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Dr. Keri Stephens speaks on her chapter "Crisis Communications and Sharing Message Control"

Three Social Media Strategies to Help in Crisis and Emergency Situations

By IGI Global on Apr 15, 2015
Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Third EditionContributed by Dr. Keri K. Stephens, Associate Professor and Faculty Affiliate with the Center for Health Communication at The University of Texas at Austin, USA

Have you noticed that many companies and nonprofit organizations are monitoring social media today? While many of these organizations are using social media for customer service and general information, there is another important trend: using social media during crises and emergencies. I began researching crises and emergencies before social media was popular, and I can see three big changes in the past decade. Here I will focus on those trends. To learn more about crisis communication, view my chapter “Crisis Communications and Sharing Message Control” in the Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Third Edition.

Share the crisis spotlight.
Fifteen years ago, organizations might get away with telling different stories to different groups of stakeholders; they could create explanations for crises that targeted diverse needs. That is not the case today. People who find a topic interesting are willing to share virtually everything. When the messages during a crisis are not consistent, the stakeholders will know. This has forced organizations to change their views on how to communicate during a crisis and how to rely on partners—including key stakeholders—to help them share their messages. Crisis messages can be distributed in many different directions simultaneously. Organizations need to develop strong relationships before crises hit and they need to constantly maintain stakeholder contact.

Leverage real-time knowledge from average people.
Five years ago I conducted focus groups asking about sources of crisis and emergency information. Many people said that official sources, like the police and emergency agencies, are often less informed than average people on the ground watching an emergency unfold. The desire for real-time information has only increased in the past five years, and successful organizations capture this data and share it with their stakeholders quickly. Organizations monitor social media feeds and jump on top of issues quickly, instead of assuming people in the middle of an unfolding emergency will also provide updates to official sources. The key is knowing which social media tools stakeholders use and how to be a value-added communicator of urgent information.

Learn to “Communicate Briefly.”
People are not always willing to wade through several webpages to find the information they need. They expect the desired information to be quickly accessible and presented briefly. The scientist in me is petrified to condense technical details and present them as “soundbites,” but there is increasing evidence that brevity is important to capture peoples’ attention. This means that organizations must be aware of how to create an impactful 140 character message if it will be tweeted, or a 160 character text message. Organizations must spend time carefully crafting these brief messages and using those few characters to direct audiences to images, videos, or more details, if they want the whole story.

This is a rapidly changing field and communication practices are the core of what will help organizations successfully navigate this new form of crisis and emergency communication. Not only can these strategies help maintain the reputation of an organization in a crisis, but they also can have life-saving implications.


Dr. Keri K. Stephens (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is an Associate Professor in Communication Studies at The University of Texas at Austin where she conducts research and teaches in the area of Organizational Communication and Technology. She currently teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Organizational Communication, Communication Technologies, Health, Safety, and Technology in Organizations, Contemporary Communication in Meetings, Communicating to Build Sales Relationships, and Communication Studies Internships. Her research focuses on using redundancy and using multiple communication technologies to examine multicommunicating in organizational meetings, health communication, crisis messages, emergency communication, and overload.

Dr. Stephens' research is featured in the Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Third Edition, a 10-volume compilation of authoritative, research-based articles contributed by thousands of researchers and experts from all over the world. This discipline-defining encyclopedia will serve research needs in numerous fields that are affected by the rapid pace and substantial impact of technological change. With an emphasis on modern issues and the presentation of potential opportunities, prospective solutions, and future directions in the field, it is a relevant and essential addition to any academic library’s reference collection. For more information visit the Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Third Edition web page.
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