In an article posted on Mashable.com Jolie O’Dell talks about how interest in the spill is continuing to wain (except a recent three day spike when the trial cap was placed and the flow stopped) in public interest. A Trendistic review of the past month shows that tweets on the subject of the spill have decreased 0.1% of total tweets to 0.05%.

Searches on Google over the last three and a half months show a peak of over 7.5% of the search volume index in June declining to under 2.5% currently. Even bloggers are starting to lose interest. Nielsen’s BlogPulse is stating that there was a 0.25% decrease in the total number of blog postings regarding this subject, making it around 0.16% of all posts.

	Oil spill shutters part of Houston Ship Channel Houston Chronicle – Sep 28 2009
	Report into oil spill ‘rushed’: Greens WA today – Oct 31 2009
	Oil spill in Texas waterway contained National Nine News – Jan 24 2010
	Gulf Coast oil spill comes ashore Newsday (subscription) – Apr 30 2010
	Gulf oil spill swells to 4m gallons Stuff.co.nz – May 11 2010
	Obama vows to ‘fight’ BP oil spill Aljazeera.net – Jun 16 2010

Sadly it does look like we are losing interest in this spill, and that means that the media will soon follow suit and decrease coverage. This means that the organization that will continue to supply images and video footage to the masses will be, you guessed it, BP.

This is my last graded post on this blog. Throughout the course of this project I have learned a wealth of information on how social media is utilized by organizations related to the Oil and Natural Gas Industy. In addition to this I has also had the priveledge of reviewing the sites of my piers. Thank you Renee & Melinda for your comments and for posting excellent articles.

It’s all over so we can start joking about it now, right? Well, as the news circulates about the temporary stemming of the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, elite gudz, a self described Design Studio Specializing in Creative Production and Consulting have launched an app named Plug the BP Oil Spill.

This simple app is a fun piece of work that brings entertainment to an otherwise extremely serious issue. But be careful, if you lift your finger, oil will start rushing into the Gulf again. While this may seem trivial, even insensitive, the app does actually have a saving grace hidden up it’s sleeve.

Users are given the opportunity to make donations towards organizations that are assisting the clean up efforts in the Gulf and with ecology efforts worldwide.

While this app may seem trivial I think it raises a good point on generating awareness and fundraising in a digital age. By allowing people to download a free app to their iPhone or iPod the developer gets their foot in the door with a consumer. They in turn feel they are getting value for money and a bit of fun from a free app that could potentially go viral. The developer is then able to push a message of contributing to environmental groups, after the user themselves has felt like they have been able too make a difference to a horrible situation.

A quick search of the iTunes store for the string “BP Oil” sixteen apps related to the spill ranging from “Oil Spill Locator” through to a game called “Duck vs BP“

What do you think? Is it being too flippant with a serious issue or are they hitting the nail on the head?

There has been an eruption of updates made on social media sites including Twitter and Facebook. The bizarre thing is that these updates are being made by individuals and media outlets however yet again BP is lagging behind everyone! The BP Gulf of Mexico Response website, YouTube channel, and Facebook pages have no news except that the well capping project has commenced.

I am baffled that on CNN.com the BP COO is briefing reporters yet the company’s, online presence is not saying anything. Perhaps they are thinking that they can just rely on the public to publish this event for them by sharing information. Most of the tweets I have seen are happy ones.

Even though this is a temporary test to evaluate the fundimental integrity of the well, this is the first time that BP has stopped the flow since April 20th. This is surely a time for at least promoting the effort. I am not suggesting anything like the 2003 “Mission Accomplished” fiasco, however there should certainly be some positive spin being laid out on BP’s behalf.

BP’s media machine has been on full charge recently, however it strikes me that they are failing to exploit a critical moment in the time line of this disaster.

In one of probably his biggest political gaffs of his career, Rep. Joe Barton apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayward for what he called a shakedown, referencing the $20 Billion fund set aside to compensate people affected by the BP spill. The events of June 17, 2010 saw GOP strategists and politican’s alike trying to distance themselves from the statement in an arena increasingly hostile to Big Oil. You have to wonder if the $1.3 Million the members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee has clouded their judgment.

One of the sites that popped up after this issue, is BPRepublicans.com. This site has been created by the Democratic National Committee to highlight their opponents who are sympathetic to Big Oil. Currently their main target is Sen. Sharron Angle and her recent comments about a BP slush fund. The site features embedded audio from a recent video and links to share on Facebook and Twitter as well as an email to friend option. Users also have the option to download a pdf poster.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this is exclusively a GOP issue, in fact both sides of the political spectrum receive donations from the Energy Industry, however, in a time where either side is desperately trying to score points over one another, it seems that Big Oil could be a major election issue for the impending November elections.

We saw in the previous Presidential election an explosion in the use of social media to spread the word of either candidate, this year I feel social media will be utilized to distance politician’s from the “tar” in their wallets. With the ease of which views and opinions can be shared, events such as Barton’s gaff quickly go viral and spread like wildfire.

As a result there has been a boom in sites seeking to disprove the movie which mainy seeks to raise awareness of our energy policies and the lack or research carried out on this issue. Here are some of the details of some of these sites.

NaturalGas.org – a smart URL choice. It sounds like it should belong to a non-profit organization that researches and covers the Natural Gas industry. It came up as the first result in a Google search for “is natural gas clean?” so it would make sense that this was a consumer affairs or advocacy group, right? Well you would be very wrong.

The page that you are directed to features benefits of Natural gas and starts the commentary with a statement of “Natural gas is as a clean burning fuel; its combustion emits fewer pollutants into the atmosphere than other fossil fuels”. So to just get that straight it is a clean burning fuel however it still emits pollutants?! Interesting. So my next port of call was to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, just in case I was missing something.

Nope, apparently I am not missing anything in the English language. However there is an alternate language, that despite it not being part of our everyday language, it is perfectly legal and it seems, acceptable to use. That is, the world of industrial terminology. Princeton’s wordnet application defines clean energy as:

As you drill down into the site you start to notice that this is actually a website maintained by the Natural Gas Supply Association, a trade organization that represents these organizations.

A second spin off from this site is Energy in Depth. Dealing specifically with the issues raised by Gasland, this is a is very well produced, high quality website. Again this site is operated by “America’s natural gas and oil producers“. With links to Twitter, Facebook and SMS messaging this certainly looks like a credible site.

What I am trying to get to here, is that it is all to easy to take what you read online as gospel. No matter what site of the fence you are sat on, or even if you are still on the fence, always check the credibility of sites.

The final site is GoMarcellusShalle.com, a community site of “all people, companies & Places related to Marcellus Shale” it has an industry bias and is filled predominantly with opinion rather than that scientific fact.

If Gasland is to be believed then there are serious questions that need to be answered before this nation embraces yet another fossil fuel as the way of the future.

Josh Bernoff recently wrote a post in Advertising Age regarding how BP was now in a position where any public relations or brand rehabilitation that they conduct would be pointless. The role of the public relations department is now to factually describe what they are doing to fix the situation and to make sure the public receives that message.

An example of the mocking of BP’s response (contains expletive during final ten seconds)

Recently they have started to become the butt of extreme online critism, jokes and mock accounts, like that of Blogger Leroy Stick and “his” titter account @BPGlobalPR. Started a month after the spill, Sticks blog states it was created as a response to the “No solutions, no urgency, no sincerity, no nothing” attitude provided by BP. To date he has 185,000 followers.

BP could have asked Twitter to delete the account, however the fallout created by such a move could have been disastrous. Instead they reviewed the Twitter’s terms and conditions (namely it’s impersonation policy) and in a more astute move, requested that Twitter ensure the user follow these by clearly stating they are a parody site. On June 08, 2010 @BPGlobalPR‘s bio was amended to read “We are not associated with Beyond Petroleum, the company that has been destroying the Gulf of Mexico for 50 days.”

While BP continues to disseminate information on the spill through official tweets, news feeds, YouTube channels and Facebook pages, it is distinctly lacking in engaging the constituent on a two way basis. The question remains, are they making the right decision in staying silent while facing a barrage of criticism?

In an industry that is seeing an increasingly aging work force retiring with decades of knowledge, two thirds of professionals are looking to social media as a work colaboration and productivity improvement device. Over a quarter state that they believe social media can reduce travel expenditure.

Sadly, despite this willingness of the workforce to embrace new media technologies, industry is hesitant to embrace these new workplace mediums. The most common barrier to implementation of these solutions is concerns over their security and how good they will be at maintain a secure environment to share information.

As the chart below demonstrates, three quarters of surveyed corporations have issued guidelines on correct usage of social media however almost the same number have not implemented any training programs on how to effectively exploit these resources.

The conclusions are clear, oil and natural gas corporations need to embrace social media to see both strategic and tactical benefits:

• Lowered costs
• Improved efficiency
• Increase knowledge and skills
• Improved professional development

Due to the international nature of this industry, corporations should be happy to engage these new avenues of day to day work, secure and viable platforms already exist and are being utilized by other industries, some with great success.

I recent weeks BP has gone on the offensive, utilizing YouTube, Twitter, Flickr and Facebook to push it’s message. I say push, because a rather strange move, BP has disabled commenting on its Facebook and Flickr pages. I feel that this is a mistake on their behalf as it makes these highly crafted messages seem more like a disingenuous corporate statements being pushed on the BP constituents. To engage the consumer in a genuine online relationship requires honesty and openness. While many people are angry (a quick look at the comments on the YouTube channel makes that clear) this is essential to engagment.

While BP may certainly be exposing itself to criticism, it needs to realize that to start winning over the public they need an open and frank conversation about the situation in the Gulf and how they are going to proceed in the future.

A simple search of Google for the string “Gulf Oil Disaster” brings up BP’s Gulf of Mexico Response subsite, a site devoted to BP’s response to this situation. According to a recent AdWeek article entitled “BP Gets Aggressive” this site is pushing the edge of social media standards feeding into all of the above mentioned platforms with updates on a frequent basis. While the article argues that some may point out that this concerted effort is a waste of funds, the jury is still out on how effective this PR campaign will be. This is clearly a learning curve for BP and they have been criticized across the board from journalists to the president for the $50million it spent on advertising getting its “apology” message rolling.

BP CEO Tony Hayward’s apology video

The message that is being pushed is certainly well planned and crafted. They feature high quality production and feel good stories. Each video serves to strengthen the message that things are being done to solve the problems, be it releasing birds back into the wild or  Louisiana native Darryl Willis who states he volunteered to take the claims processor lead position because he cared. The message that also frequently appears is that BP will be there until the situation is fixed.

BP comments on a daily subsea operational update how much it is capturing from the broken well but omits how much is still leaking in comparison. While it will take a long term strategy to turn around the public opinion of BP’s handling of this disaster which substantially favors media outlets reporting over BP’s or the Feds, they must engage their constituents more fully to assist in this communications clean-up.

Not only will you be able to avoid future barbecue faux pas but it also features a handy retailer locator based on your current position, grill timer and for those with outdoor cooking obsessions, a grilling log.

Hats off to Blue Rhino for coming up with this novel App. Whilst the disclaimer at the bottom of the settings screen may allude to the accuracy of the App, I am sure this will help to bolster brand loyalty with the more techno savy consumer.

With 78% of iPhone users earning $50k+ per year this is a good group of consumers to latch on to. With higher disposable incomes they are more likely to be in a situation to purchase a second gas canister to ensure their cookouts run smoothly, and maintain loyalty with products that make their lives easier. This is a far cry from the stereotyped and backward Strickland Propane Company featured in the animated comedy King of the Hill.

Founded in 1994 Blue Rhino also has presences on Facebook and Twitter, usually updating their status’ once or twice a week, more frequently around holidays. Whilst they aren’t powerhouses of social media, this is certainly a step in the right direction for a company that claims to be behind 1/2 Billion cookouts annually.