Inte bara en kommentar : En studie om krishantering på sociala medier

Abstract Title: It’s not just a comment – a study about Crisis Management on Social Media Author: Malin Pettersson 910624 and Amanda White 920310 Year: Spring 2014 Level: Bachelor degree Department: School of Business and Economics Supervisor: Carina Holmgren Examiner: Frederic Bill Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a theoretical model for Crisis Management on social media. Method: The overall literature that was found consisted of traditional Crisis Management and the communication that goes with it, and it was mainly written for traditional channels such as newspapers. The theories could not concretely describe how organizations should handle crisis in Social Media. Therefore, this study focuses on if and how organizations can use the traditional theories when working with crisis management in social media. Through a qualitative method the study has examined and tested the model on three crises, and subsequently improved the model based on the empirical material and the analysis that was made. Conclusion: The conclusion found that organizations need to adjust their crisis management after following guidelines for it to work on social media: - Strategies should be limited to only one, and be either a rebuilding strategy or a bolstering strategy. - The focus should be on emotional communication, and regarding the rational aspects the focus should be on actual actions and plans for the future. - Clear guidelines for what type of questions and critics that should be answered should be set. Due to time restrictions questions and critics that communicate direct attacks and/or has playful undertones should be filtered out. - Spokespersons can be many, which amplifies the need of clear guidelines and a coherent choice of strategy. Further, the messages should all be signed the same regardless of its creator. A good choice is therefore to sign it with the organizations name. - Social media demands constant presence as the organizations must answer comments quickly, preferably within the hour of their publication. They must also quickly share information to make sure they are first with defining the crisis events. Furthermore, organizations should be active on all the social media channels where they have an account to avoid creating a forum for only speculations, rumors and discussions between stakeholders. - Authorities should not stand alone in the spotlight, and they should not act alone on the organizations social media channels. Keywords: Crisis Management, Crisis Communication, Crisis Response, Response stage, Social Media, Preventable Crisis, Findus, Max, Parken Zoo.