Hyatt PR Hell a Lesson in Open Media

Hyatt Hotels is making all the wrong moves in its PR disaster that is spreading across the country.

The Hyatt Regency Boston, the Hyatt Regency Cambridge, and the Hyatt Harborside fired 98 housekeepers on Aug. 31, replacing them with $8-an-hour employees from Hospitality Staffing Solutions. Many had been cleaning rooms at the chain’s hotels for more than 20 years and earned about $15 an hour.

The criticism unleashed at Hyatt Hotels has been unrelenting and merciless, fueled through social media channels.  The Consumerist, Executive Nomad, and the Harvard Business Review (Lessons From Hyatt: Simple Ways to Damage Your Brand)  have weighed in, along with national news outlets, since the story broke on Sept. 17. Facebook groups have cropped up to “Save the Hyatt 100.’ On Tuesday, Massachussetts Governor Deval Patrick threatened a government boycott of the hotel chain. Taxi drivers are boycotting Hyatt and the protests have spread to Chicago.

Hyatt originally stonewalled any inquiries into its actions. Lately they have become belligerent in fighting what they consider outside intrusions into their business affairs. Public relations cannot fix a company or right wrongs. In this case, top Hyatt executives who are calling the shots are doing deep damage to the brand and probably costing the company many millions over the pittance they are saving over the ’Hyatt 100.’ 

USA TODAY: Reader to Hyatt Hotels: “Shame on you” for outsourcing housekeepers

“I understand first-hand how difficult it is to manage through the current economic challenges without compounding the disruptions the times have caused,’’ Massachussetts Governor Deval Patrick wrote. “But surely there is some way to retain the jobs for your housekeeping staffs, as other hotels have done, and to work with them to help the company meet its current challenges, rather than tossing them out unceremoniously to fend for themselves while the people they trained take their jobs at barely livable wages.’’

Hyatt faces other challenges: Union workers stage sit-in to protest cuts to Hyatt’s health insurance coverage

LaFrances Rowell, 26, is taking chemotherapy for breast cancer and is supporting three children, ages 1, 2 and 7, but it was no question that she would join 194 other unionized hotel workers and their supporters in sitting in the street Thursday at the height of rush hour in front of the Park Hyatt hotel on North Michigan Avenue. The union workers are protesting Hyatt Corp.’s attempt to negotiate cuts in their health-insurance coverage. They also fear other hotels will follow Hyatt’s lead.

PR/Media Week in Review 06-28-2009

If you’re news junkie like me it doesn’t get better than last week. We started out with “Neda” and a bloody crackdown in Iran, Farrah Fawcett finally succumbing in Hollywood, quickly eclipsed by Mark Sanford in South Carolina confusing Argentina for the Appalachian Trail (”Buenos Airhead,” the cover of the NY Post said) - all trumped by Michael Jackson’s ultimate Hollywood ending.

News events last week re-defined and strained the limits of social media. Twitter, blogs, and Facebook proved to be a valuable if inadequate resource in Iran. Twitter crashed a few times under the deluge of Michael-mania, proving that nothing resuscitates a career like death.  Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of the previous ‘King,’ shared her thoughts of marriage to Michael and the premonition that he would die like her Dad, on her MySpace page. TMZ.com, the ultimate insider Hollywood news source, first reported Michael’s death.

More and more, social media transforms how news is created, packaged and disseminated. Increasingly, traditional media follows social media in breaking news, and then reports on reaction through social media channels. It is demoralizing to see that Twitter could not topple a government in Iran - it will take more time, chipping away at the blockages of a totalitarian regime. We thought that 20 years ago Tiananmen Square was the beginning of the end for the Chinese regime - but that was before Twitter and Facebook. For now, guns, batons and the apparatus of repression trump cell phone cameras. #iranelection news on Twitter is moribund but it exists.

The Michael Jackson news will play out through the week. Remember the long line of white Cadillacs for Elvis’ funeral? I’m sure that Michael, who took showboating to a grander level, will top that. There is the suspect doctor, the drugs, another autopsy, toxicology, the battles over the estate, the talk show appearances and the revelations that will be packaged in books. The world has a large appetite for Michael Jackson news.

Today, we hear that Mark Sanford will not resign as Governor of South Carolina. Sure, what else can this bozo do but be a politician? Now that he has been found we see how lost he really is.

Video of the Week

Cyber War In Iran Escalates #iranelection

#iranelection - the ‘hashtag’ Twitter stream - has become the news wire of the Iran resistance.

Great way to follow #iranelection is on Twub with tweet feed, aggregated pictures and videos. The tweet feed is real time, meaning several tweets per second (the Twub widget in the right hand column of this blog is slower).

‘Changing timezones can save lives’ says one tweet on #iranelection. They want all bloggers and tweeters to confuse the Iranian authorities in an escalating, dangerous cyber war. ‘Do not re-tweet Iranian names’ says another. URGENT RT: Police checking cellphones for videos and pictures, transfer your files and clean up your phone #iranelection

On-the-scene photos and videos have significantly decreased in the past couple of days - the authorities do not want another ‘Neda’ martyr on their hands.

Between the earnest and helpful tweets on #iranelection are messages of provocateurs, scam artists and the lurking Iranian authorities, who bought the best minds of our allies to plan massive cyber subterfuge - what we are now witnessing. #iranelection is a real-time example of how an impromptu, global news and opinion network can self-sustain and self-moderate. Combined with YouTube, Facebook and blogs, #iranelection has become the information lifeline of Iranian protesters.

One way to simultaneously follow your own Twitter stream and #iranelection is through Seesmic on your desktop. See screen capture below.

Social Media Sustains Resistance in Iran

 Can social media help spark and sustain a revolution?

Twitter sources:

• http://twitter.com/iran09
• http://twitter.com/iran88
• http://twitter.com/mousavi1388  last tweet - I am prepared For martyrdom, go on strike if I am arrested #IranElection
• Follow #iranelection for streaming tweets on Iran battles

RT @grandmatia Many governments worry about guns in their people’s hands, Iran fears computers in theirs! #IranElection #NetRevolution 

Heartbreaking Images From The Iran Green Revolution 6/2009 (graphic images - discretion advised)

 

Wells Fargo Launches Breakthrough Twitter Stream

On March 26 Wells Fargo carefully and judiciously launched an ‘active’ Twitter account. By ‘active’ I mean it is actually monitored by a person who is available weekdays, 9-5, to answer basic banking questions. This is a bold move that the bank did not undertake lightly. For months, the bank held an inactive Twitter account, saying it was monitoring the Twitosphere before it would become involved. Usually tweets are one way broadcasts - a company or individual telling its followers a snippet of information. By going a step further - engaging its audience - Wells Fargo is once again proving it is a social media pioneer in financial services.

Leading financial services into social media. Wells Fargo has been blogging for over three years; the company has several blogs in product areas and its own dedicated YouTube channel.  Ed Terpening, VP of Social Media for Wells Fargo, is the kind of buttoned down visionary that financial services neeeds to show how social media can be used for PR advantage. In the top Vator.tv video in the right column of PRBlogNews, Ed talks about how Wells Fargo used a blog to quell a potential crisis.  “We want to use all channels available to get our story out,” says Ed. That means sometimes publishing comments that are harsh and negative- as long as they comply with  strict posting guidelines.  Acknowledging prevailing sentiment to a particular event is often more constructive than ignoring or denying it. By having its blogs set up and running, with thousands of subscribers, Wells Fargo is able to respond quickly to a broad audience.

Social media for mergers.Wells Fargo launched a blog to manage communications for its merger with Wachovia (see bottom Vator.tv video on the right). The objective was to humanize the company, tell Wachovia customers what to expect, and reach a vast audience of constituents with news about the combined company. “Wachovia customers love their bank,” says Ed; there was strong brand allegiance to Wachovia.  Combined with Wachovia, Wells Fargo now has approximately 250,000 employees and millions of customers. A single blog can reach employees, customers, mainstream media, other bloggers and the general public. A blog is an incredibly efficient information distribution channel.

Social media as PR asset for financial services.  Financial services companies are heavily regulated, highly scrutinized and understandably reluctant to delve into the uncontrolled world of social media. Note the disclaimer on the Wells Fargo Twitter page. As Ed Terpening says, blogs, Twitters and videos are usually the last stop for company information to be disseminated, after it has been thoroughly scrubbed and approved by compliance officers, lawyers or regulators.  In essence, Wells Fargo is simply pushing out public information through added channels that have become available via the Internet and mobile devices.

The economy dominates news these days. Money is an emotional issue. We need to feel good about the company, and the people who manage or advise us about our assets.  Social media helps humanize an institution and offers the comfort that real people are listening to our concerns, offering feedback when appropriate, and are consistent in their approach. Wells Fargo has bloggers, an editor and programmer on staff, and now  Twitter ‘responders.’ Not every financial services company can devote that level of resources to social media. But most could benefit from following Wells Fargo’s lead in exploring the PR advantage derived from deploying a social media program.

So you want to break into public relations?

This is a difficult and confusing time to break into the public relations business.  As  traditional media continues to disappear at unprecedented speed, and the acceptance and use of social media increases exponentially, the PR landscape becomes radically altered.  How do you promote a service, product or person in 2009 when the rules of engagement have shifted so far that nobody can say for certain what they are? How do you judge success when you have no verifiable way to measure it? Why on earth would anybody want to break into this business now when there are no jobs and nobody can agree what public relations is anymore?

I faced a room full of mass communications students last weekend at VCU and tried to answer these questions. The short answer is:  Uncertainty brings opportunity and this is a thrilling time to be in the communications field.  It begins at the top, as Barack Obama re-defines how government communicates with and interacts with its constituents.  And it comes down to us - never before have the methods of communication - the ability to package and distribute news and information on a mass scale - been in the hands of ‘the people.’

All the news and info distribution sources we now have at our disposal - including web sites, blogs, Twitter, Flickr (or any web photo platform), YouTube (or any web video platform), RSS, widgets - are absolutely free. All it takes is imagination and time and you can shout to the world. 

The PR business still treats social media as a curiosity, an add-on. They generally still don’t get that  PR needs to lead the communications mix (PR/marketing/advertising) and PR needs to follow media into an Internet-based, digital distribution system. Instead of pitching the media we become the media.

Writing has always been an important, and sorely under served, element of public relations. Now that we can’t complain about lack of avenues for publishing, writing is even more important.  Check out Emily Valentine’s blog Cultural Anthropologist. Emily was one of the 50 or students from the 10 colleges and universities at the VCU PRSSA event last weekend.  There are also links to writing samples on Emily’s blog, including Microfinance: social networking meets social enterprise on the Young Professionals in Foreign Policy web site. Coming into the ‘new PR’ landscape, Emily is honing her writing and social media skills, and engaging in socially optimized PR. It make take some time for PR employers to understand the value of writing, blogging, and social media literacy - but the smart ones will soon enough.

See The Future of PR (SlideShow) | Mark Rose LinkedIn

PR/Media Week in Review 04-19-2009

Quick takes on a beautiful NYC Sunday. The magnolia blooms are peaking.  

The Domino’s fiasco dominated PR news last week as a couple of dweebs in a local pizza pit dramatized every body’s worst nightmare about fast food kitchens. Letterman or Jon Stewart couldn’t do a better parody of how to bomb a company with a YouTube video. The PR lessons from this will be amusing and possibly instructive, and you have to wonder how Domino’s can right its public image without addressing its core business. How much can PR gloss over cold greasy pizza?

In a hotel room in Richmond, VA, last Friday I caught the sorry spectacle of Ashton Kutcher spinning his 1M Twitter milestoneon Larry King like an entrepreneur with a new ice cream cone. Then P. Diddy joined him waxing about his deepness, his soul, his “Twitter DNA,” that gets zapped out to 800,000 or so followers in 140 characters or less. Finally, communication that doesn’t involve actual writing, where you can infiltrate 1 M Twitter minds with barely 15 seconds of sweat. If you don’t have to write, then you don’t have to think, and thinking is, you know, tiring and, you know, frustrating.  That’s why bloggers are abandoning their blogs in droves for the more efficient, less taxing Twitter, thus validating our worst impression of most bloggers.  See CNN Buys Twitter Account. Touring the historic areas of Richmond, VA, where Abraham Lincoln walked in to the capitol of the Confederacy, April 5, 1865, I wondered: isn’t the Gettysburg Address, with its taut, precise prose, its brevity - isn’t it perfect Twitter material? Would Lincoln Twitter if Lincoln could Twitter? Or, would he reject the Twitter Twaddle and the obvious manipulations of the Celeb Twitterati? 

Holy Tweeters: Church promotes social media during sermon. Leaders of a Charlotte North Carolina-area church told members to bring their phones and data devices to Church and Twitter during services. “We want to leverage everything that happens technologically in our culture to bring people closer to God and to each other,” said the Pastor, who also pointed out that “we have a real desire we have in our culture and in our city for a human connection.” Twitter brings you closer to God?

Barack Obama’s first 100 days are coming up April 29 and the stories are already cranking. See Reuters timeline and supporting text and photos. Obama is a news magnet, charismatic, quotable, and his communication agenda is unprecedented and revolutionary.  How do you support our continuing experiment in democracy with digital PR skills? See Communication, Transparency, Participation.

A big thank you to everybody at VCU Mass Communications and the students who came from several surrounding areas to PROmoting Success, Saturday, April 18, organized by the VCU PRSSA.  More on this in the next couple of days.

 Web Video of the week

The Domino’s Effect

Kristy Hammonds is having a very bad day. Not only is she featured in the nauseating Domino’s pizza YouTube video that threatens to torpedo the company, her name is prominently displayed as the person who ordered the video removed from YouTube. The video showed two dumb and dumber Domino’s workers, Hammonds being one of them, performing bodily functions on food before serving it to unsuspecting customers.

Mid-day yesterday, when I viewed the video, it had approximately 400,000 views. By the time it was yanked by Hammonds it was reportedly up to nearly a million views. TV news has excerpted grosser segments of the video on broadcasts and YouTubers, angered by Hammonds censorship, have replicated the video in various permutations to get around YouTube copyright barricades. 

 A spirited discussion on Ragan.com about the initially lame and remarkably dismissive response from Domino’s PR ( We “don’t want to put the candle out with a fire hose,” said the PR rep, explaining why they were not issuing a press release, a video or Twittering a response) escalated in the course of the day. Domino’s did not aggressively counter the video or reassure the public about their hygiene and food prep standards. They called the employees “idiots,” fired them and banned video cameras from their stores.

“Right now, it’s on Web sites and blogs. It’s not ABC, CNN or USA Today,” said Tim McIntyre, Domino’s VP of Communications. Big mistake. Virtually every major news outlet, including the ones McIntyre mentions, have reported this story. How could they not? It confirms everybody’s worst nightmare about what goes on in the kitchens of these fast food joints.

When Hammonds was arrested later in the day, things got worse. As reported by local news, Hammonds is a registered sex offender with a lengthy rap sheet (see first video below).

So, not only do we have serious questions about Domino’s food preparation standards, we question their hiring practices. Finally, Domino’s President Patrick Doyle issued his own YouTube video deploring the actions of Hammonds and her cohort (see last video below).  Doyle is appropriately indignant but he is not looking at the camera (connecting to his audience). Longer term issues, such as the quality of the product that Domino’s offers (see second video down), need to be addressed.

This is a cataclysmic event for the company. They can scurry about as if they are under attack or they can use the opportunity to reinvent themselves internally and in the eyes of the public. This all happened in 24 hours. Welcome to the world of online communication.

 

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