{"id":2970,"date":"2011-05-17T12:57:21","date_gmt":"2011-05-17T12:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=2970"},"modified":"2011-05-17T12:57:21","modified_gmt":"2011-05-17T12:57:21","slug":"how-a-city-let-big-media-tell-its-story-lessons-learned-from-memflood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/how-a-city-let-big-media-tell-its-story-lessons-learned-from-memflood\/","title":{"rendered":"How a City let Big Media Tell its Story: Lessons learned from #Memflood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" title=\"flood\" src=\"http:\/\/posterous.com\/getfile\/files.posterous.com\/temp-2011-05-11\/uljazDDFFftJdxmghuftwferonncrxDodlqcGlpiDhEflroEmjlmfIzqvtwq\/photo.JPG.scaled500.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"333\" \/>Memphis in all the big media  headlines this week took our community by surprise reporting the  historic flood of 2011 and showing the absolute worst pictures and  images of a flood that has impacted just 1% of our City.\u00a0Now I will say  right here that this post is not meant to be insensitve to those who are  affected.\u00a0 I am writing this from a public relations perspective and  from my own personal observations and experience dealing with media and  crisis management.\u00a0 I think we (our whole community) underestimated the <strong><em>power of the national media <\/em><\/strong>and their ability to portray things <em><strong>differently<\/strong><\/em> than they happened.\u00a0 <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Am I being too harsh on the media? I&#8217;m not sure, but when Al Roker is standing in 3-4&#8242; of water broadcasting from  downtown Memphis (which is not flooded) is that really representing the  real story? I don&#8217;t think so.\u00a0 Yes, we have a swollen river and record  flooded farm land, blown levees and some displaced and some flooded  (which is terrible)&#8211;but &#8220;Memphis Flooded?&#8221;\u00a0 No way. Not even close.\u00a0 I  thought it ironic that Monday the media showcased the worst pictures and  Monday night, Memphis was live on TNT showing the dry and packed FedEx  Forum where the Grizzlies played another playoff game (go Grizz).\u00a0And by  the way, just how far is\u00a0the FedEx Forum\u00a0from the river anyway?<\/p>\n<p>What I think we missed Monday\u00a0was  the opportunity to\u00a0tell our national\u00a0flood story differently&#8211;as an  event to be witnessed from the safety of our Bluff.\u00a0 Although flood  warnings were issued and evacuations we made by some (less than 1,000),  we missed an opportunity to tell the world that Memphis is safe&#8211;for the  most part&#8211;when so much water threatens.\u00a0 Instead, the media descended  upon us and showed the world only the worst of pictures, many of which  weren&#8217;t even in Memphis.\u00a0 Water under the bridge? I think there  are\u00a0always opportunities for reflection and learning to constantly  improve our processes.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of all this underwater  publicity, people have cancelled trips here for our annual Memphis In  May BBQ Championship contest, cancelled business trips (I know of  several clients directly impacted by this) and no telling what else we  don&#8217;t know.\u00a0 Further, will people just remember the horrible pictures  and think &#8220;I&#8217;m not going to that city&#8230;if it floods like that.&#8221;\u00a0 Maybe.  Maybe not.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t mean to be negative or underestimate real dangers  and threats our emergency managment officials were dealing with.\u00a0 I just  think the <strong><em>PR and communications during a crisis is as essential <\/em><\/strong>as operations.\u00a0 That being said, here are some take aways and lessons learned:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div>We could have safely promoted the  flood as a historic event to be witnessed safely from\u00a0our Bluff (not a  hill) as people are doing anyway.\u00a0 Downtown has never been so busy with  pedestrians coming to see the Mississippi River and Riverside Drive.  While we don&#8217;t make light of those people who are affected&#8211;from an  economic development perspective, having so many people come downtown is  a plus for our city.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>We could have given the national  media better places from which to broadcast, asking that they respect  our economic development and not allow them to tell their story in 4&#8242; of  water that obviously sent a different message.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Our #Memflood tag on Twitter went  viral and was picked up by the national media.\u00a0As I believe Twitter is  the trip wire for spreading and breaking news, if I were in charge, the  Twitter strategy would have been mandated and promoted by as many as  possible.\u00a0 As a community, we have the opportunity&#8211;through Twitter&#8211;to  be as loud as we want and can talk directly to the national and local  media who use Twitter.\u00a0 Our emergency management personnel and city,  county leadership need to understand and utilize this Twitter voice.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Communications to local media  should also be coordinated (and maybe it was but Memphis was never  &#8220;under seige&#8221; as one station reported) and need to understand the long  term consequences of sensationalizing events&#8211;especially in a crisis.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As this flood continues, it will be  interesting to learn more examples like these when it comes to  perceptions vs. reality.\u00a0 Do you have a story to share about this?\u00a0 How  do you feel about the national coverage of the flood here in Memphis?\u00a0  I&#8217;d love to know. Thanks for reading this! GO GRIZZ! GO MEMPHIS!<\/p>\n<p>Amy Howell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Memphis in all the big media headlines this week took our community by surprise reporting the historic flood of 2011 and showing the absolute worst pictures and images of a flood that has impacted just 1% of our City.\u00a0Now I will say right here that this post is not meant to be insensitve to those &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/how-a-city-let-big-media-tell-its-story-lessons-learned-from-memflood\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,6],"tags":[1231,1232,451,398,830,701,1233,626],"class_list":["post-2970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-amyhowell","tag-flood","tag-frenzy","tag-media","tag-memphis","tag-perceptions","tag-reality","tag-sensationalize","tag-wrong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2970"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2972,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2970\/revisions\/2972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}