pseweb 2016: tragedy, twitter and pitchforks: managing campus crises on social media
TRANSCRIPT
SOCIAL CRISES
Racial Tensions
Viral Events
Winter Weather
Cataclysmic Weather!
Confederate Flag!!
Roommate with Windex
Exploitation
Campus Shooting!!!
Campus Blackout
The photo
Body Found (Suicide)
WARNINGThe proceeding will be filled with horrible trolls, rude students, a good dose of humor, a bit of
mild profanity and, of course, gifs.
SOCIAL CRISISAny on-campus, off-campus or online event
that affects an online community and a managed brand account.
It often requires a direct response from the managed account.
Be better than the NSA
• Pick a tool. We use SproutSocial.
• Find where the conversation is happening.
• Decide what is most important.
• Get to know your campus and community issues.
Where to grow• Flowcharts/Clear protocols of chain of
communication.
• Better communication with key offices on who manages social media.
• More staff in SproutSocial to spread load.
• More staff/time to regularly monitor anonymous platforms.
The spectrum of hell
Being better than the NSA requires time and effort
Hashtags, keywords, geolocations, key accounts, media, anonymous accounts
IssueMay require an action, loops in others, safety often not an issue
Student actions, severe weather, controversial issues
CrisisImmediate response required, leadership involved,
safety of campus at jeopardy Shootings, issues resulting in threats to students/staff, catastrophic weather
Where to grow
• More defined spectrum of issues.
• Clear protocols and expectations tied to spectrum for each audience/channel.
• Menu of response from a content strategy view point.
• Social team. Three layers deep.
Direct and deflect• Humans need to communicate and express
emotions.
• The mob will find a space so control the space.
• Essentially invite them to get it out so you can move on.
• Also gives advocates a chance to self-police for you.
Militarized zone
• Hide/delete for two reasons: personally identifying information/threats or profanity.
• In general, don’t intervene with rants unless inaccurate information.
• Use and TRUST your judgement.
Where to grow
• Know when you can be strong and respond.
• Respond to community response quicker.
• Find better ways to update during event for better understanding.
Are you kidding me?
• We’re busy. We forget things in times of crisis. Communicate after initial response.
• Arm community managers with talking points and support.
• Remind them to check for scheduled tweets.
• Let them know the game plan for central accounts.
Where to grow
• Better/quicker ways to get info out.
• Better training for social managers.
• Stronger crisis response team.
When things are scary
• People flip the freak out!
• They are grasping for comfort and familiarity.
• They want someone to speak to them and understand.
• They don’t need all the information. They just want to know what they can expect.
Understanding in crisis
• Use ‘we’ and ‘our’ language when possible. It’s more personal and calming.
• Tell them when they can expect an update.
• If you don’t have any updates (aka nothing has changed), tell them that. They appreciate it and it calms them down.
Natural DisasterSometimes shitstorms happen
28 tweets in three days
14 of those updates to
weather page
11 updates on Facebook in
two days
Social Support
• People are mean. Mean things are sticky. Sticky things drive you crazy. Crazy people can’t sleep.
• Your people/person at home can’t take it all.
• Have co-workers, students, ‘professionals’ to commiserate with.
• Let it out and self soothe.