The growth of social media challenges risk and crisis communicators across industries to disseminate safety messages quickly, effectively, and in a manner that promotes maximum compliance in various risk situations, such as natural disasters. The urgency of providing reliable information through traditional and social media outlets (ex. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ to name a few) to the many is especially acute during a crisis. The viral quality of the spread of information on social media could be viewed as an advantage to crisis professionals who must reach the public as quickly as possible. Even with these advantages, this new emerging technology raises challenges in an information overload environment.

This presentation will discuss the current social media landscape as well as some of the issues and challenges facing crisis communication professionals (especially those involved in natural disasters). In addition, this presentation will highlight several best practices and guidelines in providing proactive risk and crisis communications using social media.