One of the biggest areas that is generating both interest and investment is the impact of social media on crisis communications. Whether it is communicating during a natural disaster like we have seen with the Japanese Tsunami as well as just this past week with the tornadoes in Alabama. Many other crises have emerged where social media has been a key role like the Haiti Earthquake, BP Oil Spill, the Egypt protests, and many more. Social media has become a tool that allows people to share information and generate discussion by providing information and immediate updates that are usually appearing to be up first before the media picks up on this.
Glen Gilmore recently wrote a great post on how social media is important in a crisis situation – great points on how this new technology medium and tool can help in a moment of uncertainty and risk. Some great points that were raised in this post discusses the importance and integration of geolocation into sharing information on crowdsourcing website. In addition, reaching out to people through social network sites may be an opportunity in reaching those that you were not able to reach before as well as the growing need and expectation of immediate information about the crisis, information on where to go for help or further assistance, and opportunity to share information with other organizations as well (as a hub of information).
However, it is still key to remember that while there are many benefits, but there are also risks. There are so many questions that came up after reading this post and reflecting on where to go next for crisis communication professionals with social media. For example, if everyone has the power to share information and updates with everyone, what would be some of the best practices in a case of a crisis for intentional harm? How does the credibility of the source influence a person to listen or comply with a crisis message? What about the risks of communicating via social media with mobile devices? What is the future for crisis communications with augmented reality capabilities? What are some of the educational training that is needed for professionals working in this area? What about proper training and preparation for communicating a crisis situation? And last but not least – what about the information that we see on social media – is this all of the conversations emerging online, or are these conversations already filtered by other parties?
These are just some of the things that I think that still need to be addressed in regards to how to strategically implement social media and emerging technologies into communicating during a crisis or disaster situation. We need this dialogue and discussion to answer some of these questions for the crisis communication community involved with social media. We also have to brainstorm and crowdsource information on what are some of the workshops, training, and education that needs to take place in order to stay on top of the emerging technology. All of these elements need to be integrated into the crisis communication plan, and this is what my presentation is going to be on next week at the PRSA Digital Impact 2011 Conference in NYC.
It is an exciting time for crisis communications – but also a time where we have to arise to the occasion and embrace the digital movement. We need to take responsibility to make sure that we know and understand the new technology, but be able to strategically implement these messages and tactics responsibly with our audiences.
Also, if you have any additional points or questions for Glen about how to best implement social media and crisis, you can follow his tweets on his secondary Twitter account at @CrisisSocMedia.
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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