1. CRISIS COMM IN SM
PR and Social Media
Weber State University
Jon McBride
EH 306
2. What we’ll cover
• Crisis Communication Intro
• Windgate at Weber – natural disaster
• Snowbasin Staffer Snafu – personal disaster
• Things We Learned
• Random Other Things to Talk About
• WSU SM engagement
• WSU SM beefy analytics
3. Crisis Communications
• In Public Relations, what kind of crises require us to come
up with strategic communication?
4. Crisis Communication
• Historically, media relations may have been your most
important medium in crisis comm
• Today, the media are getting their information from SM
channels
• The challenge is to get out and mold the message before
somebody else does
5. Let’s learn by examples
• Windy, windy Weber …
• 7 a.m.: Woke up to 50 MPH winds, didn’t have a message
from WSU so came to work, parked in a place where I
hoped my car wouldn’t get totaled by some flying object
• 8 a.m.: got to my desk, first thing (like usual) checked the
WSU FB page …
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7. Windy, Windy Weber
• Not bad, just a couple comments so far, but we need to
say something
• 8:15 a.m.: So I GO TO MY SUPERIOR to see what kind
of message we want to get out
• Why is it a good idea to consult your superior?
8. Windy, Windy Weber
• My superior had been in touch with the campus police
chief and the university VPs
• There are specific things that they want said or not said …
and for a variety of reasons (limiting our liability)
• Synergy and unity important here
• Takes a huge load off of my shoulders … kind of nice for a
change
9.
10. Windy, Windy Weber
• So … the message we were told to communicate
was, er, not a great one
• “Due to high winds on campus and flying debris, we
advise everyone to stay inside.”
• People did not like this at all … but that’s what we had
and more or less than that could have been a problem
• How so?
11. Windy, Windy Weber
• 9:09 – 10:32 a.m.: I’m monitoring a lot and responding a
little to comments that are flooding the page and our
thread
• Interaction on the page jumped significantly after we
initially posted something
• 10 a.m.-ish: Winds are up to 90 MPH, we’re getting
reports of crazy stuff happening on campus
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14. Windy, Windy Weber
• 10:32 a.m.: Winds were getting crazier, people were
getting crazier (needing to delete comments, not
engaging trolls), finally administration got back to us with
some more direction
• Our VP has been monitoring the FB page, HE knows we
have to get some more info out there
• Facebook content was getting filtered to the president’s office
15.
16. Windy, Windy Weber
• Still not a ton of clarity
• Notice the amount of shares on these posts
• Very specific wording still
17. Windy, Windy Weber
• 10:32 a.m. – 2:29 p.m.: Still monitoring and responding to
comments, deleting more, looking for what’s next
• 2 p.m.-ish: Winds are dying down
• 2:29 p.m.: Post link to press release about clean up efforts
18.
19. Windy, Windy Weber
• Made it through the day, no major problems
• My No. 1 response through all of it:
• “Thanks for the feedback, [name]”
• Even though the content we were posting out to news
feeds was a little vague and official, we tried to make up
for that with personalized responses
• “This is all the information we have from the administration at this
time.”
20.
21. Windy, Windy Weber
• Main takeaways from the experience:
• We communicated the content in a timely manner
• We provided as many details as we could
• We responded to every question we received
• We addressed every concern that we were able to
• We had 354 interactions on the page (likes+posts from users)
• We provided a platform for people to communicate openly, in a
place with valuable information and fellow collaborators
• We produced content that was used in the president’s office to
shape real-time decision making
22. Snowbasin Staffer Snafu
• Another type of Crisis Communication = when humans do
stupid things
• Other humans who spend time on the internet like to bring
attention to when humans do stupid things
• This is becoming a greater and greater source of crisis
communications for organizations
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32. Snowbasin Staffer Snafu
• Key takeaways:
• Tell your employees to behave (cameras are everywhere), educate
about social media
• Get out ahead of the problem
• At least let people know you’re there, even if you can’t really say
anything special … don’t just make a one-and-done post
• Do users know more about social media PR than you do??? If
so, that’s embarrassing.
• Own up to a problem
• Don’t let a bad day turn into bad months, address the problem so
that everyone can move on
33. WSU Facebook Engagement
• Keys:
• Mix up the content – photos, videos, questions, crowdsourcing
• Stay consistent – posting calendar, always be looking
• Proofread your posts – grammar, spelling, take out URLs
• Pay attention – know what’s working in the industry
• Content in king!!!