MANAGING CRISIS ON SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM
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MANAGING CRISIS ON SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM
ABSTRACT
This study looked at crisis management on social media platforms and was an exploratory study of the MTN-NCC issue. The study posed five research questions, including how MTN managed the NCC situation. What is the impact of using social media to resolve crises? How effective is social media in resolving crises? What triggered the MTN?
What were MTN’s strategies and approaches for dealing with the NCC crisis? The study used the survey research approach, which involved administering structured questions to 150 respondents.
The data were analysed using the simple percentage method of data analysis, which resulted in the following major findings: the majority of respondents use WhatsApp and Facebook as their social media platforms; social media has influence or impact on crisis management; and the use of social media in crisis management is effective.
A significant percentage of respondents were aware of the MTN NCC problem. The study also revealed that social media and friends were the primary sources of information for respondents about the MTN-NCC crisis, that MTN’s tactics for resolving their issues with NCC included posting the issue on their social media platforms, i.e. their Facebook and Twitter pages, and that social media was instrumental in the peaceful resolution between MTN and NCC.
Based on the findings, the study recommended that organisations take a holistic approach to crisis communication, integrate social media into their crisis plan, and rehearse and update it on a regular basis.
The study also suggested that organisations integrate social media into their crisis plan to save time and reduce chaos during a crisis. Finally, the report recommended that organisations test and update their crisis management strategy or plan on a regular basis.
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background for the Study
The emergence of social media has created a more open and transparent environment in which everyone may share their views and opinions with others. This new transparent environment introduces new problems in a variety of sectors.
One of these focusses on crisis management. Handling social media has become increasingly vital for businesses, and in recent years, the internet has emerged as the most preferred means of communicating with stakeholders such as consumers, investors, employees, and traditional media.
Companies and organisations can use the internet to communicate about their business, answer client questions, and provide crisis information (Coombs and Helladay, 2010).
Online crisis management has been a major concern for organisations, and extensive research has been conducted in the past to determine how organisations can deal with their crises. Crisis can take various forms.
It could be an accident, a scandal, or a product safety issue (Marals and Goodman, 1991). More specifically, a crisis can take the shape of a bribery scandal, a hostile takeover, a product recall, malicious rumours, or an environmental spill (Peason & Clair, 1998).
A significant portion of crisis management has been focused on avoiding crises in the pre-crisis stage. It is, of course, preferable to prevent all crises, but it is incorrect to believe that all crises are avoidable. Every organisation will ultimately face a crisis.
During a crisis, the ability to interact with the organization’s stakeholders is critical for reaching out and responding to the situation. During a crisis, organisations turn to the internet to communicate with their audiences and the news media (Taylor and Pery, 2005).
It is critical for an organisation to understand and communicate effectively with its key stakeholders during a crisis. It is typically difficult to maintain the same level of communication with all stakeholders during a crisis due to time constraints and potential media coverage.
In this type of situation, it would be beneficial for the organisation to understand or anticipate how stakeholders are affected and react. The media plays an important role in explaining the issue by translating its meaning and providing other perspectives.
Prior to a crisis, organisations that are widely regarded by the public have an edge over those that are not. Those who are well liked will have more leeway in implementing crisis-reduction measures, and those who are hated may not be probed as closely by the media. Consequently, having a good relationship with the media is quite vital, especially during a crisis.
Communication through interest has become the most common way for businesses to communicate in recent years, and with the rise of social media, the rate at which information spreads has accelerated.
Today, anyone can engage in company debates, and consumers have more influence because they may write whatever they want on various social media sites.
It is then critical for businesses to constantly monitor social networks, blogs, and other websites for potential forthcoming crises (Elonzalez-Herrero & Smith, 2008) and respond quickly to any perceived problem.
Crisis management on social media is intimately related to image control of the organization’s entire reputation. The reputational loss can be mitigated with effective communication and crisis management.
What an organisation says during a crisis influences its reputation, which can be very damaging to its image in the long run (Coombs & Holladay, 1996).
However, the organisation must remember that their activities should represent their ethics and communicative impacts in accordance with audience expectations, rather than simply speaking for their own economic purposes (Aua, 2010).
According to Anthonissen (2009), “how a company responds to a crisis online and the effectiveness of that response is very important for the status of the company,” emphasising the importance of being firm when communicating in a crisis scenario.
It is impossible for an organisation to operate without encountering crises and challenges from time to time; what is truly crucial is how the organisation is able to mitigate and manage such crises so that they do not completely destroy the organisation.
MTN Nigeria is a division of the MTN Group, Africa’s major cellular telecommunications business. On May 16, 2001, it became the first GSM network to make a call following the Nigerian GSM auction held earlier that year by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which was much praised.
Following that, the company began full-scale commercial operations in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt.
MTN Nigeria, with over 55 million subscribers, is at the forefront of Nigeria’s ICT revolution, providing cellular network access and ICT solutions to millions of Nigerians, connecting communities with one another and with the rest of the world, and providing world-class network and business solutions to over 232. 6 million subscribers in 22 African and Middle Eastern countries.
With 15 service centres, 144 connect stores, and 247 connect paintings throughout every state of the federation, MTN is well-positioned to spearhead the introduction of a bold, new digital world to the Nigerian market.
MTN Nigeria is 75.81% owned by MTN International (Mauritive) Limited, 18.7% by Nigerian shareholders through special purpose companies, 2.78% by Mobile Telephone Networks, and 2.71% by Shanduka Telecommunication Limited.
Although MTN operates in more than 20 countries, one-third of its revenue comes from Nigeria, where it has a 35% market share. (https://www.mtnonline.com).
In 2015, the Nigerian subsidiary of MTN was fined by the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for failing to meet the deadline set by the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) for disconnecting subscriber identification mobiles (SIM) with improper registration.
The commission applied section 20 (1) of the telephone subscribers regulation (TSR) statute against MTN, resulting in an estimated punishment of 5.2 billion, according to the constitution.
The NCC’s compliance examination of MTN’s network discovered that 5.2 billion unregistered client lines were not deleted as directed. According to the TSR regulation statute, the NCC fined MTN $1,000 for each unregistered SIM, totalling $5.2 billion.
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