Here I go again, another rant! This is NOT POLITICAL! I am NOT getting into the religious, moral, or ethical side of these issues. I am here to talk about how companies and institutions need to look at PR, and Social Media, so stick with me here.
We get news faster now than ever before. Twitter, Facebook, linkedin, etc. have clearly changed the way we live. When was the last time that you actually heard a piece of breaking news on TV that you hadn't already been made aware of by your friends? Companies that fail to get out in front of their most engaged brand advocates will fail to remain in business, plain and simple. Controlling the message is at the very core of a business survival plan.
look at the Abington Memorial Hospital/Holy Redeemer merger news. Don't you think it's possible that there were components of the discussions that were not made public while the media was latching onto the fact that they would no longer perform abortions there? I am confident that is the case. But, no more abortions was the one thing that was latched onto and the biggest issue that was being discussed in the media. By the way, Abington Memorial Hospital performs an average of only 50-80 abortions A YEAR. I didn't hear anything about the opinions of the physicians at the hospital, or AMHs promise to never abandon their secular approach to healthcare, or to provide offsite alternatives within their network until the merger was already basically dead.
Look at Chick-Fil-A now. Again, POLITICS ASIDE, they fucked up! When Dan Cathy made this statement in the Baptist Press "We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of
the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business,
and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that." He gave no thought to what the fallout would be. Fast forward 2 days and what happened? facebook posts, boycotts, twitter rants, etc.
If you live in this world and you do not embrace social media and it's ability to make or break your business, you are already dead in the water. Control the message and you control your destiny!
