I was recently interviewed about the role of social media in crisis management and was asked whether it has changed the way that organisations deal with crises. My view is that the fundamental principles that underpin good and effective communication remain exactly the same. However, social media undoubtedly provides an expanded set of opportunities and threats when it comes to reputation management.
Let’s travel back in time just five years and imagine we witnessed a London Underground staff member being abusive to a passenger. What would have happened? We might have told the story to our partner over dinner that evening, saying how awful it was and that the member of staff should be disciplined. Maybe one person in a hundred might even have taken the time to write to Transport for London, though they would not have been able to identify the member of staff, and in any case, it would have been their word against his.
Travel back to the present day and here’s how a real incident at Holborn tube station plays out. The incident is not just witnessed by a passenger, it is also captured using his mobile phone. When he gets to work, he blogs about it and posts the footage to YouTube. People come across the footage and begin to Tweet about how disgusting the staff member’s behaviour is. Twitter users within the media spot the Tweets and begin to look into the story. By the middle of the afternoon, London Mayor Boris Johnson is tweeting about it (“appalled by the video. Have asked Tfl to investigate urgently. Abuse by passengers or staff is never acceptable”).
By the evening, the story had moved firmly from an online issue to a “real world” one, with coverage on Sky and ITN. The next morning the story was in the national newspapers including the Daily Mail and, of course, its website. The latter provides yet another opportunity for the story to endure and spread, fed by reader comments posted about the story (over 500 in the Daily Mail alone).
This was not a major crisis that lasted for weeks and destroyed the reputation of an organisation. It does however highlight how incidents which would once have resulted in a dinner table conversation between two people can now reach millions of people within hours. Understanding this and having a crisis communication infrastucture to deal with it is essential for any business seeking to protect its reputation in an online world.
