Chris Syme reached out to me for her article on how to handle social media crises (or otherwise wildfires) and it was great to be asked to be part of a great lineup of crisis communications professionals. Chris has been very active in this area particularly in sports, and it was great to be able to put forward my two cents in what I think are some key points to note when it comes to social media and crisis communications. The Crisis Show invited Chris to the show to talk about this very topic on their latest episode – so make sure to check it out. Special thanks to Chris for reaching out to me for this article! 🙂
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouUEephELDI[/youtube]
All of us had a chance to offer our advice and tips on how to prepare and manage a crisis situation when it comes to social media practices. My tips were to be engaged in monitoring and being aware of what are the associated hashtags your community and others may be following. I think that one of the things we are seeing in this particular area of crisis communications is the fact its ever changing. We are talking about some new issues and challenges today in 2014 – as well as some strategies and practices we can utilize as opportunities as well.
When it comes to social media, one of the best practices we see a lot of times is to monitor and listen to what others are talking about our brand – however, the key is to making sure we not only listen to what is going on related to the crisis, but also talk about how to apply these findings from these analytics to incorporate them into our crisis message strategies. There appears to be a gap in this area, and I do believe that there is a lot of opportunity for discussion as well as research in this area to address this as a community. What is key is to make sure to continue these conversations and discussions on best practices among both researchers and practitioners – we are all on the same team here and it’s great to share knowledge, stories, best practices, and insights to help all parties involved.
On another note related to this topic, I wanted to announce I will actually be teaching my first graduate course at the University of Louisville this upcoming fall semester, which will be in Crisis Communications. I am very excited about this since this is an area I am very passionate about both in research and in practice, so I am excited to get started with the course in a few months. My goal is to combine the applied and theoretical principles of crisis communications to blend them together to offer the students both a hybrid course in the field. I will keep you posted on the developments of this class as it gets closer to the fall semester.
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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