Article authored by: Kitty Porterfield and Meg Carnes, APR, Partners at Porterfield & Carnes Communications in Washington, D.C.

It wasn’t the “perfect storm,” but it was a perfect response.

In the days before Hurricane Isaac struck New Orleans in August 2012, throughout the storm, and in the days immediately after, Tulane University kept a steady stream of clear and useful information flowing to students, staff and parents. Isaac did not cause the kind of devastation that resulted from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but it was still a significant storm. And, University leaders earned high praise from stakeholders for providing information that calmed jitters and quelled rumors.

There is much to be learned from understanding how Tulane coordinated and made use of multiple media tools to reach their “multi-screen public.” In K-12 systems, students may not live on campus, but the parallels in stakeholder communication in this crisis situation are unmistakable.

During Isaac, Tulane staff did everything they could to fill the information gap. They built communication structure like a tower of Tinkertoy parts or Legos, with plenty of rods and spools and connections, places to plug in and build on, all the parts supporting the whole. “Unfortunately, we had practice at handling weather situations,” noted Tulane’s Vice President for University Communications and Marketing, Dr. Deborah Grant. Of course, she was referring to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the lesser-remembered Hurricane Gustav in 2008.

Website — the Communication Base

At the bottom of Tulane’s communication tower sits the website (www.tulane.edu), with basic information. The Office of Emergency Preparedness (http://tulane.edu/emergency/preparedness/about-us.cfm) maintains a robust page of emergency information, which sets out procedures for a multitude of situations, includ-ing hurricanes, fire, medical emergencies, and international travel.

During Isaac, Tulane’s web Emergency Notices page was linked directly from the top of the home page and updated regularly. The webpages became the home base for communication. They held the most complete and comprehensive coverage of storm information. It was there 24/7 for anyone who wanted to check in — a fact that was critical, since Tulane parents span the globe.

Telephone Hotline

Mindful that not everyone in the University “family” has or uses all the latest gadgets, Grant and her team took the website information and translated it first to the phone. Outside of the storm area, the team figured, most everyone would have access to a phone, if nothing else. 

“We took each web briefing and read it onto our telephone hotline in its entirety,” said Grant. 

Email

On the day before the storm hit, an email went out to parents with details of last-minute preparations. It alerted parents to regular postings on the website and offered information about Tulane’s Facebook page and Twitter address. But email did not turn out to be the most useful tool for the long haul. It was more cumbersome and time consuming in preparation than the web postings. Texting also turned out to have limited use because its restricted character count did not lend itself to detailed expla-nations. 

Twitter

Tulane’s secret communication weapon during the hurricane was its president and his Twitter feed (@TulaneScott). Even before the winds reached the height of their fury, President Scott Cowen was traveling the campus in his golf cart with crisis team members. He visited students in their dorms, listened to their issues, and let the world know how they were doing via text and photos. 

“We had used Twitter sparingly in the past,” Grant said. “But this time, it succeeded beyond our expectations. The president quickly gathered over 2,000 followers, in part because of the medium’s immediacy. It allowed his personality to come through.” 

The president’s hands-on, pro-active approach allowed him to create an emotional connection between the university and its stakeholders. Twitter was the right tool at the right time. 

Facebook

Beyond the president’s Twitter photos, the communication team was puzzled about what to do with the student photos and videos that were piling up. They opted for the University’s Facebook page. These photos became another visual symbol of the students’ resilience and good humor in the midst of the hot and smelly dorms. They were another sign that “everyone was ok.” Parents went looking for pictures of their own children. The University used the pictures to drive traffic to Facebook.

Lessons Learned

“We learned to post frequently,” said Grant. “And we learned to pay attention to feedback.” 

The team became adept at figuring out which message should go out on which medium. Photos don’t belong on the crisis page, Facebook was the perfect venue. The web emergency pages were the right place to post detailed descriptions of preparations and safety precautions. 

Interestingly, the first response the team got from stakeholders was from the students.

“It was a time of real uncertainty and the conversation got real very quickly,” noted Grant. “The immediacy of a crisis presents challenges. The complaints were stinging, but they gave us insights into what we’d missed.” For example, a broken window that hadn’t been fixed, and a breakfast delivery that was late. 

It’s difficult to deal publicly when things go wrong, so Grant tried to move those situations offline as quickly as possible, using email and phone to have conversations directly with those stakeholders. 

Strategies and Tips to Remember

In its crisis after-action meetings, Tulane has probably found holes in its response and things it would like to do better the next time, but the posts from parents and friends on the school website attest to the success they had. The University communication team scored the kind of communication coup in the face of danger that any school or district would envy. The key strategies and tactics:

• Multiple avenues — email, website, hotline, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, face-to-face conversations and meetings — offered stakeholders a choice of how to receive their news.

• Expectations were set before the storm. On the University’s standing crisis page are guidelines about what will be done in the event of a hurricane and explicit directions about what parents, students and staff should do to prepare for a storm.

• Emergency notices were updated regularly. Postings set expectations about the frequency of the communication, by ending each bulletin with a time when the next one would appear.

• Specific and detailed information calmed fears.

• Updateable FAQ sheets on the website served as a rumor-control mechanism.

• All outgoing messages contained the same themes:
  • The students are safe.
  • We have taken every precaution.
  • We are responding quickly and effectively to situations as they arise.

• Message dissemination included old-fashioned means of spreading the word, like conversations and meetings.

• Communication remained two-way. Parents and students responded on Twitter, Facebook and email. They were, by turns, funny, en-couraging, questioning and occasionally angry. It was a real conversation, and people felt in-cluded.

• Perhaps most importantly, when President Cowen Tweeted regularly from the dorms and sent pictures of his visits with students, he put a face on the crisis management effort. The paradox of today’s seemingly impersonal world is that our stakeholders are hungry for the human touch.

Once you have handled a school crisis of any magnitude, you understand how quickly public opinion can turn and how much more difficult it is to manage the crisis itself safely if you must also manage angry parents or neighbors. The Tulane University example shows us a way to create a team — a stakeholders’ team — that will support the leadership through the tumult. Technology and the new media are key members of that effort.

One Final Point — ‘Smaller’ and ‘Smarter’

One final point — the times are changing quickly, and the trend is toward smaller, smarter, more mobile devices. Families with little disposable income are buying smartphones, because for relatively little money, they can stay connected to the world. You need to be sure that they are connected to you.

Kitty Porterfield and Meg Carnes, APR, are partners in Porterfield & Carnes Communications in Washington, D.C. Each worked in school district PR positions for nearly 30 years. They have co-authored two books, “Why School Communication Matters” and “Why Social Media Matters…School Communication in the Digital Age.” Both can be purchased in NSPRA’s Online Store.