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Twitter and Crisis Communications

Presented byGayle Weiswasser

Vice President, TMG Strategies

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1.Know the landscape.

2.Become part of the community.

3.Use social media tools to get the message out.

4.Be prepared to engage.

5.Don’t forget your employees.

6.Have a rapid response plan in place.

Social Media & Crisis Communications

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Social Media & Crisis Communications

Use tools – Twitter Search, Backtweets, TweetBeep - to find out who is talking about you and your competitors.

Don’t wait until the crisis hits – build up followers and follow others.

Twitter only reaches 7.4% of internet users (projected 2009).

Respond, retweet, answer questions.

Create an army of Twitterers.

Assign ownership, reserve names, do twitter drills.

1.Know the landscape.

2.Become part of the community.

3.Use social media tools to get the message out.

4.Be prepared to engage.

5.Don’t forget your employees.

6.Have a rapid response plan in place.

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Pros and Cons of Twitter in Crisis

Pros• Can reach people very quickly

• Allows frequent updating and dissemination of information

• Immediate feedback

• People respond to genuine emotion, authentic tone, and dialogue – all strengths of Twitter

Cons• 140 characters

• Ephemeral

• Individual responses can be time consuming

• Easy to overtweet – use number of retweets to measure impact

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FDA used Twitter for salmonella recall information

FEMA warned of flooding and included shelter info

Red Cross posted info about evacuations, shelters, and food distribution during Hurricane Ike using #ike

Air Force used Twitter to correct misreporting on CNN about the crash of a C-17 plane.

Twitter as Information Source

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• Tweets reach subscribers – “emergency evangelists” – then spread virally

• Use of hashtags allows for regional, topical focus, and multiple authors/accounts on same topic

• Retweeting as instant gauge of how compelling the information is

Twitter as Information Source

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Case Study: General Motors

June 1, 2009 GM filed bankruptcy papers

• Areas of social engagement• Blogs• Twitter• Webchats on GM Fastlane Blog• Facebook

• Christopher Barger, GM Director of Social Media believes Twitter was the most important medium utilized

• With so much information, room for interpretation, and consumer questions, real-time aspect of Twitter was most important and effective

• “Team social media” enabled GM to be better engaged

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Case Study: Kentucky Grilled Chicken

May 5, 2009 Oprah and the Kentucky Grilled Chicken 2-piece Meal

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Areas of social engagement• Twitter• YouTube

• KFC was already active on Twitter - @kfc_colonel

• When trouble arose, tweets were direct, honest, and authentic. KFC apologized, linked to YouTube video from the president, directed people to apology on Oprah, and spoke directly to customers:

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• Start off with an apology

• Use Twitter to direct readers to your story, longer responses

• Outline what you are doing to address the crisis

• Share information as you get it, or simply say you have nothing new to add

Keep In Mind…

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• Respond to questions

• Enlist your employees to cover more ground…

… but don’t oversaturate

• Twitter’s impact is exponential…

… but it is not a silver bullet

Keep In Mind…