Political Parties in Social Media : A case study of political parties’ crisis management in social media

Abstract: Title: Political Parties’ in Social Media - A case study of political parties’ crisis management in social media Introduction: The emergence of social media platforms has transformed how organizations communicate with stakeholders. The concept of social media is top of agenda for many business executives today. While some argue social media to provide unique opportunities for organizations, others argue the opposite. The rise of social media enables crises to escalate, implying that organizations need to have well-established crisis management strategies. In the Swedish election of 2014, social media is predicted to have enormous influence on the end result for the political parties. Prior to this thesis, no previous research has looked deeper into the context of crisis management in social media for political parties in Sweden. It is in the political context where this study contributes to the research area. Purpose: The aim of this paper is to investigate political parties’ crisis management in social media, using strategies developed for commercial organizations, and thereby contribute to the research of non-commercial organizations. Methodology: A triangulation method was used of semi structured interviews and archival analysis on four crises of political parties. Eight parties in the Swedish parliament where deliberately selected. However, only four of the parties, Socialdemokraterna (S), Sverigedemokraterna (SD), Vänsterpartiet (V) and Centerpartiet (C), had the possibility to participate in the study. Conclusion: (S), (V) and (C) all used both Facebook and Twitter as a crisis communication channel especially due to its speed and spread. However, (SD) did not use social media as crisis communication channel. The crisis management in social media of each party could improve immensely, however limited resources of employees and finance was found to be the main reasons holding the progress back. Conclusively, dialogue strategies and to some extent response strategies used by commercial organizations are indeed frequently used by political parties as well.