“We are in the midst of a communications upheaval more significant than
the introduction of printing press” (R. Brown, 2009, p.1) society has been
revolutionised by the use of social media. The PR industry has also been
effected by the new use of social media tools especially when it comes to
crisis communications. First of all it was newspapers and magazines giving “PR practitioners their first taste of
evolving media” (R. Brown, 2009), however now the world has advanced even
more with the use of social media, and in particular tools such as twitter and
Facebook.
Crisis communication is the “transferring of information form significant persons to help
prevent/avoid a crisis, recover from a crisis and maintain or enhance
reputation” (K. Fearn Banks, 2009, ebook, p.1), nowadays this is massively influenced by social media channels
such as twitter as news is now reported and broken on twitter as it happens.
The news is already out there and will have reached many different public's before PR practitioners can get their hands on it due to the use of YouTube, Twitter
and Facebook being instant. An example of this was the Hudson plane river
crash, it was reported on twitter “15 minutes before the
mainstream media alerted viewers and readers to the crash” (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/4269765/New-York-plane-crash-Twitter-breaks-the-news-again.html)
and it was filmed on twitter as it was happening so it immediately reached the
public. This could be seen as a negative factor for PR practice as tweets
spread like wildfire so the public will know that a crisis has happened before
PR practitioners have a chance to act on it. The public may not know the full
story from only seeing it reported on twitter which is where rumors could be
spread and reputations could be damaged.
However “the
platforms (social media) and channels and contexts and their many applications
for communication and relationship building affect practitioners, their
community and organisation” (D. Phillips and P. Young, 2009, p.137) so by
PR practitioners building relationships with these social media channels it
will enable them to handle crises immediately. They can use social media in a
positive way by enabling an organisation that has been hit by a crisis to
respond as soon as they can using channels such as Twitter and Facebook. This
again is a step in the right direction for PR practitioners as it allows them
to access the public first hand and give them an instant explanation. This is
backed up by a quote I came across on the institute of Public Relations
website, as cited by Arapan and Rosko-Ewoldsen (2005), they “conducted a study that documented a quick
and early response allows an organisation to generate greater credibility than
a slow response” again highlighting the importance of using social media to
react in a crisis.
Furthermore “social
networks have evolved into online communities” (R. Brown, 2009, p.50) and
they have “revolutionised the way we
communicate and share information” (R. Brown, 2009, p.50) and they have
changed the way that some PR is practiced. Social media is now a big tool in
the public relations industry. With the recent Volkswagen crisis, social media
played a big role in helping Volkswagen communicate with their customers. They
used a speedy response using social media, releasing statements on Twitter and
Facebook and setting up a crisis website for their customers (https://econsultancy.com/blog/66972-social-media-and-crisis-management-a-volkswagen-case-study
). This practiced good PR using social media to interact with customers and
apologise. It was also a useful tool to help those affected direct customers to
the right place to get help.
This demonstrates the increasingly growing influence and
impact that social media has on PR practitioners. It may come with a few
negatives but PR practitioners can reap in the benefits and use it to their
advantage.
References:
Arapan and Rosko-Ewoldsen (2005), cited in: W. Timothy
Coombs, crisis management and
communications [online] 30th October 2007. Available at: http://www.instituteforpr.org/crisis-management-and-communications/
[Accessed on: 14th December 2015]
B, Davis. (2015) Social
media and crisis management: a Volkswagen case study [blog] 29th
September 2015. Available at: https://econsultancy.com/blog/66972-social-media-and-crisis-management-a-volkswagen-case-study/
[Accessed on: 14th December 2015]
C, Beaumont. (2009) New
York plane crash: Twitter breaks the news, again. The Telegraph [online] 16th January 2009. Available at: www.telegraph.co.uk [Accessed on:
14th December 2015]
D,
Phillips and Y.Phillip. (2009), Online Public
Relations, a practical guide to developing an online strategy in the world of
social media, London, Kogan page, p.137
K, Fearn Banks. (2009) Crisis
Communications, A Case Book Approach, [online], 3rd ed. New
Jersey: Lawernce Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Available through: www.books.google.co.uk [Accessed: 14th
December 2015]
R,
Brown. (2009), Public relations and
the social web, London, Kogan page, p.1, 4, 50
