Crisis management in social media

Abstract: The rise of social media has brought an increasingly open and transparent environment, where everyone can share thoughts and opinions with other people. This new transparent world creates new challenges in many fields. One of these is in the field of crisis management. The question is how companies should handle a crisis in social media. The thesis starts by investigating theory regarding areas affecting crisis management in social media. From this theory; a quantitative survey, qualitative interviews and investigation of secondary data are conducted. This resulted in findings, regarding what is important for companies, concerning crisis management in social media. It is important for companies to monitor social media, to be quick in replying in social media and to reply in a human, non corporate, voice. It is as well important to have a crisis plan, a crisis response team and a main responsible for crisis management in social media. We have seen that it seems like larger companies generally are more prepared for crisis management in social media and that they consequently are better in handling a crisis in social media.