Social Media as a Crisis-Communications Tool

The Nature Conservancy’s relationship with BP, the company responsible for the massive oil spill off the Gulf Coast, has put the environmental organization squarely in the middle of a controversy.

The relationship, first detailed in The Washington Post, has raised questions about whether it was it violating its mission by accepting money from an oil company.

It has also offered a case study for how a charity in crisis can use social-media tools to communicate its message to potential supporters.

In fact, in advance of the Post story, the charity had been using its blog to explain its relationship with BP.

Once the story was published and users on Twitter and Facebook were talking about the controversy, the charity began responding directly to those users by pointing them to the blog post.

The Nature Conservancy took the effort a step further on Tuesday, giving supporters and critics a chance to ask questions directly to three of its leaders, including Mark Tercek, its president, in a live discussion.

The event, which used the live blogging tool CoverItLive, offered a two-way conversation about the charity’s relationship with BP.

What do you think of the Nature Conservancy’s social-media approach to this controversy? Are there other examples of groups that have used social media to handle controversial topics? Post a comment to share your thoughts.