Slides for luncheon presentation, "Best Practices Every Communicator Should Learn from Ebola," at the March 2016 meeting of the Georgia chapter of PRSA

1. Best Practices Every
Communicator Should
Learn from Ebola
Wendy Darling
Communications Manager
Health Sciences Communications
Emory University

2. It’s Not Business As Usual
From a social media (SM) perspective:
■ Our normal way of doing business was not
appropriate to a crisis.
■ Re-organized with new process for proposing SM posts, seeking
& getting approval.
■ Started communicating in cross-organizational team in a way
we never had before.
■ Working relationships lasted beyond the crisis.

3. Keep to Message
SM had to become a seamless part of the overall strategy
■ SM team had to keep to message; no going off on its own
■ SM team required to check in with higher-ups when delivering
new posts, using new process
■ SM messages had to match tone of overall communications
■ At the same time, SM team had to do this while keeping it brief
and dealing with fact that on SM people talk back to you

4. Dealing with Nasty Comments
SM monitoring turned up nasty comments, attacks &
conversations, especially on our Facebook pages
Generally we let comments remain up on Facebook except in these
cases:
1. ad hominem attacks
2. foul language
3. privacy violations
4. totally off-topic
We didn’t silence detractors across the board, but enforced civility.

5. Don’t Share Links Indiscriminately
As SM specialists we had impulse to want to share
outside links like media coverage, but…
■ Our media relations team was working with dozens and dozens of
outlets and many were following our SM. How would it look to
favor one or a handful of news outlets by sharing their coverage?
■ When our SM did share outside media coverage, it was usually at
direction communications team heads or Emory leadership.
■ If we saw an article, video, image or tweet we thought would be
good to share, we sought approval to do so – as with any “new”
post.

6. Use of Strong Images & Video
In all of our communications, we found strong images &
video were just as import as any words written or spoken
■ Video of our doctors and patients, speaking at press conferences
■ Staff photographer delivered many great shots of doctors,
researchers, nurses, the isolation unit, etc.
■ Videos produced according to demand we saw by media;
example: inside the hospital isolation unit
■ Our magazines commissioned 3D virus images, renderings of
isolation unit, and other illustrations that explained and educated
■ Use of photos on SM increases share & click-through rates

7. Lose Your Ego
In time of crisis, egos do nobody any good, so remember:
■ Consider what idea is the one that seems like the winner, not who came up with it
■ Be prepared to do things that aren’t glamorous but must be done
■ When everybody is really busy, you might not get thanked right away
Your organization’s ego may also need checking in time of crisis:
■ Emory was very careful not to use Ebola as a “selling” point, a brag, or a boasting point,
or to use patients as marketing tool
■ Be factual about what you’re doing, rather than boastful; tone matters

8. Importance of Having the Right People
Our team happened to have to right people at the right time,
including a social media manager:
■ Emory University’s social media (SM) manager was new to the job
■ Prior experience working at CNN had her used to working in breaking news
(equivalent in crisis communications) and thinking, working fast
■ Immediately had a grasp how big a deal it was, the massive media attention, and
was able to monitor not only conventional “media” but all kinds of SM
■ Respected the chain of leadership when it came to waiting on approvals on what to
post on SM, even down to RTs – even though it went against “business as usual”
■ Somebody with a more casual attitude, who only knew how to handle “fun” topics,
who couldn’t be serious, would not have worked

9. Be Excellent to Each Another
Remember, you’re all going to have to
work with one another after it’s over, so….
■ Help one another out!
■ Try to see things from the other
person’s point of view.
■ Say “Thank you!” and give credit –
even for small stuff.
■ Apologize when you’re wrong.
■ Go grab drinks.