Using a blog to communicate during Hurricane Katrina at State Farm

One of the largest insurance companies in the US and Canada, State Farm markets its products through its 16,000 agents. The southern zone of State Farm handles all operational aspects of the company's operation for Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. It has more than 4,800 associates, including 3,400 employees and 1,400 independent contract agents. The zone is also home to around 3,500 independent contractor agents who serve in sales and service roles for agents.

A close-knit community

When Hurricane Katrina came ashore on August 29, 2005, like always, State Farm had its business challenges: we had to deliver on the promise we made to our customers, but we also had to ensure the safety of our associates. Striking the right balance between these competing priorities is critical in the early stages of a catastrophe.

As the communications manager for the zone, my job is to support our executive office for the southern zone. I also manage a team responsible for the zone intranet site, monthly print magazine and all other electronic communications (i.e., mass e-mail).

State Farm has a unique culture. Although we have 79,000 employees and 16,000 agents countrywide, it's more like a family than a Fortune 100 company. With primarily a "promote from within philosophy" and with an unmatched employee retention record, employees from all areas of the country cross paths frequently and maintain those relationships.

A situation without parallel

But Katrina presented an unprecedented challenge: the methods of communication that we've come to rely on - landlines, cell phones, e-mail, etc. - were simply not available.

Fast forward to the day after the storm, when we slowly began to hear from associates who were safe. Then the unimaginable - more than 27 associates (agents and employees) were unaccounted for. While the information coming in from our field executives was sketchy, we believed that many of these associates made the decision to "ride the storm out" at their homes along the Gulf Coast.

On viewing the destruction, our executives were understandably concerned about the safety of our agents and employees. Although this wasn't just a communications issue, I had to think about what could be done.

The Archimedes moment

On the second day following the storm, a light bulb went off in my head. About a month previously, I had attended an annual meeting of zone communicators at our corporate headquarters. We'd discussed the use of blogs and they'd said that we had 20 blogs available for testing by the different zones.

I remember thinking how some associates may have heard from fellow State Farmers, but the message may not have made it to the proper people due to the inability to communicate through the usual channels. Reports from the field that some limited text messaging was possible increased the likelihood that this was the case. But time was running out since many of them would not have the electricity for much longer to keep their cellphone batteries charged.

Getting the bosses on board

Since I'm housed in the office with the zone's executive team, I walked over on August 31 and told them about my plans to initiate a blog. While their knowledge of blogs was limited, they didn't object. I advised them that this would allow associates an outlet to share stories, etc. However, I intuitively felt that it could accomplish more than that.

I made a call on the morning of August 31 and advised my corporate partners of my desire to set up a blog. After understanding what we were trying to accomplish, they quickly put the wheels into motion and it was setup and ready to go by lunchtime. I posted my first message as the "blogger" at 12:52pm and provided a link from our zone intranet site to the blog later that day. The next morning at 1 lam we distributed a mass e-mail to associates advising them that the blog was launched. We provided a brief description of a blog and how to use it.

Slogging saves the day

The most surprising point was that 27 employees located the blog from our zone hurricane website (this site provided pertinent information concerning the storm) before the distribution of the mass e-mail. In the first week of September 6, more than 1,550 associates had logged onto the blog.

The original blog message asked people to say if they'd heard from other people along the Gulf Coast. Incidentally, we heard about several of our associates who were previously unaccounted for, that they were safe and already assisting customers along the Gulf Coast.

I immediately provided this information to my zone executives and they decided to post the names of missing associates on the blog. We discussed the pros and cons of doing so - we could find out that an associate had died - however, ultimately it was decided that the likelihood of associates posting such information was small and, more importantly, it was worth the risk and peace of mind.

We then sent a note listing 27 associates that were unaccounted for. By the end-of-September 1, the "unaccounted for" list decreased from 27 to 19. Two days later, it was down to nine. All associates were accounted for by September 4. Of the 27 associates, 22 were accounted for using the blog. All 154 messages were posted by associates.

The challenges faced

Whenever you try something new there's good and bad, both success and challenges. These are the greatest challenges we faced:

* Education - we didn't have an opportunity to educate associates on how to use the blog. Therefore, we did have some challenges with them following the "strings" of posts. It became somewhat confusing to know where to pick up on a conversation that previously took place.

* Management perception - due to the limited knowledge of blogs, some managers didn't initially see the value. They were focused on assisting our customers.

* Sharing cross-zone information - because of the family atmosphere of State Farm, associates from other zones such as Central (Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri) were posting messages attempting to learn about people in areas such as New Orleans. We provided this information to communicators in that zone and they decided to launch a "controlled blog." In other words, they didn't allow the posts to go directly to the blog - they reviewed posts before to adding them to the blog. We decided against this approach to maintain an integral employee voice. It was a risk, but it paid off.

Keys to success

The following provides an overview of the keys to this being a successful venture:

*Executive support - their willingness to accept my counsel was of vital importance.

*Risk taking - taking a calculated risk to post names of associates was critical. However, our executives believed it worth the risk.

*Corporate support - timing was everything: our corporate partners provided swift support and creation of the blog.

*Consistent blogging - as the blogger, I had to facilitate conversation through continuous blogging.

*Quick kill date - a blog was posted on September 21, once traffic decreased, that the blog seems to have served its purpose and that we would not post another message unless it was needed. I believe this maintained the integrity of the blog for the future. In other words, we didn't try to make it work for something it wasn't designed to do.

* CONTACT

LEWIS PRYOR

* lewis.pryor.qtq9@statefarm.com

* MORE INFORMATION

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