This document was created panel after an in-depth panel discussion that covered how different companies, airlines and government departments handled situations of crisis and particularly, their use of social media. This 9-page guide covers the role social media plays in a crisis and outlines key points to consider when such events occur.

1. CIPR
Skills guide
The role of social
media in crisis /
issues management
This article is worth 5 CPD points
PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
–
cipr.co.uk

2. 2015 has already seen a number of high profile crises
take front and centre stage in the media.
Companies such as Thomas Cook and Alton Towers
have had to face up to tragedies suffered by their
customers and there have been several aviation
disasters with catastrophic loss of life.
Some parties involved in these crises have handled
the communications around the devastating
situations effectively, responding with empathy and
showing genuine concern. Others have seemingly
taken communications advice from lawyers –
responding ‘no comment’ in a bid to not become
accountable for the situation. With the net result a
further damaging of their reputation and making
them appear ‘cold’ and calculated in the process.
On the 9th September 2015, The CIPR social media
panel met to discuss the role of social media in a crisis
by looking at these recent events and discussing how
the different companies, airlines and government
departments handled the communication –
in particular their social media – surrounding
these situations.
This document discusses the role social media plays
in a crisis and outlines key points to consider when
such events occur.

3. 3/ CIPR Skills Guide: The role of social media in crisis / issues management
The roles of social media in a crisis
One of the key findings from the panel’s
discussion was that PR professionals
don’t need to be intimidated by social
media during a crisis.
The basic principles of effective
communication have not changed – as
communicators we now just have more
channels to consider and have to react
to the concerns in ‘real-time’. Dallas
Lawrence, senior vice president and
head of corporate communications for
Rubicon Project, backs up this point:
“From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg, good
PR efforts have not changed. We are
just so tied up in the new platforms that
are out there, we forget basic media
relations practices.”
Lawrence also suggests looking at
three roles social and digital media play
during a crisis:
1) Social media is an instigator.
Lawrence states that previously
we didn’t have platforms to record
our every thought or record every
silly mistake. Social media makes
it easy for people to spot and
share mistakes that companies and
individuals make.
2) The next role is that of accelerant.
A similar crisis may have happened
20 years ago, but it would not have
spread so quickly without social
media. Lawrence details we must be
prepared to act immediately instead
of waiting and seeing how the
crisis develops.
3) The third and most important role
social media plays is that of an
extinguisher. Lawrence outlines that
we can use social media effectively
before, during, and after a crisis to
mitigate the damage and, in some
cases, actually eliminate the crisis.
Categorise your crisis from the offset
Eric Dezenhall, author of The Glass Jaw,
explains the importance of categorising
a crisis at the offset. Understanding
the fundamental nature of the crisis
will inform your strategy and help you
choose the right tactics to effectively
tackle the issue.
Eric divides crises into two categories:
‘sniper’ and ‘character’.
“A sniper crisis is episodic, caused by
something external or accidental, and is
often superficial.
Think: The Dominos Pizza employee
who was filmed engaging in disgusting
behavior in a kitchen where food
was being prepared and posted it on
YouTube, and when Southwest Airlines
kicked off a heavyset passenger who
happened to be a movie director with
1.6 million Twitter followers.
A character crisis has at its core an
intrinsic flaw or pernicious behavior.
Think Enron, BP, or even the meanness
associated with charges that New
Jersey governor Chris Christie jammed
the George Washington Bridge to
retaliate against a political intransigent.
Social media lends itself better to
tactics associated with sniper crises,
which require simple points of
information, apologies, corrections,
or recommended actions associated
with episodic events and customer
service updates.”

4. 4/ CIPR Skills Guide: The role of social media in crisis / issues management
Points to consider
Before
• Be prepared: Rehearse diverse
scenarios before a crisis happens.
It is impossible to predict and
prepare for every circumstance, but
simulations give you the ability to
react better to the unexpected.
• Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse:
Simulate a fake crisis situation and
make executives play different roles
so they can see the crisis from a
different perspective.
• Set up a crisis response team:
Make sure the team has the authority
to act and is properly media trained.
• Make sure that employees know
who is in the crisis team and how
they should act during a crisis:
Employees must understand the
boundaries and be clear about the
external communications policy.
For example, they must know they
can not communicate externally
during a crisis either on social media
or otherwise.
• Consider creating an early warning
system: Put a process in place to
detect a potential crisis if you have a
known or perceived threat.
• Make sure you have the admin and
detail covered: Save your CEO’s/
clients’ phone numbers in your
mobile.
• Have a checklist of things to
consider during a crisis:
Always keep in mind the following:
–– Objectives
–– Messaging
–– Speed
–– Credibility
–– Audiences
–– Partners
–– Platforms
–– People
–– Resources

5. 5/ CIPR Skills Guide: The role of social media in crisis / issues management
Points to consider
During
• Take a temperature check:
Social media is a listening tool
first and foremost. Review and
understand the situation. Don’t
instantly react. Avoid fanning
the flames by overreacting to a
simple issue.
• Understand if it is a crisis or is it
simply noise: Is it simply people
retweeting a news articles or are
people sharing their opinions?
• Identify the source of the issue:
Understand where the crisis has
originated from. Confirm the source,
date and location.
• Verification is key: Check the user
generated content that you’re
monitoring in order to make
informed decisions about how to
react from both an operational and
communications perspective.
• Remember verification is a process:
One clue leads to another.
Always ask, how do you know?
• Set up a hub which commands,
controls and coordinates (this can
be virtual): Ensure you connect with
key decision makers as part of the
process and don’t treat social media
as separate – it should be integrated.
• Make sure you react to the crisis in
a timely manner: Keep concerned
parties up to date with the relevant
information.
• Ensure you’re joined up and your
internal and external messages
are aligned: Don’t forget to let your
employees know what is happening
and keep them updated.
• Make sure everyone on the “crisis
response team” can access relevant
information when not in the office:
For example, keep files in the cloud,
social media passwords safe, chargers
at home and contact numbers
accessible. In other words, if all your
office systems went down, could
you still operate and communicate
and know how to reach each other?
Be prepared for none of your
contingency locations to be available
and being unable to access any of
your corporate IT systems – this really
happened during the Oslo bomb.
Don’t just rely on technology, it is still
essential to have paper contact lists.
• Ensure your messaging is robust:
Be honest, be clear and show you
care.
• Make sure all your messaging is
verifiable: Reputable media will
ALWAYS verify it.
• Put time stamps on information
on intranets and websites: Update
employee intranets and websites
with the time and date of the latest
information, and when you expect to
update it next. This saves employees
asking “when will we know more?”
• Consider the formation of the
messaging and avoid bombarding
people with lots of information:
Three is recognised as the optimal
number of messages in one piece.
See Dr Vincent Cavello’s work linked
below which optimises absorption
of key messages; it’s based on using
27 words, 9 seconds and 3 key
messages.
• Know when to speak, when to shut
up, and when to act: Ultimately you
must establish what has gone wrong
and then set about ensuring it is
put right.
• Always listen: If it’s the only thing
you do on behalf of your organisation
or brand, listen carefully. Use tools to
spot the trends and use experienced
people to analyse them.
• Turn off ALL scheduled posts/
tweets as soon as the crisis unfolds.
• Keep in mind that not all social
media is equal: A company’s
Facebook page is not necessarily the
best place to handle an issue from.
Don’t assume every issue needs full
blown response on every channel
multiple times. It may not.
• Remember on social media you
have an audience: People are
watching, make sure they are aware
of your solutions if you take the
conversation offline (email /phone
for further discussion, verification ) or
on another social platform. A study
by Cision (see link below) also shows
that 25% of Twitter’s verified users
are journalists, so bear your audience
in mind.
• Don’t forget that social media is
not just a broadcast mechanism:
Your approach should be
collaborative/engaging.
• Use tools like Echosec and
Geofeedia to monitor social media
activity in specific geographic
locations: Not all tweets etc will
mention the keywords you are
monitoring.

6. Points to consider
Legal
• Remember that there are a number
of different ways to apologise
without admitting responsibility:
Consider legal advice as to whether
to accept responsibility; let this
guide the response but do not
let it override responding in the
right way in a timely manner on
reputational issues.
• Audit the legal side of reputational
risk: Make sure that the company
‘legally owns’ its own Twitter handles,
Facebook pages and other relevant
social media channels.
• Check all employees are signed
up to the relevant contracts:
The contracts should oblige them
to keep information confidential
and oblige them not to bad-mouth
the company.
• Consider what information you can
stop being published using either
legal tools or using the relevant
regulator such as IPSO.
After
• Review what happened:
Understand what you learnt and what
you could do differently next time.
• Capture what went well: Record and
save the information shared during
the evaluation process to ensure you
can easily access it again in the future.
This saves you trying to remember
what was said last time and can save
you time, money and effort.
6/ CIPR Skills Guide: The role of social media in crisis / issues management

7. Essential reading, listening and watching
Glass Jaw: A Manifesto for Defending Fragile Reputations in an Age of Instant Scandal: by Eric Dezenhall:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Glass-Jaw-Manifesto-Defending-Reputations/dp/1455582972/
Centre for Risk Communications’ Dr Vincent Covello:
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/conference-symposia/ric/past/2010/slides/th39covellovpv.pdf
OECD paper on public Governance: “The Use of Social Media in Risk and Crisis Communications:
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/download/5k3v01fskp9s.
pdf?expires=1441716794id=idaccname=guestchecksum=59F617945C47A5D29C41567A11AC40A2
Cision’s plan is also a shorter helpful guide: “How to Plan and Manage Crisis Communications in a Social World”:
http://www.cision.com/us/resources/white-papers/manage-crisis-communications/
International Air Transport Association Crisis Communications and Social Media Guidelines
http://www.iata.org/publications/Documents/social-media-crisis-guidelines.pdf
Verification Handbook from the Centre for Journalism
http://verificationhandbook.com/
Continuity Insights Report:
http://www.continuityinsights.com/sites/continuityinsights.com/files/legacyimages/CIN419_CrisisCommReportFinal.pdf
Contrarian view of crisis comms:
http://www.burrellesluce.com/freshideas/tag/crystal-degoede/page/2/
• Elayne Phillips MCIPR, Prime Minister’s Office Cabinet Office Communication
• Andrew Smith MCIPR, Founder, Escherman
Examples
Burger King’s Twitter account gets hacked:
https://storify.com/AllthingsIC/burger-king-twitter-account-gets-hacked
HSBC:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/hsbc-fires-employees-who-staged-isis-beheading-as-team-building-exercise-1.3142429
Lufthansa via Burson Marsteller:
http://www.prweek.com/article/1340186/burson-helps-lufthansa-crisis-comms-germanwings-crash
Redcross:
http://www.newsgeneration.com/2013/08/16/using-twitter-in-times-of-crises/
A recent London Fire Brigade tweet was commented upon by the CIPR Social Media Panel:
http://conversation.cipr.co.uk/2015/06/17/twitter-outrage-knowing-audience/
7/ CIPR Skills Guide: The role of social media in crisis / issues management

8. About the CIPR Social Media Panel
Founded in April 2010, our Social
Media Panel (#CIPRSM) plays a
significant role in the development
of Chartered Institute of Public
Relations policy guidance, education,
and training on the topic of digital
and social media in public relations.
#CIPRSM is made up of some of the
foremost social media thought-leaders
and contributors. Since its formation
in 2010, #CIPRSM has delivered
publications, guidance and sector-
leading events.
With thanks to
The following panel members co-created this document during a CIPRsm Hackday on 8th September 2015.
• Co-Chair – Gemma Griffiths MCIPR, Managing Director, The Crowd
• Hanna Basha ACIPR, Legal Director, Hill Dickinson LLP
• Dominic Burch, Head of Social, ASDA
• Stuart Bruce FCIPR, Principal, Stuart Bruce Associates
• Russell Goldsmith MCIPR, Founder, Audere Communications
• Gabrielle Laine-Peters Digital and Social Media Consultant
• Rachel Miller MCIPR, Founder, AllThingsIC
• Elayne Phillips MCIPR, Prime Minister’s Office Cabinet Office Communication
• Andrew Smith MCIPR, Founder, Escherman
Disclaimer
This document does not constitute
legal advice nor does it claim to
cover all eventualities in a crisis
communications situation. Rather the
panel wanted to document the hints,
tips and considerations mentioned
during conversations at a CIPR social
media panel meeting.
8/ CIPR Skills Guide: The role of social media in crisis / issues management

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