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.