Embrace social media for effective crisis management March 3, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : Crisis Communications , trackback* This post was originally written for ‘Off The Record’ - AC Capital Strategic Public Relations’ blog
For effective crisis management, companies and organizations susceptible to crises involving human injury and loss of life should have already set-up a ‘dark site’ - a previously hidden page displaying key contact information for relatives and friends of the victims and to provide key data and information to the media. A dark site should be set up so that it can be made instantly available when a crisis strikes.
Last month, I was saddened to learn that a Venezuelan passenger plane, operated by local carrier Santa Barbara Airlines, slammed into a steep mountainside in the Andes - killing all 46 people on board.
With my PR hat on, I visited the Santa Barbara Airlines’ website curious to see if the Venezuelan airline was running a sophisticated crisis communications response – at least in terms of using the Internet as a tool in crisis management.
As the page loaded, I didn’t see a holding statement or contact number; instead my eyes saw an image of a snow-capped mountain with the slogan, “Tenerife is even closer too”, wrapped around its peaks. Geography lesson: Venezuela is as mountainous as Holland is flat. And at Merida airport, where the plane took off from before crashing, pilots are specially trained how to navigate through the local
Andes terrain.
Santa Barbara Airlines had failed in a fundamental of crisis communications – namely to communicate about the devastating incident that had occurred in a responsible and compassionate way. Without a dark site, visitors to the website were met by their business-as-usual promotional website. Nothing could appear more insensitive and irresponsible than this in the Information Age. I wonder how many family members and friends of the victims were offended, or even hurt, by this blunder. In the rapidly evolving Internet world all companies, even the ones who think they are tech-savvy, should keep their fingers clicking on the mouse at all times. Because a dark site, although still definitely a must, is now old-school. Information Technology has evolved since dark sites first arrived on the scene about a decade ago and it is imperative that companies stay abreast of technological changes.
Social media has arrived. Today an increasing number of companies and organizations use it as an effective communication tool in times of crises. Last year, facing flak over cancelled flights and lost baggage, UK-based airline, Jet Blue, posted a video on YouTube titled: “Our promise to you” – straight from the CEO’s somewhat trembling mouth. Twitter, the micro-blogging application that allows users to send updates (or ‘tweets’) to their communities via mobile phone, was used by news outlets and emergency services during the 2007 Southern California wildfires to post real-time updates and public service announcements. Even Facebook has been mooted as a possible crisis-management tool – as Social Media University Blog aptly explains.
But companies don’t have to do a Jet Blue and stick their CEO on Youtube, or employ Twitter-specialists who are experts at micro-blogging - whatever that is, you may still wonder. Just having a company blog is an effective way to display the latest information in a crisis. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds are also easily set-up allowing emergency updates over the web in different formats so reporters, employees and others can subscribe to them by email, SMS and web-feeds.
Of course only working with social media experts isn’t going to get your business or organization through a crisis. For effective crisis management it is important to keep your eye on the ball and utilize all of your options and resources - for example, having trained spokespersons, conducting crisis drill exercises, and using social media as a tool to communicate with your stakeholders in times of crises.
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