Having a bulky, lumbering communications structure does nothing but obstruct crisis management. In a recent post on his blog, social media consultant Mack Collier used the example of Southwest Airline’s disagreement with director Kevin Smith, who was allegedly asked to disembark from a flight because he was too large to fit in his single seat, to demonstrate the problem:
Case in point, Kevin had the tools available to DIRECTLY communicate with 1.6 million followers on Twitter. For Southwest, they had to have the flight attendants and pilot, and gate attendants all communicate with their PR dept, and at that point the message MIGHT have gotten in touch with someone that could respond to Kevin via the same tools he was using; social media. So it’s obvious that Kevin could get HIS message out much quicker than Southwest could.
Getting your own story out quickly is crucial to success. Although large corporations will always have channels they must work through, Mack’s article provides several ways they can keep things as streamlined as possible.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/