The Practices of Crisis Management on Social Media

Related Cases: the Practices of Crisis Management on Social MediaRelated Cases: the Practices of Crisis Management on Social Media

It is important to ‘listen to the public’s concerns and understand the audiences’ when managing crisis (Veilet al., 2011, p.114). Responding to the public helps to protect reputations as well as minimize rumors. Social media allow the organization or companies to directly engage with audiences. Therefore, social networking sites can be used to monitor and respond to the rumors (Waters et al., 2009). For example, after the Hurricane Katrina, there were a lot of misinformation of the disaster. According to Society for Communications Research (2008, p.31), the American Red Cross had hired a specialist to manage conversations on new media. She responded to the blog users by introducing herself: ‘Hi this is Wendy from the American Red Cross and I just wanted to reach out to you and let you know...’. The majority of replies from bloggers were appreciative. This quick reciprocation by the