Review and Analysis of Social Media Crisis Management Studies

This report is a comprehensive review and analysis of existing studies on the intersection of social media and crisis management. The study, published in January 2019, examines the evolving role of social media in crisis communication, highlighting how platforms like Twitter and Facebook have transformed the way organizations communicate during crises. The review analyzes a body of research, including studies sourced from electronic databases, focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of social media in crisis scenarios. It emphasizes the speed and interactivity social media offers, while also acknowledging its potential to exacerbate crises. The report underscores the importance of understanding how social media operates and the need for practitioners to effectively leverage it for stakeholder communication, offering valuable insights for both researchers and professionals in public relations and crisis management.

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SOCIAL MEDIA AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT: A REVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF
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LAÜ Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi (IX-II): 199-215
SOCIAL MEDIA AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT: A REVIEW
AND ANALYSIS OF EXISTING STUDIES
SOSYAL MEDYA VE KRİZ YÖNETİMİ: MEVCUT ÇALIŞMALARIN
İNCELEMESİ VE ANALİZİ
Received 18 September 2018- Accepted 25 November 2018
Gönderim 18 Eylül 2018- Kabul 25 Kasım 2018
Abstract: Social media has become the most used and active way of communication; however,
studies that look at social media use in crisis management are in their growing stage. Thus, this
study analyses these growing body of knowledge that researched into social media and crisis
management. A review was undertaken between October 2017 to January 2018 which entails
sourcing and retrieving materials from an electronic database. The findings of this review
confirmed that the growth of social media has transformed crisis communication landscape
because it allows more interactivity. Still, a crisis could also be catalysed by social media because of
its nature. This signifies that the crisis can be created in social media, as well as distributed by
social media, respectively. Yet, the potential of social media as a crisis resolution tool is
indisputable. It has the potential to prove a statement, to dispel untrue rumours or just to show the
fact. Hence, practitioners are encouraged to know thoroughly how social media works and the best
way to manipulate it to communicate with their stakeholders. Additional findings are also shown in
this study, along with limitations and meaningful suggestion for scholars and practitioners
interested in understanding the impact of social media in crisis communication and management.
Keywords: Crisis, crisis management, crisis communication, information, social media
Öz: Sosyal medya iletişimin en aktif ve yoğun kullanılan aracı haline gelmiştir, ancak bununla
birlikte, kriz yönetiminde sosyal medya kullanımına yönelik çalışmalar henüz büyüme
aşamasındadır. Bu nedenle, bu çalışma sosyal medya ve kriz yönetimi üzerine yapılan
araştırmalara dair büyüyen bilgi yapısını analiz etmektedir. Ekim 2017'den Ocak 2018'e kadar,
elektronik bir veri tabanından temin edilen kaynak ve verilerin incelemesi yapılmıştır. İncelemenin
bulguları, sosyal medyadaki büyümenin kriz iletişiminin çehresini değiştirdiğini çünkü sosyal
medyanın daha fazla etkileşime izin verdiğini doğrulamaktadır. Öte yandan bir kriz doğası gereği
sosyal medya tarafından da katalize edilebilmektedir. Bu, krizin sosyal medyada oluşabileceği gibi
yine sosyal medyada dağılabileceğini göstermektedir. Sosyal medyanın kriz çözme aracı olarak
potansiyeli tartışılmazdır. Bir beyanı kanıtlama, doğru olmayan söylentileri giderme ya da sadece
gerçeği gösterme yönünde potansiyele sahiptir. Bu nedenle uygulayıcılar, sosyal medyanın nasıl
çalıştığını ve paydaşlarla iletişim kurmak için en iyi nasıl işlem yapıldığını iyice öğrenmeye teşvik
edilirler. Bu çalışmada, sosyal medyanın kriz iletişimi ve kriz yönetimindeki etkisini anlama
konularıyla ilgilenen akademisyen ve uygulayıcılara anlamlı öneriler verilmekte; ek bulgular
gösterilmektedir.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Kriz, kriz yönetimi, kriz iletişimi, bilgi, sosyal medya
Oberiri Destiny APUKE
Department of Communication Studies,
European University of Lefke,
North Cyprus
[e-mail]
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-7657-4858
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elif Asude TUNCA
Faculty of Communication Sciences
Department of New Media and Journalism
European University of Lefke,
North Cyprus
[e-mail]
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-0636-8247

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INTRODUCTION
The use of social media has increased in the world of communication, with
Twitter and Facebook as the most used platforms (Dunbar, Arnaboldi, Conti, &
Passarella, 2015), and organizations have gained mileage by using it to communicate
in a much more effective and fast way with their customers about their businesses as
well as responding to queries and questions (Coombs & Holladay, 2010: 66; Carroll
& Buchholtz, 2014:23). However, in as much as the emergence of social media has
brought in the advantage of fast, effective communication, it has also given room for
the fast spread of negative communication (Wright & Hinson, 2008). An
organization depends on its reputation, it is a pertinent aspect that directly translates
to its financial achievement (Fombrun, Gardberg, & Sever, 2000; Fombrun, Van
Riel, & Van Riel, 2004:22), and with the emergence of social media, crisis might
arise and spread faster than it can ever do on any other traditional forms of
communication (González-Herrero & Smith, 2010; Jones et al., 2009). Therefore, the
success of any organisation is highly dependent on what it says or the effort it makes
after a crisis strike. This is called crisis management and being able to address issues
that threaten its reputation will go a long way (Benoit, 1997). It has been suggested
that it is paramount for organizations to understand fully how to manage different
kinds of crisis via social media. Yet, a lot of organisations are sceptical as regards the
trustworthiness and reliability of social media (Wrights & Hinson, 2009).
Nevertheless, other research has shown that organizations have taken up the use of
social media as a communication tool, not just for marketing and public relations
messages, but also for crisis communication which is also known as crisis
management (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007). Thus, the development of social
media as communication platform has drawn numerous interests from researchers in
the field of public relations. For example, prior study on the utilization of social
media as a tool for organizations public relations strategy has been undertaken
(Briones et al., 2011), but studies on the use of social media in crisis management are
still in their developing stage and requires further exploration. Moreover, there are
contention that the issue of social media has transformed the communication crisis
landscape because it allows more interactivity, and at the same time crisis could be
catalysed through social media because of its nature.
Thus, a critique of literature that concerns social media and crisis management is
worthwhile, and also offers a prospect to demonstrate the collective intellect that has
been accumulated from the extensive body of research that has utilised various
participants, samples, and methods. This present work attempts to increase the
understanding of social media use in crisis management through analysing the
existing body of knowledge. The outcome of this study, is hence beneficial for future
researchers in this area of research. It also benefits organizations and practitioners,
because it demonstrates the usage of social media during a crisis and proffer
suggestion that will improve its usage.
1. LITERATURE REVIEW METHODS
This review deals with the studies that centre on social media and crisis
management. Consequently, other works that examined the use of social media in

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another field such as education, politics and social interactivity were entirely
excluded. This study adopts a literature review method. The review was undertaken
between October 2017 to January 2018 which entails carefully sourcing and
retrieving publications from an ISI web of knowledge and Google Scholar to include
Taylor and Francis, Emerald, Springer and Elsevier etc. Scopus was also used. To
recognised other related studies that could shape this present research, thesis,
proceedings, and books were also searched by hand. There was no restriction to the
date of the articles to be retrieved. The key search phrases that were used to access
the articles included; crisis communication, social media and crisis management,
public relations and social media, crisis management, public relations on Facebook.
Accordingly, the author also used specific social media such as blogs, Wikipedia,
Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Flick along with crisis management, crisis
responses and communication to reach the targeted articles.
As of October 2017, the initial search results yielded 1250 references which on a
closer look were found related to the main issues under investigation. These
references were speedread by checking the title, abstract and conclusion to ensure
that each retrieved article is entirely related to the subject matter. In situations where
the author was not entirely clear while speedreading an article, the entire article was
read. This process resulted in (n=67) purposively selected studies used in this article.
Of the (n=67), 60 articles were further extracted for more detailed evaluation based
on thoroughly analysing the abstract and keywords, methodology, conclusion and
general findings. Therefore, the (n=60) studies used for the review met the inclusion
benchmark for the final dataset. These studies basically examined the use of social
media in managing crisis.
There is evidence to demonstrate that matters connected to social media has
drawn a growing body of researchers, and in specific yielding a considerable number
of surveys testing the role social media plays in crisis management. These studies
have adopted different dimensions and paradigm, as well as used diverse methods
and techniques resulting in varied outcomes (Gironda & Korgaokar, 2014). Against
this backdrop, this current study seeks to review and analyse the literatures that
focused on social media and crisis management in order to grasp the key pertinent
issues investigated so far and the ones requiring further investigation.
2. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION OF THE REVIEWED STUDIES
2.1. Relationship Between Crisis Management and Social Media
It was observed that a good number of studies (about 26 articles) have paid
close attention to the nexus between social media and crisis management. These
studies maintained that the practitioners of public relations have adopted social
media in running an organization and this has also been extended to manage crisis.
For example, research has indicated that the development of social media has
transformed the lives of individuals as much as it has changed that of corporations
(Floreddu & Cabiddu, 2014; Dellarocas, 2006). Wang (2015) observes that social
media has been utilised for public relations since its advent in 2004, and this has had
an influence on both individuals and the society (Khang, Ki, & Ye, 2012). Likewise,
a study affirmed that social media have a predominant and growing role to act in the

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societal construction of crises as they play in the deconstruction of crises through the
creation of virtual communities (Schultz & Wehmeier, 2010). In contrast, Watkins
(2014) commented that social media are most often interactive and dialogic, which
means it is an easier platform to create communities and bring around the protest. In
addition, Stenger (2014) contends that social media has different categories, and one
of them are content sharing websites from which different participants can share and
interchange information. This means if a crisis happens, it will spread faster on social
media as they are more dialogues and allow faster and easier content sharing. In
harmony with the above arguments, a study has reported that the utilization of social
media by the public increases during public crises, and with this observation,
statements have been made noting that the participation of the public is now a
contemporary practise in the managing of crisis (Baron, 2010:18).
Furthermore, studies have concretised this notion by arguing that the public
individuals that are participating in social media during crises have been shown to
prefer the use of social media over the conventional media (Kaye, 2005; Swerrtser &
Metzgar, 2007). Indeed, social media has brought a new face to crises
communication. Therefore, studies have reported that when a crisis occurs, the
public has opted to the utilization of social media to solicit for emotional support
bundling up virtually to share information and demand resolutions (Choi & Lin,
2009; Veil et al., 2011). However, Dutta-Bergman (2006) argues that it is this online
participation that is then replicated offline to resolve the crisis, which means for the
practitioners of public relations their mandate is to follow social media activity and
act on it. Coombs and Holladay (2008) solidify these arguments by noting that the
fact that new media is rapidly evolving has put it way ahead of research when a crisis
strikes. This is so because with all the participation that the society is involved in
when a crisis strikes it gives room for any organization to see what is being talked
about and how they can resolve the issue as being raised by the public. Coombs and
Holladay (2008), however, give a disclaimer for this notion and goes further to say
that despite social media being ahead of research there is still need for research in the
professional world of public relation so that action can be done based on credible
findings. Utz, Schultz and Glocka (2013) concur with this notion by remarking that
in our digital world, today's social media acts a negotiation platform of the dynamics
of crises, it is the platform that different organizations and their public communicate
on crises despite their distances.
Prior studies found that organization depends on its image and reputation and it is
the only corporate crisis that could threaten it (Roberts & Dowling, 2002; Coombs &
Holladay, 2008). In conjunction with this notion, a body of research postulation
revealed that during a crisis the highest threat is the reputation of the organization
(Benoit, 1997; Dutton & Dukerich, 1991; Kliatchko, 2008). Thence, the knowledge
and the execution of crisis management is paramount for any organization, (Coombs
& Holladay, 2010:24). A crisis receives a great deal of media attention (Dutta &
Pullig, 2011; Weick, 1988); so, it is connected with high imports. Coombs and
Holladay (2008) concretes this notion by reiterating that when a crisis occurs, it gets
a lot of media attention, however, he further argues that the fast development of
diverse social media has made the crisis more difficult to manage because there are
vast spectrums for public opinion. Nevertheless, Benoit (1997) and Coombs and
Holladay (2008) submit that the effect of any crisis will rest on the organizational

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responses after its occurrence. Against this background, it is pertinent to describe
how each specific social media has been reportedly used in crisis management.
2.2. The Place of Blogs in Crisis Communications
Generally, the results of the past studies exploring the use of blogs in crisis
management have shown blogs to be an effective means connecting with an
organization’s public during a crisis. About (n=8) studies in this review examined the
utilization of blog as a tool for managing crisis (i.e. Jin et al., 2011; Coombs &
Holladay, 2007; Siebert, 2006; Kent, 2008; Álvarez, 2012; Coombs & Holladay,
2008; Stephens & Malone, 2009; Sweetser & Metzgar, 2007). Worthwhile to say
that about 80% of these literatures demonstrated that communications through blogs
can lead to a serious change in public perception of the crisis (Coombs & Holladay
2008; Stephens & Malone, 2009). For example, evidence from Sweetser and Metzgar
(2007) study show that organizations that maintain their own blogs can easily cope
with crises and more quickly neutralize their consequences. The authors suggest that
keeping a blog is an effective tool for anti-crisis management. Likewise, evidence
from Stephens and Malone (2009) demonstrate that in a crisis situation, the blog
offers huge benefits through the possibility of dialogue in which companies can
respond rapidly and demonstrate greater openness to this developing need for
information. From the crisis communications perspective, the blog allows
organizations to demonstrate that they do not obviate the situation or turn down to
take part in the discourse. By demonstrating that they are not trying to hide anything,
organizations have the opportunity to build relationships with their trust-based
audiences and gain their loyalty and approval. Sweetser and Metzgar (2007) noticed
that the more organizations communicate through blogs the closer the
communications from organizations to the audience becomes. This means that blogs
are an alternative channel and online centre to inform target groups and the
mainstream media operators in the event of crisis if the official site is unavailable or
blocked (Álvarez, 2012).
A fair quantity of studies has discussed the contention over the level of control
that an organization should impose on blogs created by employees (Kent, 2008;
Coombs & Holladay, 2007). For example, Kent (2008) noticed that a number of
bloggers receive incredible media attention because they have been fired for posting
critical information, disclosing confidential information about the organization.
However, the benefits of blogging remain massive as people who have been directly
affected by the crisis have the opportunity to describe the real experience and
emotion through their blogs and share details that would have been avoided by the
journalists covering the event as part of their duties. Siebert (2006) indicates that the
blog is an important communication channel during a crisis; however, careful
attention should be paid to the monitoring of the blogosphere. Companies need to
have their own blogs to keep up with good bloggers. These bloggers, however,
should be identified with the organization, as the lack of such identification can lead
to a communication crisis (Siebert, 2006).
Coombs and Holladay (2007) revealed that organizations can maintain blogs and
reach a completely new audience by encouraging audiences to engage in discussions,
assess and participate in distributing information, especially in times of crisis
(Coombs & Holladay, 2007). Based on this notion, a blog can have a high

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importance in crisis communications, although it has not yet been integrated in many
organisations. Jin et al., (2011) develop a Blog-Mediated Crisis Communication
(BMCC) theory that defines the impact of blogs before, during, and after the crisis.
The theory is grounded on the assumption that those who manage crisis have the task
of identifying the blogger that is most recognized and influential in sight of the
audiences due to the fact it is difficult to keep an eye on every blog. Base on this
reason, the BMCC assumption is quite relevant as a leading factor and specifies that
bloggers influence their followers, satisfying their information and emotive desires
all through the period of a crisis. According to this model, important bloggers reach
an audience that monitors the blogosphere in indirect ways - by publishing content
that begins to spread mouth-to-mouth outside the online space.
2.3. Facebook Use in Crisis Management
Research has shown that whenever a crisis happens, the use of Facebook could
be an amazing tool to reduce the tension of the situation. Crisis could take a form of
a simple website outage to negative publicity. Therefore, the openness,
communication, obligation, and receptiveness are all imperative aspects that develop
and envisage the success of an organizational crisis management (Álvarez, 2012;
Nardi et al., 2000). The motivation for building a community is not only finding
people with similar interests, but also the demand for public recognition (Álvarez,
2012). And despite the existence of hundreds of social networking sites, Facebook
remains an indisputable leader and is not accidentally called "the phenomenon of our
time." While Facebook's main idea is to be used to create and maintain personal
contacts, this social network quickly becomes a powerful tool for public relations,
marketing, sales, politics, and even propaganda.
By creating a new group or company webpage or its products, it begins to build
its faithful audience, tracks the news about the product/campaign in question as well
as comments, and questions that requires answers. Pages bring together thousands
and even millions of users around a person, company, organization, idea or cause.
The options that Facebook offers such as Messenger, easy-to-navigate photos,
corporate pages, videos, and other interactive features allow companies to
communicate with their audiences and provide relevant, up-to-date and reliable first-
hand information in a situation of crisis. Buttressing on this, Coombs and Holladay
(2008) point out that organization must show a high level of concern for victims and
responsibility when a situation of crisis arises. This can be achieved through status
updates, links, videos, and pictures in order show concern for what is happening and
for those affected.
The main thing to note about Facebook is that it is not about generating intrusive
talk. The best approach to using the platform for crisis communication purposes is by
publishing information, ideas, and comments that are interesting and useful, to
respect people’s opinion and to speak in an accessible language. Facebook's initial
idea is to be a place to communicate online with our friends (that is why the contact
section is called "Friends"). Facebook makes it possible to mass-spread messages in
a quick, easy and convenient way by posting users status. Even a small number of
users’ contacts can read a message related to a particular crisis. The so-called peer-
to-peer communications model makes it possible to quickly spread the message to
other Facebook users, as well as outside the social media. Receiving news from

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traditional media sometimes means first logging into our Facebook profile. This
factor is so strong that often traditional media need social media to have access to a
larger audience (Veil et al., 2011). Thus, Facebook has been shown an enormous
potential to provoke participation, communication, and engagement in
communication processes during a crisis, making postings visible and interactive.
2.4. Twitter and Crisis Management
Twitter's potential for crisis communications has had a considerable measure of
attention from researchers (McAllister; 2012; Grolid, 2011; Bennet, 2009; Kurtz,
2009; Kortom, 2011:18). For instance, Kortom (2011:18) concentrated on the role of
Twitter, both in times of crisis and before its occurrence. The author suggests that
having an account on this social media in "quiet times" is of particular importance.
Not just the number of followers is important, but also who are these followers.
Therefore, organizations need to monitor communication processes in advance and
analysed influence factors and opinion leaders. These users, who have such an
influence, are central to a crisis and can help spread the official messages quickly by
sharing (Kortom, 2011: 20). Buttressing on this, Kurtz (2009) noticed that Twitter
has already become a global factor in news and news releases, ordinary users get
very powerful and important players in reporting crisis and spreading info about it.
Twitter, as well as other social media, change the status quo, where editors are entry
guards and reduce their function. Indeed, Twitter induces "a vast and long-lasting
conversation between millions of people around the globe" (Bennet, 2009: 9).
A recent example of twitters pervasiveness is Norwegian’s use of Twitter in and
after the ‘Oslo and Utøya’ attacks of 22 July 2011. Twitter was exploding with
news updates from eyewitnesses, real-time messages from victims while the shooting
was happening, and others searching for loved ones, asking for retweets of their
message (Grolid, 2011). Social media changes the manner we receive and share
information in a crisis. Instead of getting the latest news from traditional media
outlets, Twitter was the medium, breaking news far before broadcast media, and
several people are of the opinion this event caused ‘a media revolution’ in Norway
(Grolid, 2011).
It has been shown that the feasibility of a given social media, as well as the
influence and importance it has in times of crisis, is conditioned by other factors such
as the extent to which it is popular and used in a certain region. In this sense,
McAllister (2012) suggests that it is important for crisis communication
professionals to comply with both the target audience of the message in question and
the applicable social media. This also extends to the given geographic features and
the preferences of the audience.
2.5. Media Sharing Sites and Crisis Management
Research has described media sharing sites as social media that permits easy
sharing of different contents like video, pictures, and music. Examples of these
media sharing sites are YouTube, Instagram and Flickr. Evidence has indicated that
the research into the utilization of media sharing sites as a tool for crisis
communication has only attracted a trivial number of investigators (i.e. Lenhart et
al., 2010; O’Connor, 2014; Kennedy et al., 2007). It has been demonstrated that the
benefits and features that media sharing sites can offer have made it extremely easy
for people to access, share, distribute, and comment. To boot, they enable

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communication, creating social groups, contacting other group members, influencing
and forming attitudes to advance an idea, person, product or issue (Kennedy et al.,
2007). This implies that audiences have the opportunity to see videos or photos from
the scene of the event, which dispels the doubts, gives them a sense of authenticity
and makes the situation closer, regardless of geographic differences. Similarly,
O’Connor (2014) mentions Instagram as the newest and most applicable anti-crisis
public relations tool when it comes to crisis situations, this social platform could
serve to distract rumours, redirect attention, and communicate directly with
audiences. Evidence from a study demonstrates that about 37% of internet users
around the world are somehow involved in creating news online through media
sharing sites. Most of them are related to natural disasters, where people publish
photos and videos from the scene (Lenhart et al., 2010).
2.6. Wikipedia Place in Crisis Management
Based on the literature collected for this review, it could be deduced that only a
little amount of studies seems to look into the utilization of Wikipedia for crisis
management, and these studies have indicated that the wikis allow each member of
an organization to be involved in the planning, literally on a single page instead of
creating another unnecessary document (Jin, Fisher Liu & Austin, 2014; Borremans,
2010). Borremans (2010) commented that planning, crisis maps, action scenarios, all
this can be described and updated in a secure wiki site that is accessible only to those
who need to be involved in the anti-crisis process. The wikis can easily be organized
according to the different aspects of crisis planning. Templates and preliminary
feedback statements can be created base on the typology of the crises. For example,
the crises related to disasters, damages and potential victims, as well as listing people
being searched, and affected areas that need help could be shown. The probability to
constantly update the content by common people makes wiki sites particularly
important in this type of crises.
This implies that the most important aspect of the wiki in crisis management and
communication is its easy availability and editing "on the go" function (Jin, Fisher,
Liu & Austin, 2014). This eliminates the "lack of timeliness" factor, which can be a
significant obstacle to taking adequate anti-crisis actions. If we go back to the wikis
used for the internal needs of the organizations, they allow each change to be marked
with the appropriate hour mark and the name of the person who made it. This allows
a quick check of the views, facts, and responses that the organization’s
representatives have posted. This is especially significant, particularly in post-crisis
analysis. Having documented the various social media tools utilized in crisis
management it is essential to explicate in depth how these tools contribute to crisis
responses.
2.7. Social Media and Crisis Response
Social media use for crisis responses has received a good number of studies (i.e.
Wright & Hinson, 2008; Coombs & Holladay, 2014; Romenti et al., 2014; Utz,
Schultz, & Glocka, 2013; Apuke, 2016; Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010; Wendling,
Radisch, & Jacobzone, 2013; Lu & Weber, 2007; Kelleher, 2009; Coombs &
Holladay, 2007; Yang & Lim, 2009; Shirky, 2009; Lamberti, 2016 Quarantelli,
1998; Palen, Vieweg, Sutton, Liu, & Hughes, 2007; Sweetser & Metzgar, 2007;
Bradford & Garrett, 1995; Coombs & Holladay, 2010, 2008: 22, 28; Tucker &

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Melewar, 2005; Kent, Taylor, & White, 2003; Roberts & Dowling, 2002; White &
Raman, 2000; Patriotta, Schultz, & Gond, 2008; Schultz & Wehmeier, 2010). About
90% of these studies reveal that a large number of the public adopts social media
when crisis erupt, therefore, it is appropriate for organizations to master and optimize
the social media tools to respond and act. Accordingly, Coombs and Holladay (2008)
argue that issues that emerge on social media can be very unpredictable on how they
move and how the public reacts to it, therefore, the organization should be wary of
information that involves them and what their public say online. This notion is
consistent with Sweetser and Metzgar (2007) postulation which indicate that Twitter
messages are much faster moving, and a crisis can spread faster via twitter because
its messages could be easily read, commented upon and even circulated by its
followers. As such, research has also documented evidence which shows that social
media has been guilty of being a social constructor of the crisis through its much
liberal and open platforms, however, it has fast become a good tool for reputation
rebuilding and repair (e.g., Schultz & Wehmeier, 2010). A good number of prior
studies affirmed that a crisis disturbs order in society, it destroys interaction between
stakeholders and organizations and threatens company image (Kent et al., 2003;
Roberts & Dowling, 2002; White & Raman, 2000). Patriotta, Schultz, and Gond
(2008) concur with this notion as they indicate that social media could also be
viewed as a threat to organizations most valued possession which is an image. To
concretize this notion, Coombs and Holladay (2007) raise the issue of the electronic
word -of –mouth (WOM) as an aspect that causes the rapid spreading of a crisis. It is
through the rapid messages WOM spread, therefore, social media falls under the
electronic WOM, which builds a series and cycle of communication that spreads
from one end to the other. It is through the interactions of society and social media
that electronic word of mouth goes viral through retweeting and sharing social media
messages. In addition, Coombs and Holladay (2007) postulate that WOM can be
referred to as stakeholders’ comments about an establishment or organization. The
circulation of these comments and having other people talk or chat about them is
WOM and if negative, it could tarnish the image and status of an organization
(Tucker & Melewar, 2005).
Studies have shown that any crisis demands information, it asks for explanations
or responses (Coombs & Holladay, 2010, 2008: 20, 22), but the responses made
influence the results of a crisis. Bradford and Garrett (1995) noted that accepting
responsibility and approaching a crisis apologetically can guarantee a positive result
from a crisis. Research has advocated that social media is more interactive and has a
higher chance of dialogue and interactivity, an apology or a well thought out positive
response to the crisis is most likely to make a positive effect when shared to another
online participator (Seltzer & Mitrook, 2007). Prior literature suggested that as social
media platform usage continues to advance, public relations practitioners should put
effort to realise how to effectively utilise these tools to better their practices as well
as the impact these tools have on their operations (Seltzer & Mitrook, 2007).
Specifically, Sweetser and Metzgar (2007) suggest blogs and Twitter as an effective
publishing tool that the public relations practitioners should be very well conversant
with and utilise for crisis responses. They are of the notion that these platforms allow
a frequent form of communication with the feel of a human voice and they are
regarded as rather more authentic than Facebook. This is consistent with a result of a
research carried out by the American Red Cross, which suggests that those who

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respond in terms of emergency should have media monitoring policies so as to
rapidly send assistance when needed (Palen, Vieweg, Sutton, Liu, & Hughes, 2007).
As such, there is research postulation which suggests that members of the community
have always been volunteers in crisis response and participation (Quarantelli, 1998),
thus, social media has an advanced characteristic of incorporating the community
and making them part of the crisis (Lamberti, 2016).
Research has also shown that social media have fast become the biggest and
sometimes the first port of news telling of world events (Shirky, 2009). Yang and
Lim (2009) contend that although communication through conventional newspapers
establishes organization’s credibility, nevertheless, communicating through social
media websites has created higher credibility for organizations. Therefore, it means if
an organization goes through a crisis, apologies and information can be provided via
social media, which work well in managing and responding to a crisis. Supporting
this notion, Kelleher (2009) posits that blogs are believed to have a conversational
human voice and if public relations personnel communicate on blogs they can
receive feedback such as conviction, approval and assurance from the public.
Therefore, social media have given positive impact to the public relations arena when
it comes to crisis responses.
Nevertheless, scholars have reasoned that the best responses and best fastest
feedback are usually through twitter because it permits immediate and faster replies.
Therefore, communication via social media is shared with only the click of a mouse;
it resists the laws of space and time (Coombs & Holladay, 2007). This means the
crisis response has become easier instead of doing it via newspapers or print
material, just one post; one message is enough to deliver the message. Public
relations can also depend on other people in the social web to share information with
other users in their own efforts (Kelleher, 2009). Therefore, Lu and Weber (2007)
argue that organisation would be thoroughly ignorant not to acknowledge the fact
that the communication world has become saturated with digital communication. It
is, thus, essential to comprehend how to utilise digital tools so as to communicate
effectively and stay relevant.
Generally, there is good evidence which suggests that social media are adopted to
disseminate messages in terms of warning and creating awareness when crisis
occurs. It has also been used by organizations and public relations practitioners to
maintain good dialogues and receive feedbacks from public authorities, a given
community, action groups, other business and financial sectors as well as the citizens
at large (Wendling, Radisch, & Jacobzone, 2013). Accordingly, a growing body of
literature has been shown to support that the advent of social media has transformed
the crisis communication landscape because it allows more interactivity leading to
the creation, sharing and exchange of information, ideas, pictures/videos in split
seconds (Apuke, 2016; Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010: 61). This notion is consistent with
another body of evidence which viewed social media as a good tool for public
relations practitioners and companies (Utz, Schultz, & Glocka, 2013), because it
helps companies to communicate with customers directly as well as engage with
their publics in a more interactive manner (Wright & Hinson 2008; Coombs &
Holladay, 2014; Romenti et al., 2014).

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CONCLUSION
The advent of social media has transformed the crisis communication landscape
because it permits more interactivity leading to the creation, sharing and exchange of
information, ideas, and pictures/videos in split seconds. However, social media’s
interactive and dialogic nature means it is an easier platform to create communities
and bring around the protest. Practitioners of public relations and organizations are
recommended to follow social media activity and act on it, because if utilised
accordingly, it could act as a negotiation platform during crises. Future studies
should examine to what extent an organization and practitioners of public relations
should adopt social media during crisis, and when is it necessary to make use of
word of mouth or face to face dialogue. Blogs have been shown to be an effective
medium for connecting organization and its public when a crisis occurs. However,
the type of messages to be used on blog during crisis requires additional
clarifications by future investigators. Organizations could also benefit from
Facebook by creating a new group or company webpage. More studies are needed
to replicate existing studies and extend to explain in detail how public relations
practitioners should use Facebook during crisis.
Similarly, studies on the impact of Twitter in crisis management suggest that
organizations need to have an account on this social media and that not only the
number of followers is important, but also who are these followers. This calls for
organizations and the public relations experts to monitor communication processes in
advance and analyse influence factors and opinion leaders. Media sharing sites such
as YouTube (for video), Flickr and Instagram (for photograph) during crisis has
shown that audiences have the opportunity to see videos or photos from the scene of
the event. Similarly, Wikipedia allows each member of an organization to be
involved in the planning, and resolving of crisis literally on a single page instead of
creating another unnecessary document. More studies are required to clarify in detail
how wikis permit the members of an organization to be involved in both the planning
and responding during crisis. It has been shown that crisis disturbs order in society,
it destroys interaction between stakeholders and organizations and threatens
company image. Thus, the best responses and fastest feedback are usually obtained
through Twitter because it permits immediate and faster responses. In addition, blogs
are also alleged to have a conversational human voice and if public relations
personnel communicate on blogs, they can receive outcomes such as confidence,
satisfaction and loyalty. However, evidence has shown that blog use has not yet been
integrated in many organizations’ therefore, organizations and practitioners, who
have not yet started using blogs, should make it a priority to adopt blogs during a
crisis.
Prior studies have mostly depended on survey research methods utilizing a
questionnaire. There was no study that was found to use a mixed method of research
to test the related subject matter. No case study or longitudinal research was adopted
in prior studies to deeply research into the usage of social media in crisis
management. Importantly, future investigators should place additional effort by
adopting mixed methods so as to provide a comprehensive understanding of the
utilization of social media platforms in managing and communicating during crisis.
Beyond mixed methods utilization, future studies should also adopt a longitudinal