The Story

Someone has been having a lot of fun mocking BP and the oil spill disaster.  Posing as BP Public Relations, the writer has over 180,000 followers as of July 2010 (compared to BP's real Twitter page, which has only 16,000). 

Source: http://twitter.com/bpglobalpr

Discussion Starters

• How do these tweets affect BP's credibility and its own efforts to manage its reputation?
• Can BP stop this Twitterer?  If not, should the company respond in some way?  What are the risks of responding? 
• How can BP use its own social networking presence to combat this site? 

Assignment Ideas

• Address the fake Twitter account.  Decide whether you'll write a public news release, write an article for the BP web site, create a video, or respond in some other way.  Produce your response.
• Write a recommendation report to BP's lead Twitterer with your analysis of the company's real Twitter page.  First, research how to use Twitter successfully.  You might look at online articles to start.  Next, plan, draft, and revise your report to reflect your analysis: what works well, and what would you suggest the Twitterer change?
• Write a few new tweets for BP's real Twitter page.  How would you communicate with people during this crisis?