In a crisis situation, we all have to make sure that we get our messages across in an immediate, specific, and professional manner. The role of the message is just one component to take into consideration – but the other is making sure that the perspective of the individual or organization is shared and told – which is where storytelling comes into play. The Center for Storytelling provides a great site with resources and additional information about storytelling.
USC Professor Henry Jenkins does a great job in highlighting these benefits and risks of what storytelling within social media, but also makes sure that we are aware of the benefits. The access of information and people as well as a platform to benefit in building a community and power of creating content to share with others in a social digital manner.
Social media allows people to express their thoughts, feelings, and opinions online. There are a lot of new possibilities and capabilities we have to take into consideration when it comes to social media especially within crisis communications. Do we want people to have control over the message during a crisis situation, and how do we balance the benefits and challenges arising from new emerging media? How can we adapt our storytelling practices during this time to highlight the positives and address the negatives?
Many issues and risks are associated with social media and can cause . This is all part of the overall reality of what makes up social media and the new digital landscape. We have to adapt and look at both the benefits and challenges that are coming with new media within crisis communications.
Crisis communicators can take a lesson from brands to have proactive storytelling practices by doing the following: have to embrace the stories emerging from the audiences and work with them in this setting, provide the stories in multimedia format (video, pictures, audio, and text + additional languages to take into consideration), have own mini stories consistently shared across all organization and individual platforms, and adapt to new emerging technologies and trends (ex. mobile, gamification).
In many ways, storytelling within the social media and crisis communications arena is both a science and an art. We have to be systematic in our approaches to listening and monitoring the conversations, but also need to have an innovative perspective with how we address these messages while creatively presenting them to the digital community.
Hope you all are having a great day.
Best Wishes,
Karen
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