Social Media in Crisis Communications:

1
Social Media inCrisis Communications Plans,
Policies Platforms
NorthEast Disaster Recovery Information
X-Change Spring Conference June 12, 2012
2
Social Media by the Numbers

• 46 of Americans own smartphones, up 11 since
  May 2011.
• Nearly 9-in-10 smartphone owners have used their
  phones in the past 30 days to perform a real-time
  query (traffic, sports, arrange a meeting.)
• There are more than 500,000 mobile apps available
  in the Apple iPhone store
• -Pew Research, apple.com

3
What is Social Media?
Social Media refers to a set of online tools
and platforms that allow organizations to
communicate and converse with the public. Why
use Social Media in a crisis? To reach the almost
1 in 2 Americans who own a smartphone.
4
Plans, Policies Platforms

• Every successful response begins with a plan.
• Policies guide all employees in day-to-day
  activities may need additional language and
  training for crisis response.
• Not all platforms are created equal. Not all
  social media platforms are appropriate for use
  during a crisis.

5
The Speed of Twitter
There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry
going to pick up the people. Crazy. -Janis
Krums Commuter Ferry Passenger January 15, 2009
6
Best Reason to Plan?
When the plane lands in the Hudson, it's too
late to figure out Twitter. Sree Sreenivasan,
Columbia University Graduate School of
Journalism
7
Planning

• Before the crisis
• How is the company using social media every day?
  What platforms are you using?
• What departments need to be consulted? Sales,
  Marketing, IT, Legal, HR
• Practice

8
Policies

• Get everyone on the same page, literally
• Overall, day-to-day policy
• Policy during a crisis
• Google is your friend its been done
• Regulated industries
• NLRB case law

9
Platforms

• There are hundreds of Social Media platforms.
• Not all are great for crisis communications, but
  you must plan to monitor your companys presence
  across the web.
• Google Alerts, Twitter search

10
Matthew Humphries, geek.com February 2012
11
Twitter

• More than 165 million users, just over 100
  million users in the U.S.
• 750 million Tweets per second.
• 1 billion tweets per week.
• 50 of the users are engaging via mobile devices.
• 1 million new accounts are created every day.

12
Facebook

• 901 million monthly active users around the
  world.
• 300 million photographs uploaded daily.
• 500 million users engaging via mobile devices.
• Available in 70 languages.

13
Foursquare

• - Over 20 million users.
• 50 of the users are from the US.
• 31 of users are engaging via mobile device.
• There have been over 2 billion checkins since
  launch.

14
Instagram

• Founded 2010 in the process of being acquired
  by Facebook for 1 Billion.
• Over 30 million users.
• 58 photographs uploaded every second.
• A new user signs up every second.

15
YouTube

• YouTube was founded to share dinner clips of a
  party due to the files being too large for email.
• The average visitor spends 15 minutes per day on
  YouTube.

16
LinkedIn

• More than 161 million users.
• 22 of users on LinkedIn are engaging via mobile
  device.
• More than 2 billion page views every month.
• 2 new signups every second.
• More than 2 million company pages.
• There are more than one million LinkedIn groups.

17
Pinterest

• Just short of 12 million users.
• 97 of the users are female.
• The average user is between the age of 35 and 44.
• Pinterest mobile apps are downloaded 250,000
  times a day.
• Top audience niches are fashion, music, art,
  memorabilia, vineyards, wine, tourism.
• Over 4,000,000 page views per day.

18
Google

• Founded 2011.
• Over 90 million users.
• Fastest growing social network.
• Circles
• Google Hangouts