Utilizing Social Media Platforms for Online Crisis Management: Focus on Always Pads Crisis of 2019

Abstract

This paper is an in-depth analysis of how social media platforms can be used for online crisis management. It addresses an online social media crisis that involved Always sanitary products that trended on Twitter due to allegations of bad product quality. A popular hashtag #MyAlwaysExperience appeared on the Twitter timeline, with the first tweet in this thread coming from Kenyan activist Schaeffer Okore. The product manufacturers, Procter & Gamble initially tried to deny claims that some women’s pads were problematic, but this only caused the social media campaign to gain more attention. This research study adopted a case study research design and employed a semi-structured interview guide to collect data from the respondents. The study focused on social media support, social media influencers, sensitization, diversification, and advertising as potential strategies for managing online crisis. The study recommends that when handling online communication crisis, companies should use a multi-pronged approach whereby they use as many social media platforms as possible and several messaging and strategies at the same time.
Keywords: Social media, crisis management, Twitter, Always sanitary products