Crisis communications has always been a tricky conversation. And when social media entered the picture, it fueled the fire.
Now, within the past week, I have been hit with “crisis social media communications” discussions almost EVERYWHERE it seems. (So much so, that’s it’s starting to make nervous that the social media angel is prepping me for something – what, I’m not quite sure.)
1. Risk 2.0. The American Public Health Association held a conference on risk communications earlier this week and though I didn’t attend, I followed on Twitter. I must say the tweets coming out of it were fabulous and really insightful. Seems like many are going beyond the “Ah! What do we do?” factor and more into, how do we manage this, be pro-active and be strategic while also transparent, factors. Check it: #risk2.0
2. The Peanut Recall Case. Wednesday evening I attended the Blogging & Cupcakes event at Baked and Wired in Georgetown where social media guy, Andrew Wilson from HHS, presented the peanut recall case study. The case presented discussed how HHS, CDC and the FDA utilized social media in response to the salmonella crisis.
3. 3-Legged Horse Race. Catching up on Livingston Communications blog today, Geoff recently posted about three sessions that are currently competing to present at the fabulous Blog Potomac event coming up shortly. It’s interesting to me that all these sessions are about, you guessed it, crisis social media communications!
(writing this, I just thought of a 4th sign!)
4. Economy Stress and Eek, oh my! I work in public health, and this past week there was also some mixed reactions to SAMHSA’s launch of their “Guide to Get Through the Economy.” Many of my colleagues and friends looked the flurry that unravelled in response to this, and guess what we talked about? Yup, crisis social media communications! (as well as reputation management…who is a close cousin to c.s.m.c.)
What are your thoughts? Have you seen a rise in these types of communications at your own water coolers , conference rooms and happy hours? In the meantime, I’m going to continue to get my typing fingers ready….you never know when the hot, hot, hot, crisis social media communications will come after you.
flickr credit: Cayusa
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /home2/flyfouch/public_html/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /home2/flyfouch/public_html/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
I’ve been interested in crisis communications for a while and I agree – there is definitely alot of buzz going on lately! Especially with things like Gov 2.0 gaining momentum. I think it’s great that social media is opening up more doors for crisis communications and looking forward to seeing it develop further. I’m also interested in communicating during a crisis for those who may not have constant web access or understand how to interpret things going on with social media. Maybe more basic ways that technology can help is what I’m looking at.
Thanks for the links as usual, Alex!
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /home2/flyfouch/public_html/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /home2/flyfouch/public_html/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
I’ve been working on collaborating social media and crisis communications for a few years now – took a while to get those who don’t use social media to understand the concept, etc…
I think the next move is to build communities through social networking, leverage already existing communities, more effectively (and through authentic channels) so that these networks can be used during a crisis…
Agencies/organizations need to realize that they need to cultivate these networks PRIOR to an event in order to leverage their power during and after. The stronger a “virtual community,” the faster the recovery.
During Katrina, I found friends, met new people, got two jobs, and relocated to Los Angeles all through Myspace. Think what I could have done had I had access to greater networks (at the time)?