1. HUFFINGTON
POST
A CRISIS DRIVEN WORLD – AN ANALYSIS
OF BP OIL SPILL CRISIS

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
3. Framing the BP crisis
4. Key challenges
5. Has the crisis affected BP’s reputation?
6. Media Conference Training
7. Q and A session
8. Questions from Huffington Post
9. Questions from Huffington Post
10. Response to stakeholders
11. Social Media Training
12. Effective crisis communication through social media
13. BP’s approach to social media
14. BP’s approach to social media
15. Huffington Post’s perspective on BP’s social media strategy
16. Learning outcomes and critical questions
17. Is it possible to prepare for crisis?
18. Social Media crisis communication management
19. Impact in the evolution and the perception of BP oil spill crisis
20. The most challenging question to ask ourselves in a crisis driven world

3. BP OIL SPILL CRISIS
SITUATION ANALYSIS
How do you understand BP oil spill crisis?
• Explosion of a pipe at 9:45 PM (Local time)
• Oil release from the platform in the Gulf of Mexico
• 126 crew members on board at this time
What is the context of this crisis?
• Environmental
• Economical
• Political

4. BP OIL SPILL CRISIS
SITUATION ANALYSIS
Key challenges
• Reassure
• Show that everything is done
• Show that it can’t happen again
Could it be prevented? There was a crisis plan?
• No crisis plan
• “I didn't have programs. The program was me” (David Fritz,
BP)
• Techniques to stop the leakage not efficient of terrible for the
environment

5. BP OIL SPILL CRISIS
SITUATION ANALYSIS
How the crisis affected BP reputation?
• The reputation of BP was destroyed
• Crisis management didn’t made it better
• Cost Tony Hayward his job of CEO of BP
• Cost more than $7 billion

6. MEDIA
CONFERENCE AND
TRAINING

7. MEDIA TRAINING – Q&AS
Why do you keep on writing about the BP oil-spill? We
need to continuously put focus on the subject of the oil-spill crisis to
make things right again for the communities. In contrast to what some
ads might tell, the Gulf is sick and so are its coastal residents.
Do you think that you covered the crisis neutrally? We
have sought a neutral perspective throughout the whole process of
covering the oil spill. However, we still maintain a critical approach to
the subject and we are not reluctant to put blame where it is due. As in
most cases, someone carries the most responsibility and that should be
pointed out to the public.
Assessment of preparedness: We were sufficiently prepared to
answer the questions from the other groups. Huffington Post is not a
“hated” stakeholder in this particular case like e.g. BP. Therefore, we
did not receive any unexpected or very critical questions.

8. QUESTIONS FROM
HUFFINGTON POST
BP Corporation - There’s been a lot of talk about BP wanting to
limit the claims from the recovery funds. How do you respond to
this allegation?
White House - Why do you see it as your role to demand a
compensation from BP? Some see it as a political shakedown of a
private corporation.
BBC - Do you think your coverage of the crisis in the gulf has
negatively affected tourism?
Why do you not cover some of the more positive stories from the
Gulf, in order to focus on restoration efforts and the communities?
Sierra Club - Is BP the only culprit, or do you think society and
the dependency on oil has some of the responsibility as well?

9. QUESTIONS FROM
HUFFINGTON POST
Local stakeholders - Do you think BP has done enough to repair
the damages in the local communities?
It seems like you feel it's the news bureaus responsibility to tell the public
and tourists that the environment again is safe for tourists. What have
you done to promote the involved states in regards to tourism?
BBC - Do you think your coverage of the crisis in the gulf has
negatively affected tourism?
Green Peace - On their facebook page, BP says that beaches in the
gulf have never been cleaner. Do you agree with this claim?

10. RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS
How openly and honestly the groups responded to our questions
depended on their involvement in the oil-spill crisis. Groups as BP, with
an obvious responsibility, and the White House, maybe with some blame,
were more hesitant to answer critical questions. In fact, they quickly
avoided those kinds of questions. Still, BP learned the hard way that such
an industrial crisis elicit a response – for BP it resulted in compensation
to affected communities and a critical loss of reputation (Smith, D. and Elliott,
D. 2006, chapter 3).
The remaining groups with no real blame in the case, could speak more
freely about their issues. However, all stakeholders could ask themselves
- could we have done more in the aftermath?

11. SOCIAL MEDIA
TRAINING

12. BP’S APPROACH TO SOCIAL
MEDIA
Effective crisis communication through social media
• Twitter and Facebook
Uses social media to monitor what is said about the company
Communicate with stakeholders
• Private messages to stakeholders (by addressing individuals
by name, employees telling positive stories about BP)
Consistent update with relates to the oil crises

13. BP’S APPROACH TO SOCIAL
MEDIA
Respond in real time – the respond becomes global
immediately
• Respond only on positive comments
Real time information update for stakeholders
Uses the social channel as an opportunity to promote their
social responsibility
• Cleaning up the Golf
Transparency
• Being open and honest forwards stakeholders

14. BP’S APPROACH TO SOCIAL
MEDIA
Incorporate the Golf incident in their storyline of being a
responsible company on Facebook - but not as the main
issue
• Committing to the Golf
• After the oil spill
• Community
• Economy
• Environment
• Invest in green energy / learning from the oil spill
• Resuming good jobs
• Employee safety offshore

15. BP’S APPROACH TO SOCIAL
MEDIA
Huffington Post’s perspective on BP social media approach
As a liberal media our approach is still covering the long-tail of the
crises
On BP’s social media channels we do not believe that the on
going settlement is being covered properly

16. LEARNING OUTCOMES
AND CRITICAL
QUESTIONS

17. LEARNING OUTCOMES AND
CRITICAL QUESTIONS
Is it possible to prepare for crisis?
It is not possible to fully prepare for crisis in the sense that you can
immediately overcome it. You can only be prepared in the sense of
readiness and having an extensive plan of action.
Crisis have some key characteristics:
1. Surprise
2. Threat
3. Short response time
When these elements come together, we identify the event as a crisis
situation.

18. LEARNING OUTCOMES AND
CRITICAL QUESTIONS
Social Media crisis communication management
Having a plan for crisis management is particularly important in order to
utilize social media as an effective tool of managing crisis. - So how can we
prepare?
1. Determine goals for crisis communication
2. Develop partnerships with key stakeholders prior to crisis
3. Acknowledge stakeholders, including media as partners when managing
a crisis
4. Develop strong, positive, primary and secondary relationships
5. Effective crisis communication involves listening to stakeholders
6. Communicate early about the crisis, acknowledge uncertainty, and
assure the public that you will maintain contact with them about current
and future risk

19. LEARNING OUTCOMES AND
CRITICAL QUESTIONS
Impact in the evolution and the perception of BP oil spill
crisis
Huffington Post’s impact in the BP oil spill crisis is somewhat diffused and
unclear. Huffington Post definitely played a key role, but the significance
of articles, and the impact these might have had, is not easily
quantifiable. This has to do with the fact that Huffington Post deals not
only in traditional articles, but also with social media and blogging
platforms, where impact and significance can be hard to measure.
However, one can be assured that Huffington Post maintains a critical
approach to the BP oil spill, and have continued to follow up on the
ongoing crisis and oil cleanup in the gulf to this date. Therefore one must
regard Huffington Post as a significant influencer, based merely on the
number of readers and the amount of content which is published
regarding BP.

20. LEARNING OUTCOMES AND
CRITICAL QUESTIONS
The most challenging question to ask ourselves regarding
communication in social media
A difficult question to ask ourselves when communicating in social media
in a crisis situation, often relates to the overall social media management
strategy. Are we doing the right thing?
A comprehensive strategy is important for a number of reasons, but it is
also important to constantly scrutinize and examine your approach to see
if you can do anything differently.

21. REFERENCES
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/17/gop-outraged-by-
shakedown_n_615686.html (Retrieved 18/07-13)
Smith, D. and Elliott, D. 2006. Crisis Management. Systems and
Structures for Prevention and Recovery. Routledge.
Ulmer, R., Sellnow, T., Seeger, M. (2011). Effictive Crises
Communication. SAGE Publication, Inc.
Anthnoissen, P. Crises Communication. India by Replika Press
Pvt Ltd.