Formal research is starting to arrive assessing the effects of social media in various aspects of communications and engagement.

One recent review (*) highlights seven best practice tips:

  1. Fully integrate social media into decision making and policy development
  2. Actively engage in dialogue online
  3. Use media affordances to provide credible sources of information
  4. Be cautious about message update speed
  5. Own the hashtag
  6. Cooperate with the public and similar organisations
  7. Monitor misinformation
(*) Lin, X., et al., Crisis communication, learning and responding: Best practices in social media, Computers in
Human Behavior (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.080