Effectiveness of blog response strategies to minimize crisis effects

This study examined the effects of four post-crisis responses on five different variables using a blog tool. The four post-crisis responses are information only, compensation, apology, and sympathy. The five dependent variables are reputation, anger (negative emotion), negative word-of-mouth, account acceptance and state of the publics based on involvement and knowledge.;Coombs and Holladay's (2002; Coombs, 2007) situational crisis communication theory suggests that the effects of a crisis can be minimized by formulating an appropriate response to the public following a crisis.;Hallahan's (2001) five-publics model is used to categorize crisis participants into active, aroused, aware, inactive, and non-publics. In the experimental study, participants were active by scoring fifty percent or higher on a knowledge test to show high knowledge and response to a crisis blog, illustrating the measure of involvement for the given crisis.;This study found sympathy protected an organization's reputation when minimal attributions of crisis responsibility and a moderate reputation threat existed. It was the better crisis response choice when compared to the information post-crisis response. Furthermore, this study illustrated that any crisis response is better than no response at all for lowering the segment of participants in the active public.