This document discusses crisis communication strategies on social media. It provides two case studies: a natural disaster at Weber State University during high winds, and a personal crisis when a Snowbasin employee posted inappropriate content online. For the windstorm, the university initially posted vague safety messages but later provided more details and response to comments as the crisis evolved. For the Snowbasin incident, the key lessons were to educate employees on social media, address problems openly and help move on from the issue. The document also offers best practices for engaging audiences on Facebook through varied high-quality content and response.

1. CRISIS COMM IN SM
PR and Social Media
Weber State University
Jon McBride
EH 306

2. What we’ll cover
• Crisis Communication Intro
• Windgate at Weber – natural disaster
• Snowbasin Staffer Snafu – personal disaster
• Things We Learned
• Random Other Things to Talk About
• WSU SM engagement
• WSU SM beefy analytics

3. Crisis Communications
• In Public Relations, what kind of crises require us to come
up with strategic communication?

4. Crisis Communication
• Historically, media relations may have been your most
important medium in crisis comm
• Today, the media are getting their information from SM
channels
• The challenge is to get out and mold the message before
somebody else does

5. Let’s learn by examples
• Windy, windy Weber …
• 7 a.m.: Woke up to 50 MPH winds, didn’t have a message
from WSU so came to work, parked in a place where I
hoped my car wouldn’t get totaled by some flying object
• 8 a.m.: got to my desk, first thing (like usual) checked the
WSU FB page …

7. Windy, Windy Weber
• Not bad, just a couple comments so far, but we need to
say something
• 8:15 a.m.: So I GO TO MY SUPERIOR to see what kind
of message we want to get out
• Why is it a good idea to consult your superior?

8. Windy, Windy Weber
• My superior had been in touch with the campus police
chief and the university VPs
• There are specific things that they want said or not said …
and for a variety of reasons (limiting our liability)
• Synergy and unity important here
• Takes a huge load off of my shoulders … kind of nice for a
change

10. Windy, Windy Weber
• So … the message we were told to communicate
was, er, not a great one
• “Due to high winds on campus and flying debris, we
advise everyone to stay inside.”
• People did not like this at all … but that’s what we had
and more or less than that could have been a problem
• How so?

11. Windy, Windy Weber
• 9:09 – 10:32 a.m.: I’m monitoring a lot and responding a
little to comments that are flooding the page and our
thread
• Interaction on the page jumped significantly after we
initially posted something
• 10 a.m.-ish: Winds are up to 90 MPH, we’re getting
reports of crazy stuff happening on campus

14. Windy, Windy Weber
• 10:32 a.m.: Winds were getting crazier, people were
getting crazier (needing to delete comments, not
engaging trolls), finally administration got back to us with
some more direction
• Our VP has been monitoring the FB page, HE knows we
have to get some more info out there
• Facebook content was getting filtered to the president’s office

16. Windy, Windy Weber
• Still not a ton of clarity
• Notice the amount of shares on these posts
• Very specific wording still

17. Windy, Windy Weber
• 10:32 a.m. – 2:29 p.m.: Still monitoring and responding to
comments, deleting more, looking for what’s next
• 2 p.m.-ish: Winds are dying down
• 2:29 p.m.: Post link to press release about clean up efforts

19. Windy, Windy Weber
• Made it through the day, no major problems
• My No. 1 response through all of it:
• “Thanks for the feedback, [name]”
• Even though the content we were posting out to news
feeds was a little vague and official, we tried to make up
for that with personalized responses
• “This is all the information we have from the administration at this
time.”

21. Windy, Windy Weber
• Main takeaways from the experience:
• We communicated the content in a timely manner
• We provided as many details as we could
• We responded to every question we received
• We addressed every concern that we were able to
• We had 354 interactions on the page (likes+posts from users)
• We provided a platform for people to communicate openly, in a
place with valuable information and fellow collaborators
• We produced content that was used in the president’s office to
shape real-time decision making

22. Snowbasin Staffer Snafu
• Another type of Crisis Communication = when humans do
stupid things
• Other humans who spend time on the internet like to bring
attention to when humans do stupid things
• This is becoming a greater and greater source of crisis
communications for organizations

32. Snowbasin Staffer Snafu
• Key takeaways:
• Tell your employees to behave (cameras are everywhere), educate
about social media
• Get out ahead of the problem
• At least let people know you’re there, even if you can’t really say
anything special … don’t just make a one-and-done post
• Do users know more about social media PR than you do??? If
so, that’s embarrassing.
• Own up to a problem
• Don’t let a bad day turn into bad months, address the problem so
that everyone can move on

33. WSU Facebook Engagement
• Keys:
• Mix up the content – photos, videos, questions, crowdsourcing
• Stay consistent – posting calendar, always be looking
• Proofread your posts – grammar, spelling, take out URLs
• Pay attention – know what’s working in the industry
• Content in king!!!

34. Photos

35. Videos

36. Questions

37. Relaying user’s questions

38. Heated subject matter

39. “Crowdsourcing”

40. Baby ducks

41. Vintage stuff

42. Facebook giveaways

43. Document big events

44. Timing is everything

45. Questions?
• @JMcBee84
• jonathanmcbride@weber.edu