Views from the West – A blog about public relations & social media in the Rocky Mountains

What would you tell the executives of Freddie Mac to do if you were a consultant to them?

Now that they don’t have Newt Gingrich, they need help.

Here’s the story:  It’s being reported that the taxpayer-owned mortgage giant has placed large financial bets that pay off if homeowners stay trapped in expensive mortgages with interest rates well above current rates.  This runs against its charter which calls for the company to make home loans more accessible.

According to research we’ve done, the chief executive at Freddie Mac has not been available for interviews but he did post a blog on Jan. 31 to discuss the matter in which he said:

“Refinancing is Freddie Mac’s bread and butter in today’s marketplace. Mortgage refinances represented an estimated 78 percent of our single-family purchase volume in 2011 and 80 percent in 2009 and 2010. In the last three years, we refinanced about $930 billion in mortgages – helping nearly 4.3 million American families lower their payments or shorten their mortgage terms….”

The explanation goes on, but not once does Ed Haldeman, CEO of Freddie Mac ever acknowledge the ProPublica investigation or the media criticism his organization is getting.  Talk about ignoring a problem.

So the CEO probably isn’t listening to his public relations consultant or his public relations staff which is often the case when the CEO doesn’t address an obvious problem.  Maybe he’d listen to Newt.

Handling multiple crises at once is something we in public relations don’t talk about, because it rarely occurs. But it is occurring now with the Carnival Line and the wreck of the Costa Concordia. Here are the crises within the crisis:

• Many passengers lost their lives and several are still missing.
• There didn’t seem to be a set protocol for abandoning the ship.
• The captain gathered his belongings and left the ship long before the 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members were safely off.
• With a large amount of oil on board the ship, there is a great risk of an oil leak and subsequent environmental damage.
• Costa Concordia did not make an announcement on social media until the day after the accident. Communication on social media from Carnival stopped following the disaster “out of respect for the passengers.”
• The company announced reimbursement for the passengers and refund policies for future cruises. Then, released a slightly different statement on their company website, denying previous statements from a spokesperson.
• It’s a visual story because the ship is right there. Passengers have been interviewed. YouTube is alive with video of the ship.
• Be a resource for the media. Give social and traditional media additional images they can use. In this case, something other than the wrecked ship. Provide photos of search teams and environmental response teams removing oil.

The huge crisis, of course, is that the ship sank. Carnival’s reaction to this tragic accident has spiraled this crisis into a company downfall. What should a company do when they have several large crises within a huge crisis? Here are my recommendations for handling a multi-level crisis:

1. Separate each crisis and determine who the best spokesperson is for each. The person who is right for environmental discussions is not necessarily the person who should be talking about search operations.
2. Determine whether the crisis is severe enough to have the CEO as the senior spokesperson.
3. Develop key messages to be used in specific situations and overall messages for the overall crisis. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
4. Communicate regularly with the community through both social and traditional media.
5. Build trust by disclosing any new information right away.
6. Hold a daily briefing as long as necessary to avoid media speculation.
7. Create a daily blog to update all who are involved and interested.
8. Give social and traditional media additional images they can use. In this case, something other than the wrecked ship. Provide photos of search teams and environmental response teams removing oil.

We follow the latest news in your industry, so you don’t have to. On Tuesdays we shine the spotlight on the latest trends in the real estate industry.

Us Coloradoans consider ourselves lucky.  We have the beautiful Rocky Mountains serving as a backdrop to our landscape, 300 plus days a year of sunshine and now news that foreclosures are down 28 percent, while our state is expected to create more jobs than the rest of the nation, according to economic analysts the 2012 Business Economic Outlook from the University of Colorado at Boulder Leeds School of Business.

According to the State Division of Housing, foreclosures are down 28 percent, year-to-date in November.  The county with the largest decrease in foreclosures is Mesa (35 percent), while Denver foreclosure filings are down 32 percent.

Coupled with news that service providers in Colorado are expected to outpace other states in job creation, two of the biggest components of our state’s economy will addressed.  While we’re not out of the clear yet in this crummy economy, we’re clearly lucky.  At least luckier than most states.  Having the sunshine and mountains doesn’t hurt.

We follow the latest news in your industry, so you don’t have to. On Thursdays we shine the spotlight on the latest trends in senior PR, social media and marketing.

Baked or broiled fish retain Omega 3 and can help prevent Alzheimer’s, so says a study presented at the annual meeting of The Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Frying is out.

It’s hard to believe, but eating fish that’s prepared correctly can help prevent the loss of gray matter in individuals who ate fish at least twice a week. Gray matter volume is crucial to brain health. When it remains higher, brain health is being maintained. Decreases in gray matter volume indicate that brain cells are shrinking. The results showed an increase in cognition among people who ate baked or broiled fish.

The study says nothing of raw or canned fish, but I’m guessing they qualify as well. If we can help fight Alzheimer’s with diet, we need to do it.  Many people are afraid of cooking fish because they don’t know how to do it.  Baking is easy and delicious.  Get with it.

We follow the latest news in your industry, so you don’t have to. On Tuesdays we shine the spotlight on the latest trends in the real estate industry.

If there’s a glimmer of hope that can be taken from the current real estate market, it’s that new home sales increased in October 1.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted rate of 307,000 according to the Commerce Department.

Unfortunately, it’s less than half of the 700,000 that economists say must be sold to sustain a healthy housing market.  Just as unfortunate, the median sales price fell to its lowest level of the year, and the overall sales pace is trailing last year’s — the worst in half a century.

Did you know that each new home built creates an average of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in tax revenue, this according to the National Association of Home Builders.? These are compelling statistics, so let’s hope this trend of new home sales continues.  As long as median home prices are stagnant, this might be the only way to keep an otherwise sinking market afloat.

We follow the latest news in your industry, so you don’t have to. We shine the spotlight on the latest trends in healthcare PR, social media and marketing.

If you’re a senior and you are enrolled in a Medicare supplemental program, you’ll have been receiving many mailings about Medicare supplemental plans.  In Denver, we get a lot because there are so many health insurance companies who want the supplemental business.

They must make a lot of money from Medicare supplementary programs because they seem to spend quite a bit marketing them.  And then of course there is information from Medicare as well.  One postcard says that Part D drug coverage won’t rise in 2012, and premiums for Medicare Advantage plans will drop an average of 4%.  People who are in the Part D coverage gap will get a 50% discount on covered brand-name drugs.

So we all have some shopping and learning to do.  Better get on the ball Medicare open enrollment ends Dec. 7.

We follow the latest news in your industry, so you don’t have to. On Thursdays we shine the spotlight on the latest trends in senior PR, social media and marketing.

Geriatricians, that is.  Geriatricians are trained to treat older people, and as our population ages we’ll need more.  Geriatricians understand aging issues – effects of drugs in older people, changes in cognitive ability, mood, gait, continence and balance.  They are trained to treat seniors.

The Associated Press reports that doctors in medical school aren’t even trained on the basics of caring for seniors.  And only 56 percent of the first-year fellowship slots in geriatrics were filled last academic year.  AP says “the federal health care law includes a number of provisions to increase geriatric care.  Last year, under to law, 85 grants totaling $29.5 million funded geriatrics-training program for doctors, dentists, mental-health professional and other medical workers.”

But geriatricians don’t make as much money as other specialties, and there’s the rub.

We follow the latest news in your industry, so you don’t have to. Every Wednesday we shine the spotlight on the latest trends in public relations, marketing and social media in the clean technology industry.

On Monday, November 7, The Colorado Cleantech Industry announced the winners for its annual cleantech awards.  As we’ve noted before on our “Spotlight on Cleantech,” our state is making a name for itself in the cleantech world for its high concentration of cleantech jobs (number one in the nation per capita) and innovative companies and products (see Coolerado, for example).  This year’s award winners have certainly helped bring national attention to Colorado’s progressive cleantech movement.   They include:

• High Impact Cleantech Company of the Year: Gevo
• Breakout Cleantech Company of the Year: OPX Biotechnologies
• Emerging Cleantech Company of the Year: RavenBrick
• Colorado Cleantech Entrepreneur of the Year: Adrian Tuck, Tendril
• National Cleantech Leadership: National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• Political Advocate of the Year: The Honorable Cheri Gerou
• Governor’s Award for Excellence in Cleantech Leadership: Paul Nelson, Clean Range Ventures
• Cleantech Champion: Fort Collins Utilities

Congratulations are in order for these companies.  Thanks to their efforts, our state can hang its head high, knowing it’s and amongst the nation’s best when it comes to clean technology.

We follow the latest news in your industry, so you don’t have to. We shine the spotlight on the latest trends in healthcare PR, social media and marketing.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in March and make a decision by June to determine whether or not it is constitutional to require every citizen of the United State to have health insurance.

The arguments in favor of this health care requirement say it will force the system to accept all people whether they are ill or not and will cut health care costs.  This would require a big change for health insurance companies.

People who are against the stipulation say this is America and you can’t force people to do something they don’t want to do.  They say that health care is not a right.

It behooves us all to get educated on the major points of this issue and come to a conclusion given all the facts.  Go to http://www.healthcare.gov/law/full/index.html to read the affordable care act.

We follow the latest news in your industry, so you don’t have to. On Thursdays we shine the spotlight on the latest trends in senior PR, social media and marketing.

Most of us wish we were young again.  Going to my 50^th high school reunion this summer evoked some of those thoughts in me. But then this week I read an Associated Press story that said that gap of wealth between households headed by seniors 65 and older was 47 times greater than a household headed by someone 35 or younger.

Astonishing.

There are lots of reasons for this, most of them you can guess.  College loans, decrease in the value of homes, the job market and the current economy.  We get social security, they don’t.  We’ve been working and gathering assets longer than they have – that sort of thing.

I’m sorry for the young people, but I’m glad I’m not them.