Crisis Communication

It's been a busy week at MediaTile, but I didn't want to miss a big announcement we made earlier this week. Later this month, we will launch and add a new emergency broadcast triggering system to MediaCast (our digital signage Software as a Service).

What's unique about the Emergency Media Trigger (as we're calling it) is that in integrates within legacy emergency communication systems. This is especially huge for educational institutions and corporate communication departments who are always looking for effective and simple ways of delivering crisis communication without having to retrace steps.

The graphic below does a great job of showing how digital signage won't necessarily replace other emergency communciation methods but can augment them in a seamless and integrated manner. Based on what I heard at the Summit for Emergency & Disaster Planning, schools and college campuses are open and interested in making sure their crisis information gets delivered to their students.


Nobody wants to be "the guy" who has to run to back to their desk in an emergency to send an alert. This is why the  Emergency Media Trigger will enable network operators to simply send an email, as an example, to interrupt regularly scheduled content while automatically triggering an emergency message to play across the entire network. A second "all clear" external trigger will reset the network to its previously scheduled programming. It can even be more automated through our API.

I enjoy speaking in front of large groups. But that doesn't mean it's easy. At the 6th Annual Summit for Emergency & Disaster Planning, the audience was largely from educational institutions. But there were teachers, and administrators, and principals, and health and safety directors, and fire chiefs, and you get the point. It's tough making a presentation that's then relevant to all of those groups.

Plus, I had the second-to-last slot so I was pleased with many stuck around for the full day. I was surprised to see so many hands raised when I asked if their college or school system used digital signage. I would have liked to have dug further but time was short.

Following is my presentation on how digital signage can enhance crisis communication both in a proactive and reactive way. The fact is the best crisis communication takes place before an incident begins. Two of the other speakers provided a great segway for me. One said, "The name of the game is simply to get the information out." The other? "Make the best use of technology." That's exactly was digital signage is.

You can check out my presentation on SlideShare.

That's the title of my topic at the 6th Annual Emergency & Disaster Planning conference in Toronto. The folks at the Strategy Institute always put on a good show.

I'm honored to present at the show, but am equally interested to hear what the other speakers have to say. I would imagine this is a hungry audience, especially with so many public institutions concerned over a potential flu epidemic. The two-day conference is focused on the education sector. Just glancing through some of the other topics and you see words like "infectious disease," "lockdowns," and "shooter incidents." It just goes to show the challenge facing administrators and health workers these days.

I'm going to focus on how digital signage can be a tremendous asset in crisis communication. The exact description reads like this:


I'm on the Alumni Board of Directors at Butler University and we recently discussed how colleges are preparing for a potential H1N1 outbreak. I can't imagine the challenges faced by colleges when students are packed in there. And let's be honest, many college students aren't exactly known for first-rate hygiene practices.

I'm out at MediaTile HQ in Scotts Valley, CA, this week so I'm a bit tied up in meetings. I thought it was a good time to pull together another list of my "clicks that click." These are a smattering of news items I've picked up over the last week or so that are related to communication in the workplace, social media AND/or digital signage.
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At last June's IABC World Conference, I was asked about the trends I was seeing in corporate communications and what did I see around the corner. My response was that eventually communications would switch into recovery mode and that companies would have to respond to keep employees around. With a nice Labor Day theme, Jeanette Paladino agrees that companies should be ratcheting up their communications. (She mentions intranets, newsletters and face-to-face, but not digital signage. I'm sure it's just oversight.) Jennifer Bull over at Good Company shares our sentiment.
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Global business communication is often a tough nut to crack, but Dave Meyer provides 10 tips for global communicators on his Communication Nation blog. All 10 are solid global communication tips, but I especially love #1 (get outside your fish bowl) and #6 (engage). I'm not sure if Dave did his graphics or not, but they are great.
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Though I'm headed to the circus this weekend, I'm not what you'd call a big fan of clowns. But allegedly you can use scary clowns to improve employee engagement. Go figure. I'd put up the photo but I'm going to stick with the fish.
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Has the employee-employer relationship permanently changed? Yes.
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Apparently, more and more companies and organizations are looking at Twitter to help during crisis communication. Communicating to employees during a crisis has long been a challenge. Digital signage can help on site, but Twitter could become a huge resource for those employees who are off-site or remote. All they'd have to do is follow the corporate account.

I was asked this very question on a conference call yesterday. It's a company who's already doing a lot with communication. They have an electronic newsletter that comes out once a week, driving traffic to their intranet, which is also updated on a daily basis. They cut the weekly newsletter but are now doing a monthly magazine. Once a quarter, executives host town hall meetings.

So, yes, they are DOING a lot and are concerned that digital signage might be overkill. The problem is that it appears as though employees are not responding to the mighty efforts by the corporate communication department. And that's a big problem if employees are not responding.

I've asked them to talk to their employees to see what they think about putting electronic signs up around their campus, alerting them to the "quick hit" messages of the day/week and its use for crisis communication.

I think they'll find that employees will respond positively to it. Newsletters get tossed. Emails get ignored. Town halls get missed. Intranets get buried.

Digital signage may just be exactly what they need. Stay tuned.

Everybody has fears. It's okay to be afraid. It's human nature. My greatest fear? Llamas. Don't trust them. Never have, never will.

But what are your corporate communication fears? I'm sure that the economy has many corp comm professionals uneasy but that's not unique the in the communication field. That's everybody across every industry and profession.

Because of the economy, are you afraid to take chances or challenge the status quo? Probably so. At the end of the day, most of us need that paycheck so we don't risk our jobs for the sake of being a better communicator.

But being a better communicator is exactly what we all must become. Crisis communication has practically become synonymous with employee communications. Now more than ever is the time to prove to your businesses and organizations exactly why they need communicators.

So it's okay to have fears. But this is not a time to cower in the face of challenges.

I want to hear what you're afraid of in corporate communications? Whatever it is, it can't be nearly as bad as an angry llama.

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Photo credit, quinet

Growing up, I couldn't tell you how many times I heard that when I was a kid. AND it was always an annoyance because it seemed interrupt my GI Joe cartoons. And thankfully, it always only seemed to be a test. But the Emergency Broadcast System was in place a valuable crisis communication tool, giving the government the ability to alert communities if there was a crisis at hand.

We are now giving that same ability to MediaTile digital signage network operators. Just announced last week, users can now implement what's called an Emergency Media Trigger (EMT), allowing them to interrupt their normal broadcast with an emergency message to be played on the screens. It's designed to integrate within existing emergency notification systems and control centers on college campuses and at corporations.


The EMT feature will enable network operators to use an external triggering mechanism, such as email, to interrupt a regularly scheduled program while automatically triggering an emergency message to play across a digital signage network.  A second "all clear" external trigger will reset the network to its previously scheduled programming.

It is scheduled for release late summer, and will be supported on all installed MediaTile displays and networks.

Think about how important this could be for your crisis communication planning at your company or college campus. It's comforting to know that you would now have the ability to interrupt you normal messaging to convert your network into a vital communication tool during a crisis.

Though it's probably something you never hope you have to use, it's nice to know you'll have it if you need it.

For the employee communications expert panel at this week's IABC World Conference, I was asked to talk briefly about a communications trend I've seen recently. Aside from the obvious one (social media), the only thing I've seen is internal communicators getting beat up on a daily basis. For the last six months they have been in crisis mode because announced layoffs, business cuts and other fun news.

So what I presented to the group was more a curiosity that I had. I'm really interested to see that as the economy moves from recession to recovery, what key role will communicators play?

One of the Canadian attendees provided some fantastic insight. She said what the US is going through now, several Canadian provinces went through in the mid 90s. In the down economy, employers held the balance of power. There were no jobs, so employees simply hunkered down. Once the economy rebounded, employees held the balance of power and could basically make demands of their job that they couldn't before. She said, for example, that Starbucks workers were making $16-20 an hour.

Though I doubt we'll see something that dramatic here in the US, it is possible that the power will shift to employees. I know of people who like to leave their job, but simply can't. And when the economy improves, they will have options.

So companies must engage the employees they want to keep, the good guys. It can be extremely damaging to a business to lose talented workers. So corporate communications professionals will play a vital role in adding this value and must continue to improve workplace communication. Proof that I'm not the only one thinking about this, I found this post from Melcrum this morning titled, "10 questions to ask leaders as businesses emerge from the recession."

It's a great read for those interested. One particular contributor cited the need for communicators to get out in front of the recovery period and begin communicating before it's too late.

In a future post, I'll talk about how and why communicators should begin now making plans as part of this recovery period, such as making investments in new tools (like digital signage) or updating existing vehicles.
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Photo credit, Doublep1

There's typically not much one can learn from prime television (especially with Fear Factor off of the air) but the season finale of The Office provided one doozy of an employee communication tip.

Here it is: Never announce a branch closing at the company picnic when no one (or you think no one) knows about it.

Sounds simple enough, yes? There's no way something like this would happen in the real word right? You'd be amazed at the stories I've heard over the years of how companies have announced or shared bad news.

This just goes to show that if you put together a great communication plan involving the right messages with the right internal communication vehicles (town halls, newsletters, digital signage, etc.), someone could spout off at any time. . . like at a company picnic.

But even though a skit at a company picnic might not be the best method to choose, it certainly was a form of effective business communication. Watch the clip and you can see the effect it had.



Enter crisis communication stage left.

News of the swine flu outbreaks across the country and world are spreading, no pun intended. And clearly this is important news because of the potential risks to everyone. Even Google Maps has created a mashup of swine flu outbreaks.


View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map

But I'm not a medical professional (nor do I pretend to play on the Internet) so I'm not going to weigh in on its importance. So what I'm curious to find out is if your company is communicating swine flu news, tips or advice to employees?

The question of whether or not it's a company's responsibility was recently raised on Twitter. I'm on the side that thinks it is a company's duty to pass along news because it acknowledges what's on employee's minds and further developments could possibly impact business continuity. It may not quite reach the level of crisis communication but we really don't know where it's going at this point.

And since this is global news, do you have a global communication tool you can use for employee communication? For example, one of our customers was able to report globally that all of their employees were accounted for after the  earthquake in Italy thanks to their digital signage network.

Does your company have this ability?

I was out in LA this week (in the insane heat) visiting with a company looking at digital signage to enhance their employee communications and be a key vehicle in their crisis planning for floods, earthquakes, fires or whatever else Mother Nature throws at them.

What's also really interesting is that the company pushes a lot of environmental responsibilities down to their employees. High expectations are set all through the ranks. They ask workers to do simple things that really add up over an entire corporation, like use a coffee mug instead of paper cups. And since they are so conscious of their environmental footprint, they had quite a few questions about how they could best manage the power needs of a digital signage network.

One of the useful features MediaTile's Digital Sign in a Box provides is the ability to schedule your screens to turn on and off on a daily schedule. Let's say you work in a place where your coworkers leave at 6 pm and do not return until 7 am. With MediaTile's digital signage software, you can schedule to have your screens turn off once your coworkers leave and then turn back on at the designated time. And if no one is around on the weekends, keep them off then, too.

Scheduling your displays to go black does three things for you:

1. Extends your screen life by not running them when you don't need to
2. Shows you're not wasting electricity by powering your digital signage  when no one is around
3. Demonstrates to your employees that you're paying attention to your network

However, even if you turn your screens off, the displays stay connected so that you can push new content to them or even revise the existing schedule.

Be energy responsible with your network. Black is the new "green" with digital signage.
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Photo credit will_hybrid

Here's this week's rundown...

Tuesday, April 14
Never waste a good recession
I read a lot of articles about employee engagement and employee communications. And with the recent hard financial times on most small and large companies, writers are focusing on the impact the financial crisis is having on employees.

Wednesday, April 15
What does your company think you look like?
For those corporate communication professionals who are responsible for communication in the workplace, you're likely sending out messages left and right. And by doing this message push, how are you viewed internally at your company. Simply put, what does your company think you look like?

Thursday, April 16
What's your success been with digital signage?
If you've used digital signage at an employer, has it been a blessing or a curse for your communication activities? Did your corporate culture support it or rally against it? Was it a lot of work to keep your content fresh or did it fit into your natural flow?

Friday, April 17
Digital signage success is in the numbers
I'm not a big numbers guy. Never have been. Maybe never will. But some people need numbers and statistics to validate buying actions. They aren't a "go by the gut" crowd and I can respect that. There is a sense of comfort knowing the numbers will back them up.

And here are a few other articles I thought you might find interesting:

• Camps split on the aims of internal comms
   
• Taking a gamble is the way to work
   
• Four vital perspectives on employee engagement
   
• Are you the manager who cried wolf?
   
• Stepping up employee communications

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Photo credit, laffy4k

I read a lot of articles about employee engagement and employee communications. And with the recent hard financial times on most small and large companies, writers are focusing on the impact the financial crisis is having on employees.

I borrowed this post's headline from a Forbes article. Never waste a good recession.

What a phenomenal spin on how recessions are typically viewed. Treat your employees well through these tough times and they will come out more loyal and engaged on the other side. That I can buy into.

I'm all for treating employees with care and respect, but I'm also not naive enough to believe that an ice cream truck parked behind your office will cure all engagement ills.

While we are so focused on those employees leaving organizations, we must not forget those that are still around. Go beyond the ice cream truck. It's important to invest in workplace communication. Re-focus your newsletter. Add some interactivity to your intranet. Drop some resources into digital signage (hint, hint).

So don't lose touch with those employees who are still around. And, oh yeah, never waste a good recession.
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Photo credit, roadsidepictures

Here's the rundown for this week...

Monday, March 30
aka.tv weights in on MediaTile's ROM
When we launched our Return on Message (ROM) Methodology back in February at Digital Signage Expo, we knew we were on to something big. And it's exciting when a third party, aka.tv in this case, weighs in with their own comments.

Tuesday, March 31
Digital signage content you don't have to worry about
For those looking to operate your own digital signage network, planning and creating content is probably not the only thing you're doing. And if you're in internal communications, you're working to keep your intranet current, publish that newsletter and get town halls scheduled (along with many other tasks I'm sure).

Wednesday, April 1
IABC/Mercer survey reveals interesting employee communications numbers
Last night I caught up on the March-April 2009 issue of IABC's Communication World. There was some interesting info in this issue. IABC, in conjunction with Mercer Consulting, gobbled up feedback from the worldwide membership to better understand how the economic downtown is affecting corporate communication professionals.

Thursday, April 2
Don't hit any speed bumps with your internal communications
I think back to my days of being a journalism student, learning that news must be timely and relevant. This doesn't change when it comes to employee communications. There are speed bumps everywhere.

Friday, April 3
The role of digital signage in crisis communication
Every corporate communications department has (or at least should have) a crisis communication plan. And when I talk to customers, they ask me about to incorporate their digital signage network into the crisis planning. My answer is simple. Do it on the front end.

Every corporate communications department has (or at least should have) a crisis communication plan. For those who have gone through various business continuity exercises or emergency drills, you now how important these plans are.

And when I talk to customers, they ask me about how to incorporate their digital signage network into the crisis planning. My answer is simple. Do it on the front end. A plan is only as good as the people who know about it and are prepared to execute it.

If a plan exists and no one knows about it or isn't aware of what steps should be taken, then it will be chaos when put into action.

I think the major strength of digital signage in crisis planning is on the training side. Create messages for various scenarios or did-you-knows so that your workforce is prepared should a real crisis hit.

I've been through my fair share of drills throughout my career. Tornadoes. Exploding tanker trucks. Fuel spills. I've seen them all. And yes, if there's some sort of evacuation as part of the plan, digital signage can only tell your employees to get out.

But if it's a "seek shelter" message, you could embed screens in those shelter areas and communicate updates to the groups held up in those designated locations. Sometimes a lack of information is worse than bad information.

With MediaTile's solution, you could preload all of your signage with a batch of pre-determined messages. The messages could be called up in an instant and delivered out to your workforce instead of someone (likely you) trying to create one on the fly while the crisis is underway.
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Photo credit, karlfrankowski

I'm a bit behind on my magazine reading, having just now read the pre-tournament edition of Sporting News. But last night I caught up on the March-April 2009 issue of IABC's Communication World.

There was some interesting info in this issue. IABC, in conjunction with Mercer Consulting, gobbled up feedback from the worldwide membership to better understand how the economic downtown is affecting corporate communication professionals.

There were many interesting highlights of the survey, but the one I want to focus on is how companies are communicating to employees about the financial crisis. The top vehicle at 56% is email.

This isn't surprising and in fact, I thought the number would be higher. Email is easy. I was pleased to see that face-to-face/group meetings came in second at 54%. It's important that dialog is created. Here are where other vehicles fell in:


Employees want to see their leaders and managers. In times where this just isn't convenient due to travel costs or time constraints, digital signage can come to the rescue.

With your own digital signage network, you can schedule and play executive communications around the country or the world if need be. Plus, this takes the pressure off of the speakers knowing things aren't live. And with live broadcasts, we all know there's a host of things that can go wrong.

Plus with digital signage, you know you're reaching those workers who don't have access to email, the intranet or the Web (which were three of the top four answers).

These days, it seems like the only news I read about companies is bad -- profits sink, jobs cut, stock prices shrink -- no matter what the industry. But this is all news that's out there for everyone to read.

But what about your coworkers? Are you communicating the bad news to your employees through your internal communications channels? Or are you letting the media play bad cop?

In October of last year, Weber Shandwick released a study showing that company leaders are not communicating with employees on the financial crisis:
 
Look at those numbers. Seven out of 10 employees feel their leaders should be communicating more and half haven't even heard from company leaders. Employee communications must fill the void. What makes this especially problematic is that while the economy continues to weaken, it doesn't get any easier for your execs.

We all know that video is an effective means of keeping a consistent message while providing a human face to the communication. This is why digital signage is an important tool. It allows you to deliver video to employees with or without intranet access all over the country or the world.

Get your leaders out there to address the financial crisis and frame the message to your employees. Your coworkers have said they want to see the entire picture. They're hungry for it.

Do you have the tool that can deliver that to them? Digital signage is the key.

The pranksters are at it again, only this time it's a bit closer to home. Some "comedian" hacked a road sign in Carmel, IN, to warn of the ever frightening "Raptors Ahead." It sounds like some sort of post-apocolyptic video game. "Once you defeat the zombies, you must steer clear of raptors."

This is why it's important you have tight security around your digital signage network. It's vital that you be able to control your signs remotely 24 hours a day, seven days a week in case there is a real crisis that you need to communicate to your employees and visitors.

You can go back and read my previous post about security to see all of the important security measures MediaTile has built in to our digital signage technology. Security is intregrated into our Digital Sign in a Box hardware and Mediacast software offerings.

Zombies and raptors warnings are relatively harmless. But imagine if someone used terms like nuclear or chemical in these pranks. Then it's no so funny.


Me personally, I'm more concerned about zombies than dinsosaurs. A raptor attack just seems improbable. Plus, I just don't think raptors would like the snow very much.

The events of 9/11 shook our nation's very foundation and shattered our state of being. I, along with others, are still at a loss for words when remembering that day. With yesterday being the seventh anniversary of 9/11, it's remarkable how our brains trick us into forgetting what the days that followed were really like but our hearts quickly remember.

In the corporate communicator's world, 9/11 brought to light how absolutely crucial crisis communications plans can be. And many in internal communications realized their plans were either out of date or completely obsolete -- I was one of them. All of the "red binders" were dusted off. The organization I was working for at the time did not have any effective means of reaching groups of employees with crisis information or updates for any sort of crisis event. Many of our workers did not have access to email. Many in corporate communications asked themselves, "What if that happened to us?"

Digital signage can now play a key role and be the vehicle that drives home vital messaging to those workers who may not have access to electronic communication (email, voice mails, an intranet, etc.). Typically, these workers receive newsletters or updates from supervisors as their primary source of information . . . maybe. But with digital signage, you can increase reach of your employee communications and deliver crisis information to the "disconnected" workforce right where they work.

Imagine being able to send very detailed, dynamic content to an entire network of screens from one desk. One seat. You could locate these signs in "hot spots," places employees would naturally gravitate to, such as break rooms or cafeterias.

Now I understand that during 9/11 many employers simply sent workers home and the day's impact far exceeded this discussion. Digital signage may not have been an overly useful tool in this case. But think of other crisis events, either local to your area or right at your company, where using a network of LCDs could have aided your workforce and your messaging.

I would like to hear from you if you've used digital signage to help communicate during a time of crisis. Please use the comment link below.