Mother Tongue of Global Crisis Management: Social Media
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications]
Recently, Thom Fladung and I had the honor of meeting with a group of Russian public relations professionals from Volgograd to answer their questions about crisis management and media relations in the U.S. The group, sponsored by the Council of International Programs USA, spent a week in Cleveland meeting with local media, government, Host Committee leadership for the Republican National Convention recently held in Cleveland, university professors, and with Hennes Communications. Volgograd is Cleveland’s Sister City in Russia.
We have done a fair amount of work internationally. When we do, we take a deep, strategic dive into key cultural differences and best practices to help effectively deal with local media. Ignore this bit of due diligence and your best laid plans will go up in flames. We also vet and partner with agencies on the ground whenever we work abroad to help us plug into local media, surmount language barriers and understand cultural do’s and don’ts.
Though I’ve studied and traveled in Russia over the years and have some command of the language, I’ve never worked with the media there. And as we learned from our Volgograd colleagues, dealing with the media in Russia is very different than in the U.S. The group seemed incredulous to learn that in the U.S., we don’t have to pay journalists to consider press releases from our clients.
Kara Alaimo, author of the excellent primer on practicing global, PR, Pitch, Tweet, or Engage on the Street, corroborates the surprising Russian custom: “When you practice public relations in Russia, be prepared to be solicited for money by reporters.” She goes on to write that “Paying journalists to publish information – a practice called zakazukha in Russian – is a widespread practice in Russia.”
When our discussion with the Volgograd delegation turned to strategic use of social media, we talked about enlisting third-party bloggers to help get messages and facts out for clients. The immediate comment from one of the delegates?
“And you pay them for that.”
Thom and I quickly dispelled them of that notion as well, again, much to the puzzlement of the Russian group. Their next question seemed borne out of frustration:
“How would you recommend we help our clients tell their story without paying the media or bloggers?”
Our response would be the same in any country with freedom of access to the Internet – use social media to get directly in front of your important audiences. It’s crucial that organizations embrace social media, connect with followers, and regularly publish content. When you build an influential following keenly interested in your organization’s narrative, you have a direct path to proactively communicate important issues – not just crises – before your key audiences find out about it in the media.
According to Pew Research, Facebook reaches 67% of U.S. adults. In Russia, Kara Alaimo reports that 46% of Russians have “active social media accounts.” And global metrics are staggering: social media users worldwide exceeded 2 billion last year.
For the Volgograd delegation and for Thom Fladung and me, our get-together was eye opening. The takeaway: Be sure to bake a social media outreach strategy into your communications planning. The caveat: For global communicators, do your homework and make sure you “get” the local media culture before you publish word one.
(Picured above, L to R: Thom Fladung, Yelena Krestinina, Vladislov Ushakov, Kseniya Zheleznikova, Howard Fencl, Mariya Churakova, Elena Potapova, Igor Abayev)