What do you think when you hear the word crisis? Pain, scrambling, unknown, scared; what about miscommunication. Our last speaker ,Maureen Locus, handles communication during crisis situations for Brinker International. In her lecture she outlined how her corporation broke down a crisis and how each department worked together to prevent miscommunication to the public. We all know that communication with the public is essential to harming a corporation’s reputation during a crisis. The question is how does new media such as Facebook and Twitter play into this complex process.
During my trip to New Orleans this winter to study the BP oil spill and the communication issues BP and others encountered I found that in today’s day in age you have to have a social media strategy. If ignored social media use (or the lack of use) can cause extensive problems for any corporation.
A perfect example of this can be seen from any unrest in the population. When airlines have extensive delays, stranding passengers’ on planes for hours, what happens? The passengers turn to their Smartphone’s and wireless Internet to complain to the world of Twitter and Facebook. Tweeting to the world their great inconvenience, even taking pictures to provide the visual experience.
By not embracing social media as a friend during a crisis can cause great harm to a corporation’s image. This missed opportunity in my opinion is the biggest communication mistake a corporation can make.
0 comments:
Post a Comment