Response to classmate

Replies should be no less than 75 words.

1. This should be addressed to Tarsha Harris

Social media plays a great role in today’s society.It is used to communicate, spread news, entertainment, dating and other roles. “Most obviously, news and information travel much faster, meaning organisations need to track issues and potential crises more regularly and respond more quickly when something bad happens. There is much more misleading and false information to track and consider, some of which is deliberate. Online opinion tends to be very volatile and polarised during a crisis, making it difficult to know when and how to try to manage perceptions”.(Charlie Pownall,2016).

One of the greatest ways social media is used in a crisis, is to keep people posted all around the world of what is happening in an area that they are not allowed. This year, News Channel 5 used facebook live to stream the court ruling for a case regarding the death of MPD officer Lang. The trial lasted for about 2 or 3 days. It allowed viewers to actually see what all what was recovered and details regarding what happened the night of the murder.

Of course, there is always a negative side. Some people tend to use social media to slander and manipulate others. A few years ago, Burberry posts was made out to be racist. ” The British luxury brand tweeted what they thought was actor Dev Patel wearing one of their suits. However, the image they actually used was of actor Riz Ahmed. The faux pas was made worse because both men have sub-continental origins, leading one user to accuse Burberry of thinking ‘all brown people look the same’.”(Luke Brynley-Jones). In this case, it was only a mistake that was blown out of proportion.

2. This should be addressed to Tiffanie Kyle

A crisis situation causes a company to react quickly, adding social media in the mix requires a company to react even more quickly. In fact, social media can even cause a crisis by misinforming other customers or it may bring an issue to the surface the company was unaware of. Social media is the information highway and this highway is extremely fast and can take you just about anywhere in the world (Crandall, Parnell, & Spillian, 2013). The internet and social media are often the main sources of information in the United States to those under thirty years of age (Alexander, 2014). Some social media sources are your obvious choices, like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, but blogging is also considered a source of social media that can cause crisis for a company. Bloggers can blog about anything, without restriction. They can tell their story and their opinion, their way and if they have a massive number of followers, the blogger has the ability to influence the followers and could potentially ruin a company or a brand. Social media is sometimes used by consumers to get the attention of a company who has ignored their request to resolve a product or customer service issue. People lash out on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter at companies and their social media friends jump on the band wagon displaying their issues for the world to see (Crandall, Parnell, & Spillian, 2013).

A recent example of social media in a crisis situation in Milan, was the car that had been hit by a train last week. Before the news team could get to the scene of the accident, people on Facebook were asking about all the sirens. The people of Facebook knew about the accident, who was involved, who was injured, and where they were being transported before the news team could get it broadcast on television. Another example of social media meltdown was when there was an outcry because a store was using cotton as a decoration and this person was offended. Social media helped this person bring the concern to the attention of the world. People everywhere tried boycotting the store and others began decorating their homes and businesses with cotton. Regardless of which side of the cotton field you were on, this person successfully used social media to get the message across of the discomfort it caused.