Social media have transformed the relationship organizations have with their publics; its more casual, more intimate. Its also trickier to manage. Not only have social media platforms made communication efforts more global, but they also have made them two-way, synchronous, interactive, and immediate conversations that can go wildly wrong.
Because of their accessibility and visibility, social media posts have become a window for the public to witness how well an organizations image and customer service are managed. For example, rather than reach out to customer service representatives directly, consumers are finding reasons to air grievances on social media about celebrities, the brands they represent, and the customer service their sponsors provide. If the grievances are left unattended, an organization could see its stock price fall, its sales drop off, and its reputation erode.
Consider, for example, the Yelp employee who wrote an article in Medium complaining about the working conditions at the online review company, which quickly went viral.
Review Hootsuites guide to managing social media crises, then scan the internet for an example of a social media crisis for PR managers. In response to this discussion prompt, tell us what happened. Why did it happen? How was the fallout handled by PR specialists? What could the companys PR team have done to avert or minimize the fallout?