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Alli Cassel

Crisis Communication

Social Media’s Importance in Crisis Response

Social Media is becoming more and more of a very integral part of crisis communication.

With the wide use of social media among many users today, we must understand that when

crises occur, news will travel fast. When a crisis occurs, it is a race to try to make a statement

before the world makes their preconceived thoughts and opinions on the situation. Because of

this, social media can equally be used to respond on a crisis situation in a timely and effective

manner to reach a large audience. In this paper, I will be discussing the importance of social

media in crisis response.

What are the platforms that can be used to communicate with the publics and what are the

benefits to using each app? In understanding each of the main social media platforms and their

strengths and weaknesses, we can determine which platform to use and what to include in case a

crisis would occur. Let’s first look at Twitter. The article titled, Sensemaking and

Communication Roles in Social Media Crisis Communication, writes, “Recent research shows

that Twitter is a resilient and rapid information diffusion tool under large-scale crises such as

natural disasters,” (Stieglitz et al., 2017). Due to Twitter’s short character count and easy access

to linking external sources and photos, Twitter is a great first platform to post a quick word about

a situation (C., 2021). Another major platform is Facebook. If the number of users determines a

social media platforms popularity, Facebook would be the most popular social media platform.

With over 1.71 billion users, Facebook has access to a vast audience (C., 2021). Facebook is not

only a platform widely used to share personal pictures, thoughts, and updates, but a place to

spread and share relevant news. Because of this, a wide array of media and media types (video,
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picture, news articles, etc.) can be spread quickly to many people. While Twitter and Facebook

prove to be important in crisis response, I believe Instagram is not as effective. Instagram, which

has about 1 billion users, is seen as a social photo sharing app as opposed to a source of breaking

news from companies and organizations when something occurs (Statistica, 2022). Due to the

limiting features of the app and limited access of sharing of external sources, it proves difficult to

release a statement in response to a crisis.

Now that we understand the major social media platforms, Medium Richness Theory can

also help us understand how to better understand our medium of choice in making sure it is a

good fit. Medium Richness Theory states that media has the ability to transmit needed

information (A., 2018). I believe social media fits as an example for this theory because of its

ability to get information out there quickly to a wide audience.

In looking at each of the main forms of crisis response, we can see how social media can

accomplish each one. The first form of crisis response, respond quickly, can be accomplished

quite easily with social media. Social media is one of the fastest forms of communication in this

day and age. A quick response is crucial because it provides your audience with answers before

the crisis gets out of control. Before you know it, a small crisis can become a big crisis when

everyone starts weighing in their own personal thoughts into the situation. To avoid this, respond

quickly. Even if there are no updates or not much to be said, responding is so important because

it shows to others that you are working on solving the crisis and care about the crisis that

occurred.

Through a crisis, it is equally as important to speak with one voice to your publics. When

a crisis occurs, the public wants to feel like they are talking to someone, and that person has a

plan. If there is no consistency in the response to customers, there will be confusion, and nobody
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will understand what the company or organization really cares about. The more consistent you

are in your messaging, the more credible you will become and the more trust you will gain from

those you need it from most. It is also important to understand who you are speaking to.

Consistency only goes so far if you are communicating messages that will not reach your target

audience in the most effective manner. Everything is about balance and formulating a response

that uses intuition, rules, and analytics. If all of these are used in your response, you will best be

able to reach your audiences most effectively during a crisis.

Openness and transparency are also so important to crisis response. Being open to your

publics and to the media is how trust is formulated. To go along with this, businesses and

organization need to be willing to provide information. When posed with a crisis situation, being

able to deliver on what the publics want to know will keep your organization transparent and the

publics happy. People want to know what is going on, so tell them!

While there are many pros highlighted throughout this paper of social media in response

to crisis situations, there are also a list of cons. A major con is the reputation damage that can

occur in such a short amount of time. We see time and time again, crises occurring and situations

getting out of control on social media. Social media gives people the opportunity to speak

whatever is on their mind. This is a great thing and a great space for people to feel heard and

express their opinions/beliefs. However, in a crisis, this can be detrimental to an organization if

not handled properly. Because of this, focusing in on the crisis response strategies and

implementing them into social media is a great technique and one that can help significantly. We

also see the con of increased unwanted attention of publics on the crisis that would otherwise not

be there if things taken care of off social media.

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Now that we have unpacked the forms of crisis response related to social media and pros

and cons of each, let us look at a crisis handled well through social media. In 2013, Southwest

Airlines Flight 345 landed nose first at the LaGuardia airport in New York (Fisher, 2016).

Understandably, this situation was very scary for many people involved, and minutes after the

accident, Southwest posted on Facebook and Twitter (Fisher, 2016). Because of the airlines

quick response to the crisis, they garnered a lot of positive statements from customers about their

appreciation for the quick and constant updates to keep the public informed. Southwest also did

an excellent job at being transparent. Because of the transparency of the airline, I believe many

people will feel they can trust Southwest more, even despite the accident.

Another crisis situation that was handled well on social media, was with the company, JC

Penny. JC Penny released and promoted a new teapot that many believed resembled Hitler

(Fisher, 2016). While this certainly was not the intention of the company, this was something

that needed to be dealt with. JC Penny took to Twitter right away responding to tweets with a

“one voice” approach. They responded to messages using similar phrases, “Totally unintentional.

If we designed it to look like something, we would have gone with a snowman or something fun

” and “Certainly unintended. If we had designed the kettle to look like something, we

would’ve gone w/a snowman…” (Fisher, 2016). Because of this excellent use of a quick

response, everything was able to be cleared up before things got out of control. I also believe that

the consistency in the messages that were released to the public, added to the overall

effectiveness of the crisis communication and proved to audiences that there is one voice behind

this company and mission.

However, on the opposite spectrum, we also have a situation of a crisis situation handled

poorly. The article, 4 Examples of Social Media Crises that Could Have Been Prevented, by
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Kinga Edwards, writes that in 2017, a United Airlines flight was overbooked. Because of this,

the airline randomly drew four passengers that would not be able to fly and asked them to leave,

and one passenger refused (Edwards, 2022). Because he refused, the article writes, “Security

appeared on the plane and forcibly dragged the man off the plane with a bleeding face,”

(Edwards, 2022). When this was released, the CEO of United Airlines released a statement

justifying what had occurred. Later, an email was released of him explaining the incident to staff

members and describing the passenger in a disrespectful manner (Edwards, 2022) Because of

this, social media users were furious and there were many reputation consequences for the

airline. Looking back on this situation, a consistent voice and transparency is lacking here. We

see that the voice that is promoting the airline to the public, is communicating a much different

message than their CEO. The portion of the current mission statement of United Airlines reads,

“Our goal is to make every flight a positive experience for our customers…” (Our United

Customer Commitment, 2021). However, the crisis situation that occurred and the statement that

was released, are conflicting and not consistent. We also see a lack of transparency. If this

situation occurred, why were passengers not notified of the crisis before they had to deboard the

plane? The lack of communication for everyone involved only adds to the confusion. The email

also does the opposite of transparency as it discusses its customers to various staff members in an

inappropriate manner.

In this paper, I will discuss the importance of social media in crisis response. With social

media being an important tool, it is crucial we also use social media in our crisis communication

responses. Taking a look at social media platforms, the three most common forms of crisis

response, and real-life situations, we can see that social media adds great value to crisis

communication when done correctly.

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References

A. (2018, April 23). Media Richness Theory. Communication Theory. Retrieved April

28, 2022, from https://www.communicationtheory.org/media-richness-theory/

C. (2021). The Importance of Social Media in Crisis Communications. Civic Plus.

Retrieved April 28, 2022, from https://www.civicplus.com/civicready/crisis-

communications-guide

Edwards, K. (2022, February 2). 4 Examples of Social Media Crises that Could Have

Been Prevented. Mediatoolkit. Retrieved April 28, 2022, from

https://www.mediatoolkit.com/blog/social-media-crisis-examples/

Fisher, S. (2016, August 10). 3 Great Examples of Crisis Management on Social Media. Mojo

Media Labs. Retrieved April 28, 2022, from https://www.mojomedialabs.com/blog/3-

great-examples-of-crisis-management-on-social-media

Our United Customer Commitment. (2021). United. Retrieved April 28, 2022, from

https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/customer-commitment.html

Statista. (2022, March 22). Instagram: Distribution of Global Audiences 2022, By Age Group.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/325587/instagram-global-age-group/

Stieglitz, S., Mirbabaie, M., Schwenner, L., Marx, J., Lehr, J., & Brünker, F. (2017,

February). Sensemaking and Communication Roles in Social Media Crisis Communication.

AIS Electronic Library. Retrieved April 21, 2022, from

https://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=wi2017