Reviewer: Lauren Gennaro
In Social Media Crisis Communication, Van den Hurk gives a crisis communications blueprint that’s flexible, realistic, and most importantly doable when it comes to social media. While it is certain that organizations and businesses will face some sort of crisis at some point, social media has vastly changed the landscape of how these crises evolve and accelerate. Van den Hurk discusses how businesses can defend themselves from these crises using social media tools. She gives real life examples of leaders who have successfully and unsuccessfully executed crisis plans. Most importantly, she gives a complete list of how to overcome crises in general, and using social media specifically.
I would recommend this book as supplemental reading for crisis communication courses because it takes a different, yet very relevant stance on dealing with crises. Not only does the book discuss crisis prevention, crisis response roles, timing of responses, and recovering from crises, but it incorporates social media into the discussion. For example, Van den Hurk explains how to integrate the best social media practices throughout your response and how to use cost-effective online services to monitor the web as a source of crisis prevention.
The book efficiently and effectively guides readers through social media crisis communications. It begins with a crisis definition, an overview of crisis communications, and an explanation of common types of crises. Van den Hurk then focuses on various social platforms and how they are not only woven into our culture, but also incredibly strong influencers. She talks about how Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube all have an impact on our world. The following chapters incorporate crisis communication and these social media platforms by teaching readers the new dynamics in social and crisis communication and giving examples of organizations who handled social media crises well (FedEx, McDonalds, Instagram, Hardee’s) and those who haven’t (Anthony Weiner, Chapstick, NRA, BP). Lastly, Van den Hurk describes the steps of creating a crisis plan, integrating social media into this plan, handling the actual crisis, and then recovering from the crisis.
In many ways, this book complements Coomb’s discussion of crisis communication. However, it takes crisis communication a step further in an easy-to-read and conversational style by incorporating how social media both impacts crises and communication plans. In a world where social media has become an integral piece of communications, this book meets a necessary need in the discussion of crisis management. Overall, Social Media Crisis Communication serves as a useful guide in handling crises and would be useful in the classroom.
Lauren Gennaro
In Social Media Crisis Communication, Van den Hurk gives a crisis communications blueprint that’s flexible, realistic, and most importantly doable when it comes to social media. While it is certain that organizations and businesses will face some sort of crisis at some point, social media has vastly changed the landscape of how these crises evolve and accelerate. Van den Hurk discusses how businesses can defend themselves from these crises using social media tools. She gives real life examples of leaders who have successfully and unsuccessfully executed crisis plans. Most importantly, she gives a complete list of how to overcome crises in general, and using social media specifically.
I would recommend this book as supplemental reading for crisis communication courses because it takes a different, yet very relevant stance on dealing with crises. Not only does the book discuss crisis prevention, crisis response roles, timing of responses, and recovering from crises, but it incorporates social media into the discussion. For example, Van den Hurk explains how to integrate the best social media practices throughout your response and how to use cost-effective online services to monitor the web as a source of crisis prevention.
The book efficiently and effectively guides readers through social media crisis communications. It begins with a crisis definition, an overview of crisis communications, and an explanation of common types of crises. Van den Hurk then focuses on various social platforms and how they are not only woven into our culture, but also incredibly strong influencers. She talks about how Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube all have an impact on our world. The following chapters incorporate crisis communication and these social media platforms by teaching readers the new dynamics in social and crisis communication and giving examples of organizations who handled social media crises well (FedEx, McDonalds, Instagram, Hardee’s) and those who haven’t (Anthony Weiner, Chapstick, NRA, BP). Lastly, Van den Hurk describes the steps of creating a crisis plan, integrating social media into this plan, handling the actual crisis, and then recovering from the crisis.
In many ways, this book complements Coomb’s discussion of crisis communication. However, it takes crisis communication a step further in an easy-to-read and conversational style by incorporating how social media both impacts crises and communication plans. In a world where social media has become an integral piece of communications, this book meets a necessary need in the discussion of crisis management. Overall, Social Media Crisis Communication serves as a useful guide in handling crises and would be useful in the classroom.
Lauren Gennaro