Changing PR Strategies for Social Media Channels-- A Case Study II

In summary, from the crisis communication perspective, I find several points worth mentioning during the current social media age:

Social media provide both opportunities and challenges to crisis management. It provids increased visibility and exposure of both positive and negative events of the company; it reaches customers/consumers directly; it provides ready-to-access online content for stakeholders; it owns uncontrollable bloggers who express their opinions; it, thus, change the new reporting system of previous dominated by traditional new media.

A dilemma of “The stakeholders perceive it as the crisis, then it is the crisis.” Due to power, legitimacy and willingness to confront differences, sometimes not all the stakeholders’ rights are equally emphasized. E.g., government cares only about its own country’s benefit, major media agenda setting and non-setting. But due to the raising power of social media channels, there is the increasing vocal of those ignored stakeholder (e.g., Indonesian fisherman claim their rights through their government, International law suit, etc). And these raising channels, if are not handled well, will worsen the crisis.

Information consistency does not solely mean speak in same voice, it also includes the integration and consensus of different media channels including traditional ones and social media channels which represent different stakeholder groups. E.g., Australia government can hold public hearing of oil flow rate with WWF, Geoscience, Greeens, PTTEP and all other economic and social groups, to work out a estimate plan to get the precise oil leaking rate as well as objective crisis evaluation.

Always being aware of the MUM effect and take multiple perspectives of stakeholders. The social or economic attachment to the organization may easily lead the members to take the perspective of organization when making sense the crisis. Taking a multiple perspectives of stakeholders and being open to different voices are two ways of dealing with MUM effect.