Crisis Management in Social Media: The Importance of Social Media and How Companies Utilize Social Media in Crisis Situations

摘要

The purpose of this thesis is to gain an understanding of the way in which social media influences corporate crisis communication by analyzing a corporate crisis occurring in the social sphere. Individuals' reactions to the crisis before and after the company's response are examined to detect any differences among them. Strategies suggested by professionals are compared to the company's response to uncover any potential differences. Specifically, whether adoption of the professional's strategy might have resulted in different outcomes. The study discovered that there was indeed a difference in reactions from the initial viral video to the reactions on the company's response video. It is a possibility that the company's strategy was a catalyst in the changes that occurred in the reactions. Keywords: Social media, YouTube, corporate blog, FedEx.