Social Media and the Crisis Response

As much as we've all been focused on the use of social media for staying in touch with the latest presidential primary developments, the application of Twitter and blogs in dealing with the Gulf Hurricane has been far more interesting -- and instructive.    For any corporate communicators who have turned up their noses at social media, rating it as nothing more than a channel for entertainment and mindless chatter, they need look no further than the way companies, individuals and the news media have put these technologies into use during this latest catastrophe.

  For some quick glimpses at what the state of the art social media for crisis communications looks like, see today's Chicago Tribune article on the use of Twitter for Hurricane Gustav information, which aptly describes the use of social media as "less hyperbole, more reliable."    The No Turn On Red blog has several excellent posts on retailers' use of the technology in the crisis, while a broader look at the trend (albeit a bit older) is captured on the blog Social Media University Global.

Social media strategies for crisis communications is no longer an option -- it's now an imperative.   The way that CNN and other news organizations have been using Twitter to gather and distribute information about the latest hurricane developments has taken the 24 hour news cycle and shrunken it down to mere minutes.   Corporations should be examining the lessons from this catastrophe and applying them to their own crisis plans.

Comments

[Lee Aase]

Thanks for the mention and the link. It's interesting how this has evolved in the last year.