Last Saturday there was an item (also see Marketingfacts.nl) on Dutch news broadcast NOS Journaal how Twitter was the first medium to break the news on the Schiphol Amsterdam Airport crash of a Turkish Airlines flight TK1951 last week. BNR Nieuwsradio journalist Lara Rense was one of the first to send out a Tweet on listeners reporting the crash. Although we have seen several incidents before that were extensively reported on through Twitter (such as the Mumbai attacks and the Hudson river plane landing) this was the first significant Dutch news story breaking on Twitter.

As the item mentions, there was also some misinformation on the number of casualties on Twitter. It really makes you wonder what would have happened in previous cases, such as 9/11, if Twitter had been as popular as it is now. Obviously, the Twin Tower attacks would have broken to a much wider audience at a considerable higher speed. Pictures and movies would have been available within minutes after the first crash. But at the same time there would probably have been much more speculation and misinformation on the number of casualties, the cause, the second plane flying into the second tower, the collapse and so on. And the media, wanting to report the attacks, but having difficulty to find ‘official’ spokespeople in the chaos, would have had no other choice than to tune into Twitter and report on what was being said. Without being able to determine what were facts and what were rumours or mere speculation. All assuming that Twitter would stay up under such a heavy user load of course.

To me, examples like this make it clear that Twitter (or any other blogging platform) is becoming essential in real time news dissemination, but at the same time increases the chance of wrong information being spread. It also demonstrates how social media are increasing the pressure on authorities and organisations to realign their crisis communications. Where gathering as much facts as possible as soon as possible has traditionally been the first step in crisis communications before any communication could take place, social media are now already starting the conversation almost immediately after an event takes place. Whether for purposes of information gathering or mapping out any misinformation to be corrected, the monitoring of social media is rapidly moving up the chain of priority in crisis communications. At the same time, social media should be part of any crisis communications plan as a means of communication besides the traditional press conferences, statements and releases.