Why crisis management and social media must co-exist

By Rob Birgfeld

hen it comes to corporate crises, social media is most often perceived as a culprit. Communications traditionalists, used to creating and managing messages, see the current environment as a polluted one in which a single blog post, tweet or update from a nobody can snowball into a full-blown catastrophe. They point to Domino’s and Motrin,  as well as to Nestle and most recently, Gap to demonstrate how things have changed for the worse.

There’s no doubt things have changed — and we can argue until we’re blue in the face over whether what we’re seeing is better or worse. But what’s not open to discussion is that this new reality requires new tactics. And while social media has become the weapon of choice for angry masses to fuel the fire of negativity, it is also the very best asset for crisis management.

In a session titled “Digital Crisis Communications” at this year’s Blogworld Expo, panelists Scott Monty of Ford, Shel Holtz of Holtz Communication + Technology, Dallas Lawrence of Burson-Marsteller’s Proof Integrated Communications and moderator Valeria Maltoni shed light on what today’s corporations can do to monitor, confront and manage crises in social spaces.  Here are a few choice takeaways from the panelists to help you navigate and avoid crises in a 2.0 world.

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