Introduction

As Strandberg and Vigsø said, "every organization will at one time or another face a crisis or a transformation, and therefore needs to be prepared to communicate with both external and internal stakeholders". Thanks to the internet and all the possibilities it offers, especially now that social media is taking over everyday lives with the usage of it being 144 minutes per day, crises are more likely to affect organizations negatively.

This is exactly what crises are; sudden events that happen unexpectedly and have a negative effect on organization's integrity and its employees with possible effects on societal wellbeing.

Social media democratizes information and turns content creation into a process among a group of people. It is a combination of mobile and web-based technologies that create platforms (which are first and foremost interactive) suitable for content creation, content sharing, and content discussion by each individual (that is interested to do so) or a group. Companies are now using these new media channels to interact with their consumers and build relationships. However, this two-way communication provides interactivity which can affect employee engagement, which is why social media has become one of the internal communication channels as well.

Libai et al. recognize the changes that appeared in customer to customer (C2C) interactions in the last few decades, especially the ones that occur thanks to social media networks. They include a new way of communicating, not only verbally, but also nonverbally, such as expressing consumption related attitudes on social media platforms. These changes gave an opportunity for customers to talk to each other and talk back to companies, but most significantly – an opportunity to offer their own content. Blažević et al. introduced a concept of customer-driven influence (CDI) and defined it as "the impact of customers' verbal and non-verbal communication on other customers' attitudes and behaviors".

All these changes are applicable in internal communication as well because social media is a superior channel option compared to previous ones, considering they bring the opportunity to communicate across distance, offer both verbal and nonverbal communication by allowing an exchange of pictures, videos and other forms of media, and are easily adjusted to fit the organization's (or more specifically, a group within an organization's) needs.

Social media platforms support idea sharing, information and knowledge distribution, promote innovation and creativity by allowing content creation. Taking this, as well as the concept of CDI and the fact there are 2.65 billion social media users, brings up an issue of adequately managing crisis communication through social media. Crisis can also be an opportunity for an organization, as it offers a chance to develop and improve (if problems and causes are adequately diagnosed), while also allowing a company's image to strengthen, provided the crisis is dealt with properly.

The aim of this study was to determine consumers' perspective on crisis communication management via social media. Today, it is important to determine what kind of communication is expected of organizations during a crisis, and whether there is a preferred form of it amongst consumers to ensure that consequences of a crisis are reduced as much as possible. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to give an indication on what crisis communication via social media should look like, and how it should be managed.