During times of crisis and national revolt within the past decade, political officials have been known to attempt an outright silencing of social media as a way to limit communication.  As seen in Libya this year, the social media lockdown had a minimal effect on stopping communication among the youth resistance.  During the recent riots in the UK, government leaders did in fact contemplate shutting down or limiting social media traffic, but later decided against it.

From SMI.com:

“It wasn’t long ago that Nestle, BP and others recently discovered, deploying old-school PR methods to defuse a crisis is no longer acceptable corporate comms practice in an age where damaging “news” can break from a Twitter feed, blog post or YouTube clip. While these social tools that can sink the reputation of a slow-footed organisation, they can be used to great effect by the social-savvy company to manage its communications swiftly, openly and with greater impact for all your stakeholders in a time of crisis.”

In today’s world, social media can make or break a disaster — providing either a damaging blow that could potentially destroy a company’s reputation, or valuable information to calm a restless population.  Today’s companies and governments need to be aware of this and adjust their public relations accordingly.