MH370 Case Study:
Lessons in social media
and crisis communications
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What did they do right
on social media?
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1. Lit up dark site as main source for
updates, activated hotline numbers,
used hashtag, shortlink
Hashtag:
#MASalert
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Shortlink
bit.ly/MH370updates
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2. Symbolic graying out of social media
channels, removal of all promos deemed
insensitive
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3. Responded and corrected misinformation,
speculation, rumours fairly quickly
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4. Made clarifications when necessary
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5. Ignored things that needed to be ignored
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6. Showed empathy for victims’ families,
relatives, friends
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7. Finally appointed a single source of
credible info; a spokesperson who took
ownership, showed leadership, empathy
BONUS: Had an active online presence
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Meeting families of victims of MH370. Pic on
Fb.com/HishammuddinH2O, March 29, 2014
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8. Tried to draw empathy for their affected
staff, raise morale by engaging with followers
and fans
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What they didn’t do right
(some nitpicking)
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1. Slow to update social media channels
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1st post on FB at
8.12am, March 8, 2014
2nd statement on FB,
timestamped 9.05am,
posted on FB 9.36am,
March 8, 2014
1st release
timestamped 7.24am.
But posted at 8.13am,
March 8, 2014 (49
mins to post 140
characters, > 6 hours
after incident)
Update fast
Use
integrated
one-click 13

Example of speed: Southwest Air Flight 345
lands nose-down at LaGuardia, July 22, 2013
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Crash at 5.40pm, 1st alert tweet at 6.17pm
Use
unique
hashtag
Alert
followers Follow up
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Good news get it out fast, bad news get it out
faster (Caveat: verify, clarify, confirm)
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Power of social media:
Passenger David Eun
tweeted shortly after crash of
Asiana Airlines Flight 214 at
SFO on July 6, 2013. Over
30,000 re-tweets.
Post early, get
ahead of crisis.
If in doubt, leave
out
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Jan 15, 2009: US Airways Flight 1549, landed in
Hudson river after bird strike
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From Twitter to Front page
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2. Information on passenger manifest kept
changing, no alert on edits, some info still wrong
Update,
report
changes
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3. No updates : Number of tweets at
http://www.twitter.com/mas
went down to zero some days
trinetizen.comSource: TwitterCounter
Keep
updating
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Even though, MAS Twitter followers
rose > 48% from March 7 to Apr 14
trinetizen.comSource: TwitterCounter
Leverage
reach
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Dramatic rise in FB engagement
Source: Birdsong, Kevin May, http://www.tnooz.com/article/mh-370-malaysia-airlines-social-media/
Keep
engaging
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4. Not leveraging “frienemy” sites
to spread message
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FB page on Missing Plane had garnered
> 400,000 Likes since March 8 – April 14
@AirAsia: 982K followers
@tonyfernandes: 963K followers

5. No unique URL or link for each update, not
shareable, dead links, no index, no search
Navigation/UI : Any update from yesterday all the way back to March
8 has no direct link at dark site, have to go to bottom of page and
click tiny numbers
• http://bit.ly/MH370updates -> Resolves to
http://www.malaysiaairlines.com/my/en/site/dark-site.html
• Alt: http://www.malaysiaairlines.com/my/en/site/mh370.html
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Test website
before crisis 23

6. Informed victims’ families of loss via SMS
when no wreckage or evidence of plane found
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A text message was
sent out March 24 to
families of victims
stating “none of those
on board survived”
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7. No FAQ or Dedicated Media Room
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• No online FAQ to provide facts on
company history, plane, manifest,
secondary events, SOP, pilot
profiles, blackbox technical
details
• Not using real-time channel to
refute claims, douse speculation,
correct misinformation, get ahead
of rumour-mongering
• No audio recording, transcripts of
press conferences
Italian footballer Balotelli used as
example to suggest how Iranians
with stolen passports looked like
Develop
F.A.Qs 25

8. Poor visuals, no videos
• Photos
• Timeline
• Graphics
• Maps
• Raw video of
press
conferences
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Dedicated
digital media
team 26

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Crisis communications reactions
POOR
 Defensive – take it
personally
 Decline to
comment
 Deny or lie
 Deflect – taichi,
play blame game
 Downplay
BETTER
Accept – that it has
happened
Acknowledge – to those
affected, media, public
Assure – show you care,
calm fears
Apologize (if you have to)
and be specific, express
regret, suggest remedy
ACT – assess your allies,
plan your action, act out
your plan
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Lessons
Pre-crisis:
– Form dedicated social media team
– Ensure social media is part of crisis communications plan
– Prepare FAQs
– Train spokespersons, staff
– Prepare key messages for various crisis scenarios
– Practice conveying key messages in any crisis
– Test ability to activate dark site
Crisis
– Appoint single spokesperson, take ownership
– Use unique hashtag, shortlink
– Use linkable, shareable page for each update
– Show empathy for those affected
– Be transparent with remedial action
– Think visually
– Record raw audio, video – post online
– Reduce speculation with fast-turnaround, online updates
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