Silence isn't golden: Crisis management through social media

Social media is now an incredibly important tool for communication both when things are going well and when crisis hits.

London, United Kingdom (prHWY.com) March 26, 2013 - Social media is now an incredibly important tool for communication both when things are going well and when crisis hits. Twitter and Facebook will often be the first port of call for both the public and the media seeking updates on incidents. If those updates aren't there, they'll draw their own conclusions or find them elsewhere.

When things go wrong, a festival can face hundreds of tweets about issues such as over-crowding, a shutdown, or a slow evacuation. On many occasions, however, none comes from the official Twitter feed.

If a festival says nothing, a stream of misunderstandings, unverified updates, and untruths spread through tweets from people both on and offsite. A journalist at the event can became a key source of information, despite only being there as a festivalgoer and having no more access to official updates than anybody else.

Large scale events are also a slave to the weather and knock-on effects such as traffic jams can create havoc.

In these situations, any statements and advice issued via Twitter can be pushed down the feed by regular updates extolling what a great time is being had by all who have managed to get on site. For those still stuck and looking to Twitter for official information, this can serve largely to antagonise them. A situation then develops where those people then tweet themselves and speak about their complaints.

Often, the problem can be that the wrong people are operating events' social media accounts. In many cases, the 'social media strategy' is simply telling interns to go out and keep people updated on how much fun they're having. But an intern is not qualified to deal with logistical queries or complaints - which may come at any point during an event - nor manage information flow when major problems arise.

All events have plans and systems in place for when the unexpected happens, but social media is not always considered within this. If the public and the press can't see that something is being done, the fast pace of information online means opinion of an event can quickly turn.
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Tag Words: media communications, consumer and music pr

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