Digital Perspective Blog

I slept in this morning because we are in the middle of a server replacement and therefore there was to be no email today. I woke up around ten, came downstairs, made coffee and didn’t bother to look at my laptop since I knew there would be no mail. I checked my blackberry and saw a tweet from our Miami market leader (Ramiro) indicating that due to the server shutdown people should communicate via personal email and Twitter. I lightheartedly responded to him that no client information should be shared on Twitter – we’ve had some folks make innocent mistakes in mentioning clients in the past. Ramiro’s response was how I learned of the devastating earthquake in Chile.

Ramiro responded to me that they were trying to check in on staff in Chile and make sure everyone was safe. At that point I ran to my laptop and saw the news. My first thought was for my colleagues and their friends and family in Chile – some of my favorite people in our company are in that office and I really wanted to know how they were faring. And then I realized that Twitter was coming to the rescue. My colleagues throughout LatAm wanted to check in on their colleagues but couldn’t get through via traditional communications mechanisms. But Twitter provided a way to send messages and spread them quickly and also let those of us who were concerned stay connected – and reminded all of us that we weren’t alone in praying for our friends and colleagues. And, as people from that office were reached and accounted for, Burson persons around the world were able to share in the good news. Mashable has some additional information on how Twitter was used to get people in touch today – it is worth the read.

I’ve been up and down on Twitter lately – as an early adopter of the tool I’ve gotten bored – but as a communications professional I see the value. Today however, my appreciation for Twitter grew as I stayed connected to colleagues and also got news throughout the day that would not have otherwise been available. And for that I’m grateful. Meanwhile, I join you in continuing to pray for the best possible outcomes in the region.

I spoke at the PR News Digital PR Summit around Best Practices earlier today at the Grand Hyatt in NYC. It was an interesting event with lots of great content throughout the day. The session that I participated in was “Managing (or Avoiding) a Crisis Online. There were three panelists; the first spoke on online influence, the second on communities of interest, and I brought up the read with a discussion on dark sites.

After the event I got to speak to several attendees and was surprised to learn that the idea of “dark sites” hasn’t thoroughly spread through marketing and communications field. We’ve been recommending dark sites for clients for close to ten years so I just assumed everyone was doing them now. That was a valuable learning for me.

So, what’s a dark site? A dark site is a website that is built in advance and kept password protected to help a company protect against vulnerabilities or manage an issue/crisis situation. If and when a situation requires a public response the dark site is “turned on” by removing the password and is made available via the web. Dark sites have many applications – they are used for all sorts of vulnerabilities ranging from public safety, product liability, anti-trust, legislative, criminal, financial, and many other crisis situations. Dark sites should be built in advance during “peace time” and deployed if and when necessary. In brief, they should have audience specific messages, aggregated social media content, media materials, and two-way communications vehicles such as contact us forms, subscription updates, etc. This is a critically important step in managing a crisis as the dark site is the only place online that you can truly own your message. Having a well-produced and robust dark site is critical to tell your side of the story when a crisis situation hits.