The BP spill was one of the first instances in which companies were forced to contend with the power of social media – and in which people realized the potential of the tools at their disposal. Like most companies at the time, BP was accustomed to communicating with traditional seats of power – the White House, the Kremlin, and so on – and to doing so via traditional modes of communication, such as briefing carefully selected journalists and distributing precisely worded press releases.