Social Media in Crisis Communication

Abstract

A recently emerged type of crisis, social media crisis, gathered much attention from the public for its ability to transpire actively and effectively within a short amount of time. This paper identified the importance of social media in crisis communication and how to integrate social media in a crisis communication plan. During crises, social media serves as a two-way tool of communication. On one hand, social media aids an organization’s crisis monitoring process. On the other hand, social media influences how people think about an organization and helps them to gather news on the crisis and responses from the involved organization in crisis times. When the information flows at the speed of light, a business has to be ready to react at a moment’s notice. With a thorough monitoring and a carefully crafted social media crisis management plan, assembling all the strengths of the online platforms, the company’s people and preventative actions, a business can leverage the social media to get through the situation.