Social Media Lessons from Bin Laden Death Coverage

PETER SHANKMAN

POSTED ON May 2nd, 2011

16 COMMENTS

Like everyone else, I was glued to Twitter Sunday night, watching the news of the death of America’s #1 outlaw. I took away a few points from the entire event, and want to see if I can apply them to our social media and marketing lives below.

1) Get your facts straight before you report. Before POTUS actually came out, one major network was busy saying “This is about Libya. Qaddafi is dead,” over and over. When they found out it was about OBL, they started changing their tune, while the text on the bottom of the screen still talked about Libya. They looked foolish. When your company has a crisis, one voice rules the day. Make sure you know all your facts before you start broadcasting.

Obama? Really?

2) Being under a time crunch isn’t an excuse for misspellings or grammatical errors. Obama Bin Laden is dead? Yeah, enough said. Be smarter than that. Before you post, whether it’s a tweet, blog, Facebook post, or even bottom-of-screen, take a deep breath, and read the post BACKWARDS. By reading it backwards, your brain is forced to notice the words, as opposed to sentences. Misspelled words tend to get corrected much more often when read this way.

3) Speed still equals life. Fact is, the networks dropped the ball again, much like they did with Michael Jackson’s death. By the time all four nets got around to reporting it, the social net knew what was going on. Granted, the social net got the majority of first-responder information from CBS News Capitol Hill Producer, Jill Jackson, but it was a tweet – not a post from CBS News. Essentially, Jill trumped her own network. (I’m sure her bosses are thrilled with her today…) But the bigger issue is this: In the age of insta-posting, we need to be quiet until we’re ready to go. Assume that the second you tell one person, the whole world knows. If you’re about to break news about your company, the less people who know before you do, the better, end of story. If you happen to be dating a CBS News Producer, you also might want to make sure you don’t talk in your sleep, as well.

4) Timing matters. When the White House told all the pool journalists to return to the White House, the secret was still pretty safe. At 10:30pm, when POTUS was scheduled to go on, only a few people knew – The story broke at 10:32pm EST from aforementioned CBS News Producer. Had Obama taken the podium when he SAID he was going to, he could have beaten her and broken the news to millions more who wouldn’t have heard it yet. Lesson? Give yourself one more (or more) time than you actually need. Had he told the journalists to report an hour later, he might have beaten it when he took the podium at 11:30pm.

5) You never know who might be talking about you – Regardless of whether they know it, either! Meet Sohaib Athar, a computer geek who just happened to be living next door to Osama Bin Laden and tweeted out about some gunfire he happened to hear from his home. Oops. While we didn’t know who he was talking about, it was only a matter of time. How could this affect your company? Simply put, remember this: Someone is ALWAYS watching.

More comparisons? Let’s hear them!

http://eSeek3r.com Craig Desmarais

I strongly agree with all these points. It was crazy how the rush to get the info out lead to misleading a country for about a half hour and not even misleading them in proper grammar and spelling.

It would be better off for them to take their time and push out the quality stuff rather than having their viewers see them as being careless during a very serious event.
Michael Griffin

That’s why I was impressed with CNN’s coverage. While they were a bit self-congratulatory about their restraint – Wolf Blitzer even said, “The White House said we are doing an excellent job of not speculating. We have an idea of what it is… but don’t want to say yet.” – they didn’t immediately jump the gun and start guessing what it was.
Lisa Roden

If I might add to your great points, Peter…old news isn’t news. Many network outlets, semi-aware of the situation unfolding and desperate to capture our interest, chose to slap exciting headlines on stories that were basic rehashes old Bin Laden and 9/11 stories. The result was a waste of time for readers anxious for new information. IMHO, not a constructive way to foster loyal readership in future.
Jimmybuz

It’s hard to make comparisons about a military operation vs. Business but I agree that you need secrecy in one up-ing your competition what’s your take on the super-bowl 41halftiime show do you think it was just an excuse to fire people or not?
Ken Wilson

Poor fact checking, sloppy proof reading, bald-faced speculation and the rush to be first with the news is not an issue of social media. It’s an issue of the 24-hour, ‘always on’ news cycle.

Think back to the Oklahoma City bombing. All of the ‘news’ outlets, both cable and network, were reporting in the hours after the bombing that it was the work of ‘Middle East terrorists.’ How do I know? I heard ‘em. Think back to the Columbia and Challenger shuttle disasters. And Apollo 13. Once again, over zealous speculation in lieu of actual facts. Even the coverage of 9/11 was not immune.

I even remember the media’s first real foray into the 24 hour news cycle. The assassination of JFK. They got stuff wrong on that occasion as well.

Again, this is not about social media. This is about the rush to report, the need to be seen as first with the news and its perceived marketing advantage. Its also the result of the practical consideration of having to fill air time during the non-stop news cycle. Which is unfortunately done with speculation rather than actual reporting.

Until we solve these issues of the ‘always on’ media, to which social media is only an exacerbation, the points delineated in this article will continue to vex society.
http://www.oldmaidcatlady.com Lynn Thompson

I was watching Celebrity Apprentice when CBS cut in, but all they were saying was that the president was going to make an important announcement. Really? They had to cut off the end of the show (and of course it was no accident, since it was Trump’s show) when they had no real news to report? After a few minutes of that, I switched. Fox News was already reporting the real news by then, and once hearing it, I immediately jumped onto Twitter & Facebook to read the complete story and all the reaction. Spent the next 3 hours there!

It was on social media where I read about all the gaffes the MSM news outlets were making. They’re all so anxious to scoop all the others that they rush to air with half-baked stories full of misinformation. I suppose that’s what happens when you have so many news organizations competing with each other. The pressure of trying to get the story to air first makes them sloppy with the basics.

Good lessons to take away from the experience!
Pingback: Twitter reactions to bin Laden’s death unite social media users in worldwide … | Javier Elenes - Web Business Conversation
http://www.tamsinfoxdavies.com Tamsin Fox-Davies

This is a good roundup – especially with the additions already in the comments.

My extra point would be that social media amplifies and personifies the rumour mill. At the moment I’m visiting my Mum who has no TV. I got all my info on this from Twitter and BBC Radio 4.

So, my first-hand experience of this news was a combination of facts, speculation and fervant personal opinion that ‘real’ news outlets don’t release.

It takes a bit longer to sort through the facts Vs speculation to find out what’s actually happened.
http://dannybrown.me Danny Brown

I’d disagree with #3 – speed does not equal life. In fact, speed can equal death. Think of the citizen journalist who said Steve Jobs had had a heart attack. Apple shares bombed; the company could have been in deep crap; people could have lost their jobs; and that’s just for starters.

Given a choice between fast and factual, I’ll take factual every time. And that includes a typo.
Pingback: The Good, the Tasteless, and the Ugly of Reporting bin Laden’s Death | Strategic communications from the inside
http://kathybackus.wordpress.com/ kathy backus

Good points made Peter, all of them! One thought on your comment abt CBS News Capitol Reporter, Jill Jackson trumping her own network w/tweet abt news. Thinking that might be wrong perspective … instead of her bosses being mad at her for tweet, perhaps they should applaud her, after all she does represent the network & her tweet likely drove audience to CBS for more info, even if not the broadcast network, probably their website &/or social media feeds … all of which = audience & traffic, which is the holy grail in news media isn’t it though??

Nowadays, with social media playing such a major role in news delivery maybe news networks need to move away from thinking about being first to “break” story & more about best delivery of story through all of its news delivery resources!!!
http://www.mainelyseo.com/ Meg Stiffler

After spending about two and half minutes trying to figure out what POTUS meant… Knowing I have seen that acronym before… It finally dawned on me… I had to slowwwwwww down and think for a minute and that is exactly what should have happened last Sunday night. For starters, it seemed as if all the journalists I saw on air that evening were smashed! Sunday Funday got the best of them?! Maybe…. But by the time 11:30PM rolled around and POTUS showed his face, we realized how absolutely ridiculous the media is and is becoming. Everyone is trying soooooooo hard to be 1st that they aren’t being accurate. Obama and Osama… Yes… Very close similarity in spelling but COME ON… The media is making the US look worse than maybe it all really is?! By now everyone should know what happens when we assume…
http://www.brickmarketing.com/ Nick Stamoulis

Great points. Sometimes in the social media world there is pressure to be the first to report on something. However, if your facts are wrong you’ll just end up looking foolish.
http://www.marketingquotes.co.uk/public-relations/ dave

This is interesting; but I do not think it is just CNN – a few media channels here in the UK did similar mistakes – as you say haste = mistake.
Pingback: Really?… REALLY??!!?? | Technology for Moms - Learning Technology, Computer Repair and Internet Safety
http://seapointinternetmarketing.com Bill Cutrer

That was a great write up. I think this was my first news item where I relied on twitter vs traditional news outlet for information. Since that I’ve moved over to G+, and have watched a number of news items drop.

BOOK
PETER TO SPEAK

Want to hire me for your conference or event? I've spoken at events ranging from 10 to 2,500 people. Let's chat!

LET'S CHAT!

Want to stay up-to-date? Enter your email below to sign up for my newsletter. It is safe and you'll never get spammed.

Customer Service New Rules for a Social Media World - Buy on Amazon

Customer Service: New Rules for a Social Media World by Peter Shankman

VIEW ALL BOOKS BY PETER

TWITTER

Hey @United 1493 to LAX... I just pushed you out! Have a great flight! :) http://t.co/yMq0WjqZxU

FOLLOW PETER ON TWITTER