Weekly Wrap: Crisis and Social Media Edition

Are you prepared for a crisis? Some companies have a plan set in a place, but others often head straight for social media, the quickest route to reach the largest audience. Today social media has the power to inform the public of a crisis within seconds of happening, quicker than the local news. However, what happens when social media is your crisis? In this week’s Weekly Wrap we look at how social media and crisis communications have worked together in the field of public relations.

How social media is redefining crisis communications

Flightglobal

All it takes is 140 characters for a brand’s reputation to plummet on the strength of a tweet shared by a customer. But in the same sense, all it takes is 140 characters to reach out to your audience and keep them informed when a crisis situation is underway. As crisis mode ensues social media carries a heavy responsibility when relaying information to the public. Flightglobal analyzes the recent crises of multiple airlines and the use of social media.

 Trust, Transparency & Target: A Lesson in Crisis Communications

HubSpot

A crisis can be very detrimental to your organization, but that doesn’t mean you should falter under the pressure. Recently, Target was under the microscope for a security breach that resulted in the CEO losing his job. So what did the famous bullseye company do? Become transparent. In a world consumed with social media, addressing the elephant in the room can pay off bigger than you expect.

 What PR pros owe Justine Sacco

PR Daily

It’s been over a year since Justine Sacco boarded a plane oblivious to the huge mistake she just tweeted—11 hours later, she was aware of the damage she had done. I’m sure at some point or another we all have tweeted something we aren’t proud of, but we did not become a trending topic or get fired from our jobs (hopefully). Twitter has one of the biggest audiences and it is powerful; essentially what became the downfall for Sacco. PR Daily weighs in on if we owe anything to the Justine Saccos of the world and the power social media has in blowing up senseless tweets.