Should Social Media Accounts Be Shut Down in a Crisis? (Podcast)

Last week I published a blog post titled “Fear of Confrontation in a Crisis is Not a Reason to “Go Dark” on Social Media“, which was a rebuttal to a blog post by Gerard Braud who was suggesting that social media sites should potentially be taken down in a crisis.

The debate garnered a lot of attention and fellow communication pro, Shel Holtz, proposed that we discuss each of our points of view on his podcast, For Immediate Release. Gerard and I both accepted Shel’s invitation and the conversation was a great one!

Should social media accounts be shut down in a crisis and, if so, when and why?

Are there instances when it does the organization better to shut down their social media sites in a crisis, then it does to strategically communicate with their audiences on these channels? If yes, what do these instances look like and how can you plan and prepare for them? On the other hand, might you be missing out on some key opportunities and putting your organization at even greater risk by doing so? These are the types of questions we tackled in our debate, and I invite you to have a listen.

Listen to my debate with Gerard here.

You can also check it out from Shel’s For Immediate Release website.

What do you think?

Do you think that there are times when social media should be turned off in a crisis? If so, why – and if not, why not? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experience. Feel free to share them in the comments section below.

Thanks to Shel for inviting me onto his podcast and for being such a great interviewer. Thanks as well to Gerard for being willing to have this dynamic discussion with me.