study by FairWinds Partners (reported on byThe Wall Street Journal) showed that among Global 500 and Fortune 500 companies there are 20,000 domain names that end in “sucks.com” and 2,000 “stinks.com.” FairWinds found that 35 percent of those companies owned these nasty domain names; 45 percent remain unregistered.
So what are you doing to protect your company’s online image?
Talk with your disgruntled customers
As Berg noted, Web addresses are cheap—about $10 or less—so the cost for companies to buy several domain names is minimal. Simply visit any number of online vendors to purchase a domain name.
NetworkSolutions, GoDaddy and Register.com are among many places to buy domain names. A WHOIS search, part of NetworkSolutions, will quickly and easily show which domain names are available.
Once you purchase the domain names, the next step is to create landing pages for Web surfers looking for “YourCompanySucks.com.”
The page where consumers land after they type SouthWorst.com, or any number of Southwest-related gripe URLs, makes it clear the page is part of Southwest’s official Web site. It also displays a short message that says:
“Southwest Airlines strives to maintain a high level of customer service and is proud of its corporate reputation and responsiveness to its customers. As part of that effort, Southwest wants to control the release of inaccurate and irresponsible information about the company via the Internet. If you would like more information on Southwest, please go to http://www.southwest.com/.”
This message lacks one important element—an easy place to vent.
Ragan.com asked Berg about that, and it seems Southwest certainly provides outlets for customers. “Between our blog, our customer relations departments and our 24-hour reservations line … we provide plenty of channels for people to contact us to vent or to share their concerns with us,” Berg said.
But the problem is the landing pages don’t directly link to those sites.
Citing “Internet consultants,” The Wall Street Journal said companies should use these landing pages as vehicles to solicit feedback from customers. “Otherwise, angry customers … will find another site on which to complain about the company.”
Shel Holtz, a social media expert and consultant, agrees. Registering these sites is a good strategy, he said. It is part of due diligence as a communicator. He suggested building a landing page that tells consumers where they can air complaints.
A landing page should say something to the effect of, “You entered a domain that clearly, if someone owned it other than us, would be used for complaints and possibly misinformation,” Holtz explained. “We have a variety of resources on our site that invite you to join a conversation and address the issues that we know are out there.” List those resources on that page, he added.
Better yet, he explained, redirect customers to a site where they can complain, read facts about the company (not rumors) and generally start a dialogue with the company.
For instance, General Motors maintains a Web site called, GM Facts and Fiction, on which the company “tells it like it is.” The site lists a variety of rumors and gives an official response. Visitors can also submit a question for the company to answer.
Keep in mind: Sites that allow venting and encourage dialogue also capture priceless information consumers about consumers’ likes and dislikes concerning your product or service.
Protect the C-suite
There are countless ways someone could construe your company name into something nasty. Don’t beat yourself up trying to find and purchase every negative URL possible.
“You could spend many days coming up with [Web addresses],” Holtz explained. “You have to think about what people are going to type in, people aren’t going to spend a lot of time thinking it out. Go for the obvious ones and get those.”
For Southwest, the obvious site names included SouthwestSucks.com, SouthWorst.com, and IHateSouthwest.com. The company also moved beyond the obvious. “Recently, in light of some of the news affecting others companies, we’ve bought the URLs of our executive names,” explained Berg.
The news she is referring to is that of the creation of GlennTilton.com, a Web site operated by United Airlines pilots locked in negotiations with the company. The site calls for Tilton’s resignation.
http://www.ragan.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=5AA50C55146B4C8C98F903986BC02C56&tier=4&id=E1E279A81D8F4D708969B1667075C7D9&AudID=3FF14703FD8C4AE98B9B4365B978201A
So someone doesn’t like your company. Twenty years ago, disgruntled consumers like this had letters to the editor and bullhorns to communicate their dissatisfaction; today they have the Internet.
Don’t like Starbucks Coffee? Head over to Ihatestarbucks.com to vent. Bank of America ever rubbed you the wrong way? Visit BankofAmericaSucks.com and join numerous other griping customers.
Maybe Southwest Airlines’ open-boarding policy placed you next to the toilet? Type in SouthWORST.com and … Wait a second, Southworst.com directs me to a page on Southwest.com, the company’s official site. OK, try the classic—southwestsucks.com—and … Southwest.com again. How about Ihatesouthwest.com? You guessed it, Southwest.com.
This is no accident. Southwest Airlines bought an undisclosed number of potentially toxic domain names, or Web addresses, in an effort to prevent disgruntled customers from creating “gripe sites” like BankofAmericaSucks.com and IHateStarbucks.com.
“[Web addresses] are really inexpensive, for the most part, so there’s no harm in buying the usual suspects” like SouthWorst.com, Southwestsucks.com and, recently, domain names of company executives, explained Paula Berg, Southwest’s head of emerging media. “What’s the harm when it can help prevent some PR crises down the line?”
A recent study by FairWinds Partners (reported on byThe Wall Street Journal) showed that among Global 500 and Fortune 500 companies there are 20,000 domain names that end in “sucks.com” and 2,000 “stinks.com.” FairWinds found that 35 percent of those companies owned these nasty domain names; 45 percent remain unregistered.
So what are you doing to protect your company’s online image?
Talk with your disgruntled customers
As Berg noted, Web addresses are cheap—about $10 or less—so the cost for companies to buy several domain names is minimal. Simply visit any number of online vendors to purchase a domain name.
NetworkSolutions, GoDaddy and Register.com are among many places to buy domain names. A WHOIS search, part of NetworkSolutions, will quickly and easily show which domain names are available.
Once you purchase the domain names, the next step is to create landing pages for Web surfers looking for “YourCompanySucks.com.”
The page where consumers land after they type SouthWorst.com, or any number of Southwest-related gripe URLs, makes it clear the page is part of Southwest’s official Web site. It also displays a short message that says:
“Southwest Airlines strives to maintain a high level of customer service and is proud of its corporate reputation and responsiveness to its customers. As part of that effort, Southwest wants to control the release of inaccurate and irresponsible information about the company via the Internet. If you would like more information on Southwest, please go to http://www.southwest.com/.”
This message lacks one important element—an easy place to vent.
Ragan.com asked Berg about that, and it seems Southwest certainly provides outlets for customers. “Between our blog, our customer relations departments and our 24-hour reservations line … we provide plenty of channels for people to contact us to vent or to share their concerns with us,” Berg said.
But the problem is the landing pages don’t directly link to those sites.
Citing “Internet consultants,” The Wall Street Journal said companies should use these landing pages as vehicles to solicit feedback from customers. “Otherwise, angry customers … will find another site on which to complain about the company.”
Shel Holtz, a social media expert and consultant, agrees. Registering these sites is a good strategy, he said. It is part of due diligence as a communicator. He suggested building a landing page that tells consumers where they can air complaints.
A landing page should say something to the effect of, “You entered a domain that clearly, if someone owned it other than us, would be used for complaints and possibly misinformation,” Holtz explained. “We have a variety of resources on our site that invite you to join a conversation and address the issues that we know are out there.” List those resources on that page, he added.
Better yet, he explained, redirect customers to a site where they can complain, read facts about the company (not rumors) and generally start a dialogue with the company.
For instance, General Motors maintains a Web site called, GM Facts and Fiction, on which the company “tells it like it is.” The site lists a variety of rumors and gives an official response. Visitors can also submit a question for the company to answer.
Keep in mind: Sites that allow venting and encourage dialogue also capture priceless information consumers about consumers’ likes and dislikes concerning your product or service.
Protect the C-suite
There are countless ways someone could construe your company name into something nasty. Don’t beat yourself up trying to find and purchase every negative URL possible.
“You could spend many days coming up with [Web addresses],” Holtz explained. “You have to think about what people are going to type in, people aren’t going to spend a lot of time thinking it out. Go for the obvious ones and get those.”
For Southwest, the obvious site names included SouthwestSucks.com, SouthWorst.com, and IHateSouthwest.com. The company also moved beyond the obvious. “Recently, in light of some of the news affecting others companies, we’ve bought the URLs of our executive names,” explained Berg.
The news she is referring to is that of the creation of GlennTilton.com, a Web site operated by United Airlines pilots locked in negotiations with the company. The site calls for Tilton’s resignation.
http://www.ragan.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=5AA50C55146B4C8C98F903986BC02C56&tier=4&id=E1E279A81D8F4D708969B1667075C7D9&AudID=3FF14703FD8C4AE98B9B4365B978201A
Pond Scum or Citron: What color is your hospital?
Sometimes we get so close to our own industry's jargon that we forget that those outside the healthcare system don't always speak the same lingo. Every industry does it. Car dealers don't sell used car anymore—they sell certified pre-owned vehicles. Grocery stores don't stock prunes, they sell dried plums. Catalogues don't describe a garment as green, they call it jade, emerald, fern, mint, citron, peridot, or stem. When you see a sweater in a catalogue described as "stem," what do you think?
Now put yourself in your customer's shoes. Do they know oncology means cancer and that neurology covers the spinal cord in addition to the brain? Do they know what you mean when you call your cardiac service line a heart academy or your ortho program a bone and joint institute or either one of them a center of excellence? Do you think that most people know the difference between a medical center and a hospital?
I'm guessing the average person either doesn't know or doesn't care. And those who do know the truth—that there really isn't a difference at all—think hospitals are just calling themselves a fancy but meaningless name, like saying they're stem when they're really just green.
So why do it? There are several reasons: to add cachet to the product, to avoid negative connotations, to instill consumer confidence in the service, and to stand apart from the competition. It's so much nicer to eat a dried plum than it is to eat a prune. And it's so much less frightening to get care at an academy than it is to be admitted to the hospital.
Monday, September 29, 2008
‘Crap’ contest spurs 100 percent employee message retention
‘Crap’ contest spurs 100 percent employee message retention
Ragan communications
Ervin & Smith pokes fun at traditional employee communication with a cleverly named contest
A couple years ago, the executive management team at Omaha, Neb.-based Ervin & Smith Advertising and Public Relations came up with new company core values.
The hope, naturally, was that the values would help boost employee productivity and motivate teams to produce breakthrough advertising and marketing ideas for the agency and its clients.
But the agency didn’t want to take the usual path in communicating the values to employees.
“We knew we wanted to implement an internal employee motivation campaign, but we felt the typical corporate ‘mission-vision-values’ communications would be viewed as cliched and wouldn’t work in our culture,” explains Kristin Petrick, director of strategy. “So we flipped the traditional employee communication campaign upside down and came up with C.R.A.P.”
The team hoped that the acronym—short for creativity, resourcefulness, accountability and passion—would get employees attention. To keep it, they launched a kick-off contest.
http://www.ragan.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=5AA50C55146B4C8C98F903986BC02C56&tier=4&id=A533EC5AFFAD480397FE9CB6A02C479E&AudID=3FF14703FD8C4AE98B9B4365B978201A
Ragan communications
Ervin & Smith pokes fun at traditional employee communication with a cleverly named contest
A couple years ago, the executive management team at Omaha, Neb.-based Ervin & Smith Advertising and Public Relations came up with new company core values.
The hope, naturally, was that the values would help boost employee productivity and motivate teams to produce breakthrough advertising and marketing ideas for the agency and its clients.
But the agency didn’t want to take the usual path in communicating the values to employees.
“We knew we wanted to implement an internal employee motivation campaign, but we felt the typical corporate ‘mission-vision-values’ communications would be viewed as cliched and wouldn’t work in our culture,” explains Kristin Petrick, director of strategy. “So we flipped the traditional employee communication campaign upside down and came up with C.R.A.P.”
The team hoped that the acronym—short for creativity, resourcefulness, accountability and passion—would get employees attention. To keep it, they launched a kick-off contest.
http://www.ragan.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=5AA50C55146B4C8C98F903986BC02C56&tier=4&id=A533EC5AFFAD480397FE9CB6A02C479E&AudID=3FF14703FD8C4AE98B9B4365B978201A
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