Communication Crisis: Do social media change the game?

Written by: Johnny Nentev, 
Edited by: Matina Stamatiadou

Communication crisis can be defined as an unpredictable incident, which includes the name or the reputation of a company. In many cases, management tactics and their ways of handling such crisis prove to be insufficient. Thereby, there has to be a team and a well - organized effort that will take control of the situation, by planning and applying a communication strategy in order to avoid or minimize any possible harm for the company.

Better prepared than sorry!

There is no need to point out the fact that crisis occurs not only under unlucky circumstances, but also emerges as "attacks" from competitors or malicious people! Therefore, it is essential to be able to anticipate such occurs and it is more compelling than ever, for your company, to have a crisis communication plan. Follow the link to some incidents of crisis management: http://www.businessinsider.com/pr-disasters-crisis-management-2011-5?op=1

Form a team which consists of executive members of the company and start setting up your communication crisis plan. You should consider including the CEO of the company in the team; to communicate and cooperate with the PR manager & Legal department and make crucial decisions regarding the crisis. Train these people on how they should react when a crisis occurs and assign roles to them.

• Choose the spokesman carefully, making sure he or she is skilled and experienced for such a position.
• Always look for weaknesses or high risk areas within the company and try to fix issues that could cause problems in the long term.
• Often run brainstorming sessions about possible crisis and deal with worst-case scenarios to be as prepared as possible for a probable crisis. 

What about when crisis knocks on your door?

Let us assume that suddenly an "unwanted" event occurs bringing huge consequences to your business: 

Back in the old days, the respond team for crisis management would have taken action according to the plan for each role and public information officer would've gathered information for the incident, he or she would've drafted a press release and got prepared to answer questions from journalists. Then a press conference would've been scheduled, as it had been the main way for a company to respond to the media. Reporters would've captured the situation, they'd draft their reports and later news would have created so masses to be informed

Today, things have dramatically changed with the social media evolution.

Let's assume on more time that the same unpleasant event occurs today.  Do you think that people are going to be informed about the incident at the same way and that it would take the same time to do so? Of course, not! 

The reason is that everyone who has witnessed the event, is now capable of spreading information all around the web (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) and it happens instantly.

Now, when an event is taking place the eye-witnesses instantly share the incident with other people through the internet, Then the media get information from that sharing and serve it back to millions of people. That's also how the crisis respond team is gathering additional information about the incident. So, how is the communications team going to act under the pressure of social media?

Here are the 3 most important elements that the team should consider when acting: 

• Speed
• Engagement
• Rumor management

Communications team must respond immediately to assure the minimum level of company's damage and also prove to people that the team has the situation under control. At the same time social media research must be conducted and team must engage with the crowd's content as to show sensibility about the matter. Last but not least, rumor management is extremely important due to the existence of malicious people who will try and take advantage of the situation and harm the company, So be careful and respond immediately in order to prevent any harm. Social media has changed the way we perceive the world and must not treated just as an additional media channel. Communication managers should get acquainted with internet and social media because it is a powerful tool for managing communication matters.