How To Respond To Tragedy on Social Media
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Tragic events such as terrorist attacks require an organisation to act carefully regarding how it responds on social media.With opinions differing about how one should comment on these kind of events, there are no standard guidelines as to what an organisation should do to demonstrate solidarity. However, there are some general guidelines to consider to ensure your brand does not appear to be insensitive, and continues to have a social media presence.Firstly, it’s important not to be hasty with posting – on any subject matter. So, before you post think: does it conflict with the events that have taken place, or may unfold further down the line? Depending on the situation you might want to consider not posting on or after the day of tragedy.The next step is to decide whether the organisation is going to respond directly to the tragic events. In some cases it may not be relevant to do this, but naturally if a situation occurs in an area close to the organisation then it may look like a deliberate choice to ignore the issue. Also, bear in mind that you may not know yet if any members of your organisation have been affected.If you do choose to show your support for those affected by the tragic events, consider sharing posts from organisations related or associated with the event, such as the Police Force. This, along with adopting a personal approach to your posts, will enable you to show your support without being accused of using the tragedy to promote your brand.Communications should be sensitive since emotions will be high. It’s necessary to question every response the organisation makes including how, for example, it uses conventional social media features such as hashtags. Recent tragic events have seen popular ways of showing respect emerge, for example, when buildings across the world lit up with the French flag in response to the Paris attack in 2015. Social media followed suit when Facebook users could change their profile picture backdrop to the French flag.Uber chose to continue this display of solidarity in response to the Brussels attack in 2016, in which cars on their social media app appeared in the colours of the Belgium flag. However, there was noticeably less presence of the use of flags elsewhere on social media than there had been with the attack on France, partly because Facebook did not give users the opportunity to change their profile picture backdrop to the Belgium flag.When this feature was enabled to commiserate the attack on France it caused many debates including whether people were engaging in ‘clicktivism’ (using the internet to facilitate social change and activism), rather than actual sympathy. Facebook’s flag feature also raised questions such as how long the flag should be displayed, and if such displays of solidarity should occur whenever anything tragic takes place worldwide.To find out more about how to respond to events on social media, contact us today.Madonna Hyde Content Marketing Intern Knapton Wright Ltd.
