SocialButterfly

Crisis Communications is Hot, Hot, Hot

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 | Blog Talk, Case Studies and New Orgs/Campaigns, Interesting Articles, Social Media | 2 Comments

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

Tags: American Public Health Association, Blog Potomac, case study, communications, crisis communications, crisis social media communications, HHS, peanut recall, pubilc relations, reputation management, risk, Risk 2.0, SAMHSA, Social Media