Hill & Knowlton holds social media and crisis talk for business community

Hill & Knowlton, Bahrain’s longest standing PR consultancy, held a talk in conjunction with the Bahrain British Business Forum (BBBF), on the role of social media during a crisis. H&K’s Regional Director of Crisis & Training Brian Shrowder, together with Bahrain Deputy General Manager Julia Atherton-Dandy, hosted the talk which was attended by more than 30 members of Bahrain’s business community.

Hill & Knowlton highlighted positive examples of communication from corporations and Governments in times of crisis, as well as providing tips on how companies can begin to occupy and use to their advantage the social media sphere, which is increasingly an essential part of corporate communications.

Ms Atherton-Dandy commented: “During the last 5 years social media has been on a steep upward curve from an area utilized mostly by the tech-savvy younger generation, to a corporate must-have which most organisations now consider essential in their Corporate Comms tool-box. As the region’s largest PR consultancy and the first in Bahrain, we have responded to this curve with the introduction of a regional digital practice, devoted to helping clients navigate the overwhelming online space. We were pleased to see the keen interest in the topic from the Bahraini business community, and expect to see much more innovation from organizations using social media during the rest of 2011”.

The meeting is the latest of the Special Interest Groups (SIG) offered by the BBBF to promote organisational effectiveness, and SIG Chairwoman Jill Boggiss, who has headed previous SIG groups on financial services, work readiness and insurance, encouraged members of the business community to highlight issues affecting their companies for discussion at future meetings.

The BBBF encourages membership from all strata of Bahrain’s business community, and welcomes anyone to join the group by contacting the BBBF office at the British Embassy.