Social Media: Creating New Challenges and Opportunities

Social Media are redefining Crisis Communication protocols whether we like it or not. It is therefore essential that usage, monitoring and analysis of social media become an integral part of companies risk and crisis management, planning and operations.

Let me start with an example from Norway where we, as in most other countries, have strict protocols and routines for handling information about missing persons or people killed in an accident. The person in question has to be identified; the police locate next of kin and the local police, or a representative for the church or religious group, then pass on the terrible news to the family. In the last couple of years we have unfortunately seen cases where affected families have received the news via Facebook and other social media. People at the site and even those involved in the rescue operations spread the news of what has happened and who the victim is. The pain of the families who receive the news is unimaginable and receiving the news via Facebook cannot make things any better.

These examples are not just terrible, but they also show us a new landscape which needs a new map.

My second example: A company came under massive pressure from the media and the relevant authorities due to potential malpractice and bad management. It seemed as if the company had broken several laws and regulations in order to gain profit. As the situation unfolded, journalists used Facebook and Twitter to be listed as friends and followers of staff members and other employees. From the ‘semi-inside’ position journalists could access crucial information – right from the horse’s mouth! It didn’t help that some of the management team tweeted aggressively, not aware that their tweets ranked high when ‘googling’ their names.

Journalists are changing their ways of identifying, defining, and using sources. Social media can be like a candy store for journalists.

In other crises, we have seen examples of how support via social media from employees has helped crisis response teams in their efforts to defend the reputation of a company or a brand. Likewise, when the volcanic ashes interrupted flight traffic, the main airline companies in Norway used Facebook to reach out to those affected. In this instance, Facebook was a better tool for dialogue than any of the other web applications the companies had invested in.  From other countries and crises we have also witnessed how social media can be used to mobilise the masses, create dialogue and possibly even stir-up revolution.

During the earthquake in Japan, Google.org initiated a platform for Crisis Management as well as Crisis Communication (http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html).

Thus, my message to board members, management groups and others with key positions in companies is: Please include social media both as part of the risk assessment but also as a tool in your company’s crisis management response. Find a professional to help you in your national market.

Bear in mind though that you cannot control what employees are writing in social media. The only thing you can influence – in the long term – is the motivation of employees and customers, and their loyalty to the company. This is why the human factor is becoming more and more essential in all crisis management and communication.

And the key to the human factor is quality and open communication at all levels.

Note: Facebook in Norway

In Norway, with a population of 4,920,300, we have 2,554,600 Facebook users – more than 54 percent of the population with users equally split between men and women.

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Why do companies need values?

If there is a subject that comes up more frequently than any other in relation to corporate culture, it is that of values. Should this seem surprising? Values are at the heart of human groups. They are of concern to everyone, and everyone feels concerned by them. But what are the values in question? Are they moral values, for example “integrity” or “loyalty”, or those that are more orientated towards marketing, such as “proximity” or “forcefulness”?

Beyond the postulated, but unjustified, dichotomy between marketing and morality, if a company feels a need to formalise a system of values, this is because it has much to gain thereby. Whether they be used to defend an ethos or assert a difference, values can confer meaning on a company’s core preoccupations, lend coherence to its communication strategy and, in particular, contribute to building its reputation.

Such objectives are necessary because, apart from its primary function of producing goods or providing services, any company that wants to prosper and develop needs to be respected by those it deals with – its employees, of course, but also its customers and shareholders, the media, and civil society generally. And for this purpose it needs to elucidate and formalise the fundamentals that structure its approach.

The coherence of corporate and marketing strategies of communication, and in particular since the advent of the Internet, is more than a necessity – it is an imperative.

All of a company’s statements, but also those of its critics, may be given equal prominence by the different Internet search engines.

Information that is available to everyone – employees, shareholders, distributors or customers – immediately and everywhere, whether on an institutional site or a blog, implies rigorous execution, and also unprecedented conceptual discipline. A company needs to structure its discourse around lines of force that are transparent, enduring, profound and structural.

The conduct of business calls for a strongly asserted ethic. But building a reputation also requires that what a company says (i.e. its communication) be matched by actions (its behaviour, and that of its partners). This is where values demonstrate their full potential for harmonising word and deed.

It is in these three ways – conferring sense, guiding communication, and building a reputation – that a value system can be crucial for a company, provided that it avoids superficiality and puts the necessary energy into the task.

If these conditions are satisfied, a value system can function as a “genetic code” that will articulate a company’s diverse dimensions and give a clear direction to its strategy.

-Thierry Wellhoff

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