Crisis Communication and Social Media

Hi all. Today I'm going to blog about crisis communication and the importance of incorporating social media into crisis communication.

Crisis communication is one of the public relations practitioners' job scope which designed to protect and maintain the reputation of an individual, company or an organization. 

Nowadays, social media acted as an portal for public relations practitioners to connect with their audiences. Other than connecting with audiences, public relations practitioner can also use social media in crisis communication for its' efficiency and speed of spreading information. 

However, there are some elements that we have to remember when using social media in crisis communication:

1) Honesty and Reliability 

Public relations practitioners must be honest to the public when facing the audience even it is only on the social media. Nowadays, social media acted as an important role in people's life. Many people rely on social media to get and spread information therefore we can see social media as important as seeing audiences face-to-face when solving crisis. 

2) Response within 24-hours information cycle

With the use of social media, it makes crisis communication an 24-hours job for public relations practitioners. Netizens practically never sleep. All complaints and negative comments are expected to be respond within 24 hours. The longer the complaints and negative comments are left unattended, the more dissatisfaction will be arise.

3) Do not take social media users as only casual users. 

Although many of the public uses social media as an recreation tool but there are some professionals who use social media as a source of news and information. For example, journalists use twitter as a portal to get news and information. Social media is a place where journalist and key influencers who amplify messages and it is a place where stakeholders find information. 

4) Internet and social media must be monitored

Unverified information spread from the social media can be harmful to an individual, company or an organization therefore a gatekeeper must be placed to monitor all the updates in social media. Gatekeeper can also know about audiences' complaints and negative comments in time and let the public relations practitioners to respond in-time to solve the crisis. 

Above are some of the element that we need to take note about when using social media in crisis communication. I shall see you in the next post. Bye. 

Steps and Elements of New Media Planning

This is a video where I talk about the steps and elements of New Media Planning. Enjoy. =) 

Handling Negative Online Feedback (Real Life Case Study)

Hey people, how has life been?

Remember I was talking about the "online" topic in the last 2 posts? Today, I'm going to talk about something similar. We will look into some real life example of how a company (or their online spokesperson) response to negative online feedback.

So, there was this case where a Chinese man went to Nando's at Gurney Plaza, Peneng to have his dinner but was told by the staffs there the seats are all reserved for the Malays to "buka-puasa".

Translation: 

Liu: "I reached Gurney (Plaza) Nando's at 6.30 pm and was told by the staff that all table was reserved for "buka-puasa". The Chinese only can enter the restaurant after 8 pm. Since when do we need to yield just to have our meal? This country is sick. I will not visit this restaurant anymore!!"

The man was so furious and immediately update a status on facebook to express his anger. The post went viral as he touches the sensitive racial issue. A lot of people shared this post and said that they had the same experience with Liu. Some of the people also suggested to boycott Nando's from business.

One of the facebook user shared this status to Nando's Malaysia offical facebook page, asking them to translate and understand what this status is about (the status was originally in mandarin character) and asked Nando's Malaysia does this implying that Nando's is being racist?

Nando's Malaysia replied to this post 2 hours later and explain that they have no intention to be racist or discrimination. Also, they explain patiently that there are actually a possibilities that all the table were booked as customers will need to walk in and pay for a deposit before confirming their booking.

Nando's Malaysia not only responded to the post on their facebook page, they responded on the original post (Liu's post) as well.

Tranlation:

Nando's:"Hi all, we are sorry to hear about this unpleasant experience of Mr. Liu's in our restaurant. Our staff was not clear the procedure of table-booking and triggered this misunderstanding to happen. Please allow us to explain our table-booking procedure during Ramadan month- anyone are welcomed to book a table in restaurant (not only the Msulim's). Guests will have to walk in to reserve their table. Also, to get the reserved table number, guests will have to pay an amount as a deposit to secure the table. Last but not least, guests will have to reach the restaurant 30 minutes before the reservation time. We sincerely hope this reply will clear up confusions about our table-booking procedure. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused. We hope you would continue to support our restaurant. Thank you. "

This reply is in mandarin, as Liu's primary language is mandarin, explaining that some of the staff was not clear about the procedure of table-booking, therefore triggered this misunderstanding. They then explained again in mandarin about the procedure of table-booking of the company and then apologized to Liu.

I personally thinks that Nando's Malaysia did quite a good job on handling this negative feedback on Facebook. First, they responded within a short period (within 24 hours), not only to the post that was posted on their official Facebook page, but also on the original post where Liu was expressing his dissatisfaction. Secondly, they apologized for the unpleasant experience of Liu in their restaurant outlet. Thirdly, they explain patiently about the procedure of table-booking on the Ramadan month to both Mr. Liu and the Facebook user who shared Mr. Liu's post on Nando's Malaysia's Facebook page.

If it was you who were appointed to make a response to this dissatisfaction of a customer, how would you react? Would you response in a total different way? Or would you respond just like how Nando's Malaysia did? Is the any space of improvement on how Nando's Malaysia should response? Come, tell me your answer! =D

Alright, this is all for today, see you in the next post!! ^__^

Criteria of a Good Online Spokesperson

This is Michelle Phan when she is the spokesperson of Lancome cosmetics.

Check out her Youtube channel too! --> Michelle Phan Youtube

See you next time. Bye! =D

Importance of Having Social Media Response Policies

Hey peepo, this is my first ever audio podcast in this blog. Pardon my English and ENJOY! LOL





This will be the photo for the "Applebee case-study".

The pastor wrote, "I give God 10%, why you get 18?"

And, this is a screenshot from Kitchenaid's twitter account. 

The quick and sincere response from the head of the brand is a good reference of the social media administrators. 

That is all for today. Signing off now. Goodnight. 

Company-linked App

Hi all. There is so many interesting movies screening in the cinema right now huh? I wish to have the time to go and watch all movies. Oh my god, all of them are like so attractive!!

Unfortunately, today I'm not here to talk about movies. I'm here to talk about the Golden Screen Cinema (GSC) cinema app in the mobile devices which I think it is pretty convenient. 

The icon on the center of the third role is the GSC Cinema mobile app. I had been using this app for quite some time and I'm quite liking the experience. 

GSC Cinema mobile app is own by Golden Screen Cinema Sdn Bhd. It is an application that brings convenient to users of GSC Cinema app especially when purchasing movie tickets. Users do not need to spend time queuing up to get their ticket, instead they can purchase their movie tickets through the GSC Cinema app. 

Not to forget, users can check showtimes of any screening movie too! After checking screening date and time of a movie, users will be lead to a page where it allows users to choose their preferable seat in the cinema hall. 

Users can easily check on the availability of seats through the app and secure their preferable seats in the cinema hall. 

After users had chosen their seats, users will be turn to the payment page. GSC app provide E-payment service which enable users to purchase their movie tickets using credit cards. There are a few method that you could choose to pay: Maybank M2U Mobile, PayPal, RHB Bank RHB Now, E-Voucher or Credit Card. 

The GSC app is frequently update and synchronize with the main website. Therefore, the users of the app can also enjoy the on-going promotion of the website too. 

It is obvious that the Golden Screen Cinema had put in a lot of effort to make this app as good as possible. I really do think that it is a good app to use for entertainment purposes. The user-friendly interface made it so easy for anyone to use this app. Even though it had a simple and clean interfae but it comes with so many functions for example e-transaction, checking movie showtimes, let the users well-informed on the on-going promotions and etc.

I'm definitely recommending this app to people who love movies just like I do. Opps, did I mentioned that I had been using this app for a few years already? Haha. Come on movie lovers, download the GSC app into your mobile device and start enjoying the conveniency that it will brings you. 

The GSC app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. Come and get your GSC app now !! =D 

New Role of New Media Communication

Hey guys, today we will talk about what is new role of new media communication. To understand this, we will have to understand what is PR executive, social media executive and webmaster and also understand the relationship between these 3 things.

So, first thing first. Who is a PR executive? Who is a Social Media Executive? Who is a Webmaster? What do all these people do?

PR Executive 

As we can see from the picture above, PR executive acted as a bridge between public and an organization. Their role are to defend reputation of an organization and also to promote the organization to the public. PR Executive would gain public attention through several PR plans and project (eg. campaign and news etc) to get appropriate exposure for the organization.


Social Media Executive

Here's a sneak peek of a Social Media Executive's daily schedule. Social Media Executive are those who will implement company's social marketing. They content strategy, develop brand awareness, generate inbound traffic and cultivate leads and sales. The Social Media Executives often attend Social Media, blogging and industry-specific conferences to ensure they get the latest social media updates, news and trends.

Webmaster

There are 7 Key Duties of  a Webmaster:- 
1) Maintain an inventory of advertisements and manage the ad server software.
2) Debug issues that arise with the performance of the website.
3) Interface for performance issues.
4) Troubleshoot the site.
5) Review statistics and monitor analytics.
6) Maintain responsive design.
7) Plan for future changes to the website.

So, after understanding what PR executive, Social Media executive and Webmaster do, we can easily see that there are few keywords that linked them together- INTERNET, SOCIAL MEDIA and PRESENT.

Being in the digital era, internet plays an important role in transmitting messages and staying updated to what is happening around us. Social media is one of the easiest and the fastest way to keep receiving updates and messages. Therefore PR executive, Social Media Executive and Webmaster could use social media as a platform to shape audiences perception, change audiences opinion and attitude towards a certain incident. This is a most efficient and economized way to use to reach the maximum exposure for an organization.

For example, creating a Facebook Page or a Twitter Official Account for an organization and constantly post updates to notify the audiences on promotions and news of the organization help to expose more of the organization to the public. Public will have higher chances to see the posts about the organization when they are scrolling through the social website. Also, staying interactive on the social website are important too as the audience would feel the sincerity of the organization and leave a good impression to the organization.

New Media Communication is all about shaping good impression to the organization among the audiences. Therefore, the hard work between PR executive, Social Media Executive and Webmaster are very important in order to keep things smooth.