Presentation on social media and crisis communications. Des Moines, IA (November 2012)

1. Karen Freberg, Ph.D.

2. Introduction
Karen Freberg, Ph.D. – University of
Louisville
 Education:
 Ph.D., Communications (University of
Tennessee)
 MA, Strategic Public Relations (University
of Southern California)
 BS, Public Relations (University of
Florida)
 Interests:
 Social media, Crisis Communications, and
PR
 Social Media:
 FB, LinkedIn, Twitter (@kfreberg), and
Pinterest
 Blog: www.karenfreberg.com/blog

3. So, what exactly is social
media?
Social media combines “a wide
range of online, word-of-mouth forums
including blogs, company sponsored
discussion boards and chat rooms,
consumer-to-consumer e-mail, consumer
product or service ratings websites and
forums, Internet discussion boards and
forums, microblogs” (Mangold & Faulds,
2009, p.358).
 Social media integrates technology &
social interaction with pictures, videos,
words, and audio.
 Allows people to share different
perspectives and sharing information /
stories / experiences among online
communities.

5. Social Media Stats for (2012) via
PR Daily & Ragan
Communications
 The average Facebook user has 130 friends.
 750 tweets per second are shared on Twitter.
 If Twitter was a country, it'd be the 12th largest in the
world.
 3 million new blogs come online every month.
 60 percent of bloggers are between 25 to 44 years
old.
 20 percent of bloggers have been blogging for more
than six years.
 More than 5 million images are uploaded every day on
Instagram.

8. Social Media & Crisis
Practices
“If communities depend on information for their survival
in times of crisis, then communication technologies are
their lifelines,”
(“New technologies in emergencies and conflicts report,”
2010, p. 4).
 Emerging technologies have allowed people to feel
they have more control over the crisis as well as more
connection to the community (Shklovski, Burke,
Kiesler, & Kraut, 2010).
 The speed of information sharing and the organic
creation of viral key terms and hashtags create new
challenges for risk and crisis communicators handling
uncertainty and credibility issues in reputation

9. Examples of Social Media
Crises
 Domino’s & YouTube Crisis (#disgustingdominos)
 Chile Mining Rescue (2010) – Statistics
 CDC & H1N1 Crisis (2009)
 Japanese Tsunami (2011)
 In 2012 alone
 Costa Concordia
 Penn State
 Henryville Tornadoes
 Aurora Colorado Shootings
 London 2012 Olympics (several cases)

10. Crises emerging w/research
 Penn State Crisis
 #Aurora Shootings in Colorado
 Hurricane Sandy

11. Social media platforms for
crisis
Traditional Emerging
• Blogs • Pinterest
• Facebook • Instagram
• Flickr • Social Games
• Twitter • Augmented Reality
• YouTube • Apps

12. Research Projects
1. Mobile Technologies and
Crisis Communications;
2. Intention to Comply with
Food Safety Messages
via Social Media;
3. Quantitative and
Qualitative Value Model
based on Social Media
Updates during
Hurricane Irene to
determine “good” crisis
message;

13. Overview
 Mobile devices (ex. smart phones
and tablets) equipped with social
media applications allow crisis
communicators the opportunity to
create, curate, and disseminate
information to impacted
stakeholders in a crisis.
 Information can be shared via visual
(photos and videos), textual (press
releases and statements) or
geolocation applications (updates and
crowdsourcing capabilities) to reduce
levels of uncertainty among risk
bearers.
 Traditional social media outlets for
crisis situations include Facebook,
Twitter, and YouTube.
 New emerging platforms and
specializations

14. 1. Mobile Technologies & Crisis
Communications (Palenchar & Freberg,
2012)
1. Key Role for Social 2. Institutional and 3. Build Trust over Time
Media during a Crisis Community through Community
Event – Leverage Social Infrastructural Barriers Outreach and
Media Content of New Media Collaborative Decision
Generators Technology Making
4. Internal and External
5. Transparency
Environmental Scanning

15. 2. Intention to Comply with Food Safety
Messages via Social Media (Freberg,
2012)
“The systematic study of effective [food] recall communications is in its
infancy,” - Hallman & Cuite, 2010, p. 24
 To remedy gaps in our understanding of social media and food safety crisis
communications, consumer intent to comply with a food safety message
was evaluated within the framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior
(TPB; Ajzen, 1991a, 1991b) through a 2x2 experimental design with four
scenarios (message source x reliability).

16. RESULTS
 Influence of Message Source
 Intention to comply with the food safety message was
greater when the message came from a professional
source than from a user-generated source, which is
consistent with the existing literature
 Message Reliability
 Confirmed and unconfirmed food safety messages had
equivalent effects on the intention to comply with a food
safety message.
 The reality that unconfirmed information carries the
same weight as official, confirmed information leaves
organizations vulnerable to rumor and
misunderstanding.
 Theory of Planned Behavior

17. 3. Value Modeling for Social Media Updates
during Hurricane Irene (Freberg, Saling,
Vidoloff, & Eosco, 2012)
 Measures are phrased in the form of objectives with a maximum or minimum value
assigned to them that indicates the optimal result (Parnell et al., 2011).
 A good qualitative value model is one that is “collectively exhaustive and mutually
exclusive,” meaning that it is as complete as possible without introducing redundancy.
 Figure displays the overall functional hierarchy of the system with function, subfunctions,
and qualitative value measures.

18. Method
 A total of 2,157 updates were collected from August 22 to
September 1, 2011 from the social media monitoring site Social
Mention during the time Hurricane Irene hit the East Coast of
the United States.
 Data was collected and downloaded into CSV files for analysis.
 Scale items were incorporated into model based on previous
crisis communication and social media literature
 Integration of qualitative and quantitative value modeling
techniques
 A set of best practices and propose a simple baseline model for
what comprises a “good” crisis message, using the collected
Hurricane Irene data as a proof-of-concept model.
Review of the Formulate Scale Qualitative Value Quantitative
Academic Best
Items Model Value Model Practices
Literature

19. Quantitative Value Model
Functions: Value question Scale/Values:
F01 Communicate Quickly
Max comm speed VM01_1 Quick and honest response? High quality and quick 10 Medium quality and quick 5 Low quality and quick 2 High quality and slow
Max value of comm VM01_2 Reporter present on ground during crisis? On site 10 At agency 8 Not local 5
Functions: Value question
F02 Be Credible
Max credibility scale VM02_1 Internal or external crisis origin? Internal origin 10 External origin 8
VM02_2 Attribution of crisis responsibility? Good crisis responsibility response 10 Medium crisis resp. response 5 Bad crisis responsibility response 0
VM02_3 History of similar crises? No history 10 One event 8 Two events 6 Three or more events
VM02_4 Level of consistency? High rating 10 Medium rating 5 Low rating 0
VM02_5 Traditional media outlet? News personality 7 News agency 8 Government agency 10 Other
Functions: Value question
F03 Be Accurate
Max accuracy scale VM03_1 Presence of topical keywords? 10+ words with references (hashtag) 10 5-9 words with references 8 1-4 words with references 5 No references
VM03_2 Real time monitoring links, graphics etc? Link to updates + good graphic 10 Link to updates + graphic 8 Link to static info + good graphic 7 Link only
Functions: Value question
F04 Be Simple
Max value of comm VM04_1 Conversational/"real" voice? High conversational rating 10 Medium conversational rating 5 Low conversational rating 0
Functions: Value question
F05 Be Complete
Max # of resources VM05_1 Info about safety given? Good info + link to updates 10 Info only 7 No info 0
VM05_2 Info about sources of relief? Good info + link to updates 10 Info only 7 No info 0
Link to facebook
VM05_3 Secondary messages in different medium? Link to video 8 Link to website 10 Link to Twitter account 8 account
VM05_4 Relevant response and rescue user data? High relevance 10 Medium relevance 5 Low relevance 0
Functions: Value question
F06 Communicate Broadly
Max follow/RT VM06_1 Presence of hashtag? Yes 10 No 0
VM06_2 Presence of URL? Yes 10 No 0
VM06_3 Ability to forward message during crisis? Twitter Retweet option 10 Facebook share option 10

20. Best Messages

21.  What are the best practices to effectively
communicate via social media in a crisis
situation?
 Integrating multimedia and links into updates.
 Proper use of hashtags and tagged keywords.
 Coordinating efforts with relative parties and
agencies in crisis with social media messages and
hashtags.
 Focus messages on self efficacy, safety, and
provide additional resources of information
 Communicate in a transparent manner and have a
“real voice.”
 Balance between official and conversational
updates in crisis.

22.  Provide updates educating how followers and
others should communicate needs and questions
to authorities (ex. Project EPIC and Tweak the
Tweet application)
 Several of the updates had hashtags associated
with them that was related to the Hurricane Irene
crisis
 Majority had links associated with update (ex.
photos, news articles, videos, etc)
 Link that was most popular was to YouTube
videos.
 Messages concerning safety, confirmed
information, and including credible Twitter
usernames in crisis (ex. Weather Channel)

25. Hurricane Sandy on Instagram

26. Measurement & Social Media
 Social media dashboards
 Hootsuite (Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn, Mixi, Google+)
 Bottlenose (free platform)
 Radian 6 & Cision (paid
services)
 Kyoo & Esri (SM +
Geolocation)
 Search Engines for Social
Media
 Social Mention (Twitter, Flickr,
Facebook, YouTube,
StumpleUpon, Friendsfeed,
etc)
 Topsy (Google+ and Twitter)

27. Topsy (Twitter & Google+)

28. Bottlenose

29. Best Practices with Social
Media
 Integrate social media practices as part of the daily
routine – like checking what is going on in the news or email.
 Connecting with people online (establishing relationships)
BEFORE a crisis occurs.
 Creating an engaging dialogue through an online
channel. Opportunity to share experiences, stories, and real-
time information relevant to audiences.
 Being consistent with content across all social media
platforms as well in traditional media outlets.
 Social media is not for the short term – it is a long-term
process and investment.
 Educate your organization & community about social media.

30.  Monitor and evaluate conversations across
social media platforms.
 Prepare a an evolving social media policy for
training, education, and run scenarios /
simulations in real-time.
 Manage relationships proactively - Be helpful
and bring value to the conversation and
relationship.
 Have proactive online reputation management
practices.
 Integrate conversations across platforms and
understand emerging trends. Information
during crises has to be consistent across media
channels and formatted to be presented though

31. Resources for Social Media &
Crisis
 Social Media Sites
 Mashable: http://www.mashable.com
 Social Media Influence: http://www.socialmediainfluence.com
 Gerald Baron (Crisis): http://ww2.crisisblogger.com/
 Melissa Agnes: http://www.melissaagnes.com
 Kim Stephens: www.idisaster.wordpress.com
 Government Social Media Resources
 Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Social Media:
http://www.cdc.gov/socialmedia/
 Department of Defense Social Media Guides: http://socialmedia.defense.gov/learning-
and-resources/training/social-media-guides/
 US Navy Social Media Handbook: http://www.slideshare.net/USNavySocialMedia/navy-
command-social-media-handbook-web
 US Navy Social Media Guidebook: http://www.slideshare.net/Harbingyr/navy-social-
media-guide
 New Media & the Air Force: www.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-090406-036.pdf
 Red Cross Social Media & Disasters online surveycommunications-in-social-media-
are-you-ready.html