Crisis management vs. partial publicity
Insiders who want to manage crises effectively should pay closer attention to social media channels such as Twitter, according to researchers at the University of Missouri (MU). Apparently, different opinions could be well fed from Twitter short messages. This would enable crisis PR people to better influence certain groups with targeted messages.
Journalists and marketers use Twitter to influence the public.
For their study, MU doctoral students Douglas Wilbur and Danielle Myers examined over 1,000 tweets surrounding the U.S. release of the film "Shocking Truth" (original title: "Concussion"). This is because the film sheds a negative light on the problem of concussions in the National Football League (NFL) and their late effects - an issue that has been an ongoing PR crisis for the NFL for several years anyway.
"This study sheds light on how large, relatively unorganized groups can form on Twitter to develop particular attitudes and viewpoints about organizations, issues and problems," Myers explains.
Concussion Crisis
According to the analysis, groups representing different views on concussions and the NFL formed on Twitter without much effort. For example, medical professionals viewed the film and its themes positively because further research activities on brain trauma are propagated. For athletes, it was important that the film promote awareness of the problem. Lawyers, on the other hand, discussed legal issues surrounding concussions in the NFL, while a broad lay audience formed a very negative opinion of the NFL and a positive one of the film.
The partial public on Twitter
Based on such findings, the MU researchers recommend that insiders pay close attention to Twitter in the event of a crisis. Then they can see how different groups react to the crisis and which underlying themes shape their attitudes. Communicators can use this knowledge edge to develop targeted messages that resonate better with individual sub-publics. "Journalists and marketers are already using Twitter for similar purposes," Wilbur says. PR professionals, however, are still lagging behind somewhat, even in Europe.
For more information (text only available in English) on crisis management and PR, please visit this Link
