The Great Caller

@BPGlobalPR, on the infamous social networking site Twitter, has now become a staple of almost 150,000 fellow Tweeters and they are making their way into conventional media because of it, with @BPTerry (a spoof BP marketing director) appearing in an interview here, and Leroy Stick (the alias of the man directly behind @BPGlobalPR) giving this exposé. Though something makes me suspect they are in fact the same person…

So, is it too soon to make jokes yet? Well no, not for this guy(s)!

Twinned provenance aside, the effect they have had upon the public awareness and perception of the BP oil spill has been influential and far-reaching. They have been a current and imaginative source of satire and humour, lightening the psychological drag created by this huge human-induced environmental disaster, while still assisting in real terms through their donations from the sales of their “free ‘BP Cares’” t-shirts – priced at $25 each.

What Leroy Stick has really achieved here though, is to prove the value of internet communications, and social networking in particular, as an invaluable device in PR.

BP themselves provided sluggish and hollow reports of their progress and intentions regarding the disaster through the conventional media, leading to frustration and uproar from all avenues – people wanted to know what was happening, who was taking responsibility and what was going to be done about it. Instead what BP seemed to do early on was sit on their haunches and try to pass the blame, over and over again. Yes, there are other organisations involved in this disaster, however BP are the public facade to the whole affair – the ones selling to the public – and it was therefore inevitable that they would receive the blame. The best thing would have been for BP to take the initiative, get their partners on-side and deal with the situation in a swift and organised fashion. Of course this sort of disaster has occurred before, albeit never on such a global-media-sensitive stage, so these big companies didn’t know how to react. They’re used to being able to pay off any intrusive or troublesome officials, who in turn work to keep the journalists away. Clearly they couldn’t do that in this situation. So instead they just got caught up in a spiral of naive bickering and finger-pointing, allowing an obviously negative public opinion to foment, while thousands of gallons of crude oil flowed freely into one of the most media-sensitive areas of the world.

What they overlooked was that, in only the past 5 years or so, there has flourished a fast moving and globally interconnected communication network whereby news travels the entire world in seconds. The perfect forum for complex public opinion to develop at a never-before seen rate: the internet.

The internet is blamed by powerful corporate bodies for the downfall of various things – the music industry, newspapers and the postal service spring to mind as examples here – however they’re all still about, and lucrative. What they forgot was that the progression of technology is irrefutable and creates demand by its very existence – here human nature, not corporate profits, is in control. The key to success is to change to adapt and make the most of the same medium that they blame for destroying them in the first place. It’s an age old saying, but I guess some things can stand the test of time – ‘fight fire with fire’. 3^rd to 4^th generation electro-communications technology is an exciting prospect, and the best thing those industries feeling threatened by it can do is to keep with the curve.

This is where BP has fallen flat. They simply weren’t ready for such articulate, swift retorts. On Twitter (through their account @BP_America, controlled by CEO Tony Hayward) they have less than a 10^th of the followers that @BPGlobalPR has. Of course the satirical, comedic feed has drummed up the most attention – that’s entertainment – but such a huge disaster should attract more official attention than this, and this statistic must be a disappointment for BP. The modern press, to keep pace with the internet, has increased in frequency from daily to hourly or faster turnover rates as a result of the global public’s ability to now react instantaneously. In short, BP’s complacency and arrogance has finally caught up with them, and thrown them face-first into their own mess.

But this has been a failure on every level, not just with communications. The fact that the company have made bad decisions from the very outset with regards to dealing with the crisis was the first huge mistake. They were too caught up following pre-set procedure - using capping methods designed for shallower depth situations for example - and rejected any of the proven effective options available to them. These are things that are being brought to light, over a month after the start of the leak, by the very men who initially contacted BP with the intent of assisting them. If @BP_America had had something worthwhile to tweet about in the first place – such as having gained control of the problem within the first week – then @BPGlobalPR may never have been created, as it wouldn’t have had anything to stoke its fire with.

As it stands, I think we’re about to see a explosive trend in disaster and corporate error response through mediums such as Twitter, all following Leroy Stick as their trail blazer. He has made a wonderful job of the humiliation and exposition of BP, in fewer than 140 characters, at every turn. And BP’s response of reportedly requesting Twitter to close down @BPGlobalPR is simply the sluggish and uninspired – dare I even say idiotic – response of the lumbering corporate behemoth that BP really is.