1. Using Social Media
in a Crisis

2. • Social Media has drastically changed the landscape of crisis
management.
• With close to 23% of the time spent on the internet on social
networks and Google providing three-quarters of a billion search
results a day, the internet is a giant public library where users have
the ease of discovering and spreading information around.
• A whopping 75% of people using social media are information
seekers (Pew Internet study).

3. So how does this affect companies in a crisis?
It means that when information released is not contained and
acted upon quickly, it can spiral out of control. This is
particularly applicable to negative discussions. A video and
article can be viewed by ten of thousands of people within 24
hours. Companies cannot ignore social media’s ability to
aggravate a crisis and the need to harness it when
managing crises.

4. So why should you use it?
• News stories are breaking online first
• People search the internet for news first
• If you don’t contribute your input, they will find information, true or not,
elsewhere
• Allows you to join the conversation, providing help and information, and
direct the messages
• It’s so massive and so fast
In a crisis, the most important thing is speed and there is
nothing faster than the internet.

5. And what should you do?
1. Preparation, preparation, preparation!

6. And what should you do?
WHAT
WHO WHEN
2. Develop a social media policy
• This covers a far greater potential •Give FACTS. • IMMEDIATELY.
network than just the official voice.
You can use employees’ social • Keep up strong internal • Buy time. Even if you don’t have
networks. You want them to alert communications. the answer yet, acknowledging that
the team as to when they see you’re listening can buy a lot of time
opportunities or crisis issues. • Update the website. and quell angry sentiment.
• As with crises in traditional • E.g. On the website: Business as • A balance of frequent updates that
media, a key spokesperson needs to usual should be cancelled to purely do not appear irregular.
be elected for a short video push out information. Use social
clip/interview to reassure channels to host Q&A and direct
consumers however employees them to website where there should
should know how to react without be a notice/statement or holding
approval from your CEO. page.

7. Achieving the very best...

8. Example: Toyota
“In short, monitoring online
sentiment gave us visibility and
confidence to act quickly and
decisively in the centre of the
storm. Eighteen months earlier
we would have been blind.
We have since invested in our
social media strategy, extending
its content and reach and
providing a lively and engaging
forum for questions and debate.
Those same channels that helped
Scott Brownlee us fight a negative are now
General Manager, Press and Public Affairs
helping to build on the positives
Toyota, UK
that come with exciting new
products, all for an ROI that is
off the scale compared with
traditional marketing.”

9. Example: BP
The Crisis On Social Media
20.04.10 - Deepwater Horizon oil • Facebook Page – 41,069 Fans
spill crisis started from an
explosion in an offshore drilling • YouTube Channel – 6472
rig that killed 11 and injured 17 of subscribers
its workers.
• Twitter Account – 18,596
19.09.10 – Continuous Leaking followers
since April comes to an end.
• Flickr Account
Full Timeline

10. Example: BP
What they did right
•Updating it’s social media platforms
What they did not do right
• Did not build up a strong base first
• Failure to engage
• Did not respond to negative comments
What we can learn from this
•Build up relationships and rapport
•Assemble a social media team

11. Example: Nestle
The Crisis
• Greenpeace report on palm oil.
• Nestle status telling people not to use
such logos as profile picture or comments
would be deleted.
• Fans retaliated with freedom of speech
criticisms, met by further rude and
sarcastic comments from Nestlé.

12. Example: Nestle
What they could have done/prepared for
• A social media presence doesn’t fix your offline problems
• People don’t mind if you don’t get it right, but they do mind if
you get it wrong
• Do not censor
• Old media does not understand social crisis management
• Do not retaliate
• The truth doesn’t matter, perception does
• Respond with the same weight
Courtesy of Scott Gould

13. What companies have been doing wrong

14. The things to remember...
• Don’t abandon your values
• Be clear about your limitations
• Match what’s been thrown at you
• Don’t use one platform, use all and direct them back to the main website
• Don’t be afraid to use your common sense
• Don’t be afraid to take it off the social sphere
• Good crisis communications is not going to solve everything
• Consider the barriers. E.g. Time difference and languages
It’s all about the first 24 hours!!!

15. www.jessicanorth.co.uk
@JessicaNorthPR