The Specialized Public Relations New York Firms Provide Must Utilize Social Media During Times of Crisis
Just about everybody is buzzing about social media and its implications for the practice of public relations. Not just the specialized public relations New York area firms offer, but in the world at large. While a number of New York-based public relations firms have created practice areas devoted to social media, others have added social media initiatives to existing practices to offer clients a complete arsenal of marketing communications tools. However, the rise of social media has greatly impacted the area of crisis communications and we at Makovsky + Company, a New York public relations and investor relations firm, offer insights into how you can safeguard your company’s reputation in this brave new world.
First, a look at what’s changed from a crisis standpoint since the rise of social media. In years past, when traditional media were the primary delivery vehicle for the dissemination of news and information, a company typically had a little time to implement their crisis communications program. With the advent of social media and the increasingly powerful position it occupies in the in the media world, all of that is changing. Social media is immediate and viral — rumors and news can spread rapidly throughout the Internet via blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, informing the traditional media (often, journalists housed at traditional media outlets will maintain blogs that are updated with a degree of frequency).