Crises and the Importance of Social Media

           A crisis is a challenge in many ways. It's an opportunity for an organization to pull together and come out stronger. Social media has made it even easier to communicate with customers and the public definitely needs to feel extra assurance during a crisis.

          Take a look at the video prank committed by two Dominos Pizza employees in 2009. One employee video taped another tampering with food to be delivered, but the food wasn't actually delivered. The video was posted to YouTube and had generated over one million views before anyone else employed knew about the incident.

         According to Stephanie Clifford of The New York Times, Dominos didn't respond aggressively and I'm inclined to agree. First, Dominos public relations staff should already have active Twitter and Facebook pages. That way the public relations team can monitor what customers and staff are saying about Domino's. Also, Domino's could have posted what was being done to rectify the situation immeadiately. Yes, it is a good idea to send out press releases but it's quicker to use social media, especially in the time of a crisis.

        Target also learned a valuable lesson about crisis management during their security breach in 2013.  According to Davia Temin of Forbes, a blogger broke the news before anyone from Target's public relations team could announce the news. The last thing a press agent or public relations representative needs is to have to deal with a crisis that was mismanaged. Since the news was released by a blogger, a public relations specialist will more than most likely get conflicted advice from their legal department and their public relations team.

        Also, Target missed the opportunity to prepare the best statement for their customers and key publics. Comments could have been tailored to fit their unique situation if a Target representative  released a statement prior to the blogger. It also seems like Target isn't aware of what is going on at their company if they aren't releasing their own statements.

       Both Dominos and Target have learned valuable lessons. Both companies learned that time is of the essence. In this day and age, Dominos and Target also learned that social media is one of the most useful tools for giving the general public information quickly. Social media is also an effective way to monitor staff, customers and the general public.