Deep, Fast Searching
Posted by Liz Dill
According to an article in The Wall Street Journal entitled, “For Companies, a Tweet in Time Can Avert PR Mess,” many large corporations such as Ford, Southwest Airlines and Pepsi are creating social media teams. By closely monitoring social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) they can quickly identify potential issues, analyze customer feedback in real-time and craft effective communications strategies to deal with the breaking issue while protecting the reputation of the organization. The article specifically mentions a situation where a Southwest Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing and their emerging media team was able to scan social media sites for passenger response to the incident, and then was able to craft an appropriate message on behalf of the Airline based on their findings.
In an ideal world of strategic public relations, goals are set, actions carefully planned, core messages thoughtfully crafted and outcomes weighed. The same systematic approach is particularly important when confronted with a crisis situation. Avoid the urge to launch a quick reactive response. Use all the resources available to gather information and create an intelligent, insightful situation analysis on the impact of the situation in both short and long term. Gable PR has detailed checklist to help in the process.
Analyze the results and determine the strategic response. With the impact of social media and the impact on the velocity of news and buzz, clients, organizations and their PR professionals need to be up-to-the minute. Look beyond Google News and the other news trackers to monitor the pulse of the conversations and emerging tones in real time. Without intense scrutiny of the social media universe, an organization could see a small incident gain global buzz and quickly escalate into a larger PR crisis – one with long-term impact that extends beyond the short-term issue.
Tags: Crisis PR, facebook, issues management, media, news, positioning, reputation, research, social media, Twitter, YouTube
