MarthaTalks.com

As I was reading about the tactics followed by communication specialists for the effective communication during a crisis and more specifically about the role of blogs and web-sites, I was thinking of Martha Stewart’s case.

Martha Stewart has been the incontestable lifestyle icon for more than 25 years. She has founded the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. while she has signed a number of books on the domestic arts and entertaining. In 2005 she has been involved in a financial scandal and she has been imprisoned for several months.

Just hours after she was indicted, Martha Stewart communication team has launched MarthaTalks.com, a site aimed at presenting her side of the story to the publics, formulating a ground of support and repairing her reputation.

Since its introduction, more than six million people have visited this website and over 40,000 people have sent emails expressing their support. The immediate launch of the site provided Martha Stewart an excellent platform to express herself, where each of her statements was first carefully designed by her PR team and lawyers. Although checked in every detail, the side included a disclaimer that each note was a personal statement from Martha Steward and not issued by or on behalf of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. Once out of prison, Martha Stewart lapsed the domain name MarthaTalks.com and started the work for rebuilding her media empire.

The web is for sure an excellent PR tool during a crisis and it seems Martha Stewart made full use of it. But I have some considerations whether it was a correct action to take of from her communication strategy the Marthatalks.com after her release from jail, or as it was an established successful mean of personal communication with her fans, she should use it for uploading messages about her new activities!