With a number of well known brands recently making well reported use of social media for crisis management, such as Toyota, I was considering (with a nod to Matt’s recent post) – what’s the least social media that a brand needs for crisis management? I’m not sure that’s quite the right phrase, perhaps ‘what are the social media basics an organisation needs for crisis management?’ is closer the mark.
While most organisations typically have some form of disaster planning, this must now include the monitoring, management and response over social media to a potential or actual crisis. As a starter, these basics might include:
- coordination with offline PR activity
- forming a social media response team, who can manage activity 24/7 as required
- a coordinated ‘social media communications’ plan based on a range of scenarios, plus defined social technologies to use in each case
- defined roles and responsibilities for all staff who engage in social media
- co-ordination across different geographies
