HOW SOCIAL MEDIA FITS INTO YOUR CRISIS MANAGEMENT PLAN

It seems that Social Media is everywhere these days; watching TV a little tweet pops up with a tweeters opinion of the show that I am watching. Magazine articles now have QR Codes. On the weekends, instead of hanging out with friends, our teens are on Facebook hanging out in the virtual world. Besides Social Media invading my personal life, this virtual world has become a "must have" in my business world.
I am 24 hours a day 7 days a week, connected in this cyber space. It makes you think, if the unexpected was to happen, if a crisis strikes, Social Media is a pretty important tool to have. In an instant, you can blast an update to event attendees, suppliers, vendors, staff and anyone else who could possibly need to know what is going on; when it is “Go Time” on Plan B.
So, when it comes to your Crisis Management Plan, is Social Media on the checklist?
Here are five ways to incorporate Social Media into your Crisis Management Plan:
•First things first, be actively engaged on at least one platform in Social Media.
•Create a Facebook Event Page for the event that you are planning. Instead of updating all of your Fans; you can update this single event page designated for everyone involved in the event, including attendees.
•Have a “Social Media Task Force” in place. At least one staff member who is in charge of updating your Social Media sites and mass texting everyone that needs to know. Depending on the crisis, updates should be sent out every 15 minutes with accurate information. Make sure you have a list of names and emails of everyone who needs to be informed on event day.
•Update all of your sites quick and easy with a Social Media Dashboard. A single program that updates all of your sites at once; saving a tremendous amount of time and increasing your efficiency even more.
•Depending on the crisis, you can use Twitter to retweet information from news outlets to your followers. This adds even more credibility to your brand and it shows you truly care about keeping your followers informed.
Don’t wait for a crisis to hit before you build your Social Media network. If used correctly and effectively during a crisis, Social Media can take your relationship building to the next level.