Strategic Crisis Communication & Management

---Use of Social Media

Group 3
April, WEN YA HUI
Eve, Jinjutha Liangwatthanakol
Hu Yi
Joey, XIE JIAHUI
Colin, Mai ChengMan
   
1. Description of crisis
An accident occurred on November 11th, 2022 at 14:20: A railing glass panel on
the second floor of the New Yaohan mall suddenly shattered, which caused shards of
glasses to fall to the first and ground floor. The accident has led to one unprecedented
death and two people being critically injured. The deceased was a mainland tourist. One
of the injured was the companion of the deceased and the other was a local employee.
There have been some witnesses who posted some videos and pictures of the incident on
the Internet.

2. A list of all the stakeholders during and after the crisis

The relevant stakeholders can be divided into the internal and external
stakeholders: Internal stakeholders are mainly employees; External stakeholders include
customers as well as mainland China and Macau local public.

3. A list of all the social media platforms proposed to use

According to Digital 2022: China (Figure 3.1), WeChat has the highest usage
throughout China, followed by Douyin, QQ, Baidu Tieba and Sina Weibo.

Figure 3.1 Most-used social media platforms in China

 According to The 20th Annual Survey Report On Internet Use Of Macao
Residents(Figure 3.2), among all the internet users in Macau, WeChat is also the most
frequently used social media app, followed by YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp. 

Figure 3.2 Social media usage in Macau

Considering the characteristics of these social media apps and their usage among
our stakeholders,  the following media use plan has been made for crisis communication.

　 During crisis After crisis

Internal stakeholders Email & WeChat & WhatsApp

External stakeholder Customers WeChat WeChat

Public: Sina Weibo Sina Weibo

Mainland China

Public: Macau Local Facebook YouTube & Facebook

4. The use of social media for the target stakeholders

1)      During Crisis
 During the ongoing crisis phase, our main goal is to explain the whole process about
what exactly happened and reassure stakeholders, so as to prevent rumors from taking
precedence or the spread of a more serious crisis.
A.  For Employees - Email & WeChat & Whatsapp
In terms of the internal stakeholders, we know that in general, a company's
employees are usually important stakeholders in crises, let alone in this case an employee
of New Yaohan was seriously injured. Therefore, we assume that New Yaohan can firstly
make use of relevant media to reassure and communicate with its internal employees
when the crisis occurs. 
In order to get a general idea of the current use of communication media in New
Yaohan, we attempted to contact some New Yaohan employees, and learned that New
Yaohan currently uses three main ways to communicate with its employees:
Email/WeChat/WhatsApp. 
The company usually sends some daily notifications directly to all employees by
email. The communication of matters within each department is usually done by WeChat
group or WhatsApp, depending on their internal specific situation. 
Therefore, since email has the convenient function of group-sending, which
enables the message to reach each one in the company directly, we plan to arrange
relevant personnel to use the mailbox to send a statement to all employees as soon as
possible. The content mainly includes 4 aspects: the main information of the incident, the
current arrangement for the employees, authoritative source for the updates and a call for
all to work together to tide over the crisis.  Given that there are both local and foreign
employees within New Yaohan, we prepare both traditional Chinese and English versions
of the statement.
Meanwhile, since the crisis is kind of an emergency situation, to further ensure
that everyone receives the notification, we plan to notify department heads to also issue
the statement to the employees in their respective departments through those two apps, on
the day of the crisis, November 11th. 
In WeChat, they can post a group announcement and confirm whether the
employees have received the message by the check function , and in WhatsApp, they can
also check whether employees have read it by the presence of this little blue tick.
Therefore, by using these 3 media simultaneously, New Yaohan can firstly communicate
and convey messages to its internal staff and thus stabilize the overall atmosphere within
the company.

Content of statement: 

中文版：

各位同事：

今日（2022 年 11 月 11 日）我司突發一起安全事故：百貨商場二樓欄杆處的
一塊玻璃突然碎裂並掉落至一樓，導致一名正在購物的顧客死亡，及一名同行顧客
和一名我司員工重傷。

對此，我司感到十分痛心和愧疚，並向給各位帶來的擔憂道歉。但請各位勿
要過度擔心，我司正在盡全力跟進和調查事故相關原因和問題，並將不惜一切代價
 確保每位在我司工作的員工的安全。同時，我司對各位的擔憂表示充分理解，決定
即日起暫停百貨商場的營業，以便進行公司樓宇的全面檢查和維修，營業恢復時間
將會在確定後進行及時通知。因此，新八佰伴所有員工即日起可居家休息。

後續的所有相關信息也請各位以我司官方通知為準。如果有任何事件相關的
信息更新，我司也將在第一時間向各位通知。對此相關的問題如有任何疑慮，請直
接聯繫您所在部門的主管。

這次事件的發生將是對我司的一次重大考驗。讓我們攜手努力，共同解決並
度過此次難關！

新八佰伴行政管理部

11/11/2022

English version: 

Dear colleagues,

Informing with great sadness that an accident occurred in our company today
(November 11, 2022) : A railing glass panel on the second floor of the mall suddenly
shattered, which resulted in the death of a customer and the injury of a fellow shopper
and our staff. 

Apology for the concern caused. But don't worry, our company is putting all our
efforts into following up and investigating the cause of the accident and related matters.
There is no doubt that we will do everything we can to ensure the safety of each staff
member. At the same time, we fully understand everyone's concern, so our company has
decided to suspend the mall with immediate effect for comprehensive facility inspection
and maintenance, and the resumption of operation will be notified as soon as it is
confirmed. Therefore, all employees will be able to rest at home from now on.

All information related is subject to official notification. If there is any

information update, we will also communicate with you as soon as possible. Meanwhile,
if you have any doubt or question, please contact the supervisor of your department.

This incident will be a major test for our company, let's work together to solve
and get through this crisis time!

Administration Department

New Yaohan

11/11/2022

B.  For Customers - WeChat Official Account & Official Website

 During the crisis, besides the internal stakeholders in our department store,
external stakeholders, especially our customers, are the significant group that we must
communicate with. 
WeChat
Wechat official accounts, as one of the useful functions of WeChat, have a large
number of users in both mainland China and Macau, and have always been regarded as
an essential channel for corporations to communicate with their customers. And New
Yohan also has its own one. Since WeChat is a private platform, only people who ever
subscribe to our official account, that is our VIP members and regular customers, can
receive our updated Information. Hence, in this case, WeChat is the best platform for us
to reach our customers directly and precisely. With no word limitation, We decided to
issue the following elaborate statement through New Yaohan’ WeChat official account
on the day of the crisis:

Content of statement: 

中文版:

关于“新八佰伴玻璃碎裂导致人员伤亡”事件的致歉信

尊敬的顾客朋友：

您好！

11 月 11 日下午 14 时 20 分，新八佰伴商场二楼的一处玻璃栏杆突然碎裂，导致一人
死亡，二人受伤。我们对此感到万分痛心和愧疚，我们向逝者及其家属表示沉痛哀悼，向
所有伤者及其家属致以最深切的慰问，向各位顾客朋友表示诚挚的歉意。目前我们正在积
极配合澳门治安警局进行调查，事故原因尚未明确，我们在就部分情况进行说明：

1.     我们在第一时间将所有受害者送去了医院，并联系了受害者家属。在与家属进行
沟通后，我们将尽全力对他们作出补偿。

2.     确保您的安全永远是我们的首要任务。因此，我们决定从即日起暂停营业，请专
业团队对全商场进行全方面的设施检查与维修，坚决杜绝事故的再次发生，以确
保您在新八佰伴安全、愉快的购物体验。

3.     我们将在明天（11 月 12 日）14 时 30 分召开新闻发布会，也会持续在微信公众号，

微博，Facebook 等平台进行最新消息的公布。如若您有任何问题，请致电+853
8791 8888 或电邮至 enquiry@newyaohan.com。

再次向逝者致哀，向公众致歉。

新八佰伴投资管理有限公司

2022 年 11 月 11 日

English version:

Letter of Apology on the Incident of "New Yaohan Glass Broken Caused Casualties"
Dear customers:

At 14:20 on November 11, a glass railing on the second floor of New Yaohan
Shopping Center suddenly shattered, killing one person and injuring two others. We are
deeply saddened and remorseful for this. We express our deepest condolences to the
deceased, the injured and their families, and our sincere apologies to all customers and
the public. At present, we are cooperating with the Public Security Police Force in the
investigation. The cause of the accident has not yet been clarified, and we would like to
explain some of the circumstances:

1. We immediately sent all the victims to the hospital and contacted their families.
After communicating with them, we will do our best to compensate them.

2. Your safety is always our top priority. Therefore, we have decided to suspend
business from now on, and ask a professional team to conduct comprehensive facility
inspection and maintenance of the entire mall, to prevent the recurrence of accidents, and
ensure your safe and pleasant shopping experience in New Yaohan.

3. We will hold a news conference at 14:30 tomorrow, and we will continue to

update information through WeChat, Weibo and Facebook accounts. If you have any
questions, please call +853 8791 8888 or email enquiry@newyaohan.com

My condolences to the deceased again and apologies to the public.

New Yaohan

November 11, 2022

We noticed that the comment section of the New Yaohan official account has not
been opened yet. In this case, the comment section should be open for customers to
leave questions and suggestions, and we need to actively reply to them. Two-way
communication with stakeholders is important in crisis situations.

In addition, WeChat official account also has a Live streaming function, which
can broadcast live our news conference that will be held tomorrow.

C. For mainland China public - Sina Weibo

This incident is a relatively big crisis to our company, but also big news for the
media. Therefore, to prevent the spread of rumors and the outcry of public opinion, we
must communicate with the general public as soon as possible. For targeting our audience
in a more effective and efficient way, we intend to use different social media  apps for
people in Macau and mainland China.
Sina Weibo
For Mainland people, Sina Weibo is the best channel for us to target the general
public. Compared to WeChat, Sina Weibo is a public platform that is mostly used by the
Chinese to check trendy topics and current news, according to the report of
KAWO(Figure 4.1). And New Yaohan also has its own account with 33 thousand
followers. 

Figure 4.1

Because of the word limitation of the Weibo content, this platform is mostly used
for sending brief words. In this case, concise swords with a picture of our whole
statement can be posted, as  Figure 4.2 shown.

Figure 4.2

In addition, we should reply to the audience’s comments below this post, to give
our sincere apologies, comfort them and answer their questions.

D. For  Macau local public - Facebook

Facebook
 During the crisis, we are sending out a brief statement to the residents of Macau
who are concerned about this incident as well as the statement to the mainlanders.  From
the picture we can see that about 60% of Macau residents use Facebook to get
information.
Facebook is a social networking service and social media site that originated in
the US. In addition to text messages, Facebook users can also send pictures, files,
postings and audio media messages to other users.
Using these features of Facebook, we decided to send the following statement to
Macau residents through Facebook on the day of the crisis, which was November 8:

關於“新八佰伴玻璃破裂導致人員傷亡”事件的致歉信

尊敬的各位顧客：

你好！

11 月 11 日下午 14:20 分，新八佰伴商場二樓一處的玻璃欄桿突然碎裂，導致一位

內地旅客死亡，一名同行者及一名員工受傷，對此我們感到非常的抱歉，向所有傷
者及其家屬送上最誠摯的歉意。我們在事故發生的第一時間將傷者送往醫院救治，
並將受影響的區域全部封鎖。同時我們已經與死傷者的家屬取得聯繫，盡最大的努
力為他們提供補償。

對於此次給顧客及員工造成的不便，我們深表歉意。為了確保每一位員工和顧客的
安全，我們決定從即日起暫停營業，請專業團隊對商場設施進行全面檢查，以確保
各位的安全。

我們將於明日（11 月 12 日）14:30 分召開新聞發佈會，也會持續在各平台公布最

新消息。如有任何疑問，請致電+853 8791 8888 或電郵至
enquiry@newyaohan.com。

新八佰伴投資管理有限公司

2022 年 11 月 11 日

Letter of Apology on the Incident of “New Yaohan Glass Broken Caused Casualties”

Dear customer：

At 14:20 on 11 November, a glass railing on the first floor of New Yaohan Shopping
Centre suddenly shattered, resulting in the death of a Mainland visitor and injuries to a
fellow passenger and an employee. We took the injured to the hospital as soon as the
 incident occurred and sealed off the affected area. We have also contacted the families of
the deceased and injured and are doing our utmost to provide them with compensation.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused to our customers and staff. To ensure the
safety of every staff and customer, we have decided to suspend the business with
immediate effect and have a professional team conduct a full inspection of the mall
facilities to ensure your safety.

We will hold a press conference tomorrow (12 November) at 14:30 and will also
continue to post updates on all platforms. If you have any questions, please call +853
8791 8888 or email to enquiry@newyaohan.com.

New Yaohan 

November 11,2022 

2) After crisis
After a crisis occurs, many companies may think that their troubles disappear. But
many times, this is not the case as in fact, there are still reputations to be rebuilt after the
tarnishment from the crisis. To expand, even though the crisis may seem to disappear, the
said crisis may still be remembered by many clients. The last thing that any company
might want is to be remembered by the clients and associated companies through their
mistakes. Furthermore, apart from reputations that need to be rebuilt, companies will
need to reassure their clients and associated companies that the company (New Yaohan)
can still be trusted. 

In order to fully explain how our after crisis management will work through the use
of social media, this section shall be divided into three sub-sections, each for three of the
identified external stakeholders: the Macau public, the Mainland Chinese public, and for
the New Yaohan’s customers. This division is put in place because as is commonly
known, the Chinese Great Firewall may cause some social media (which runs in Macau, a
special administrative region of China) to not work. Thus, the social media which we will
use for the Chinese Mainland public shall take that fact into account. Additionally, the
company shall set the public and the customers apart when identifying stakeholders
because social media which will be used should aim to make the customers happy while
social media which will be used for the public should aim to boost the company’s public
image (through the eyes of the public as a whole).

In the after crisis section, the main goal of New Yaohan shall be updating all of their
stakeholders of the updates of the crisis while not reminding them too constantly to spark
a new controversy.

External stakeholder: Macau public

1. Facebook:
 According to the statistics garnered from StatsCounter, as of October 2022, the
percentage of Macau residents using Facebook is at 58.93%. Even though this is a slight
drop from 2020’s 63%, it is still undeniable that with Facebook, New Yaohan will be
able to reach more than half of Macau's population. 

According to the Omnicore Agency (as of January 2022), the largest demographic of
Facebook users is between the ages of 25 to 35 years old while 23.4% of its users are
between the age of 18 to 34 years old. The statistics of Facebook’s age distribution is also
greatly reflective of people who go to shopping malls such as New Yaohan where a study
done by “Impact journals” regarding shopping malls and age distribution reflects that
around 47% of mall-goers are between the age of 20 to 30 years old. As such, through the
usage of Facebook, New Yaohan can reach the section of the public which might be
interested in going to shopping malls but not frequent enough to be considered as
“frequent customers” (or those in public interested to go to New Yaohan). Additionally,
using Facebook to give updates about the crisis will also not neglect other parts of Macau
public from other age groups as well.

Furthermore, Facebook has a function which allows New Yaohan to upload texts,
however long or short those texts may be. As such, New Yaohan can give a small
statement to give a short update such as: 

“As a follow up towards the crisis of our glass panel situation, New Yaohan is pleased to
announce that the broken glass panels on floor (2) have been newly restored using more
durable balustrade glasses. After our newly reinstated glass panels have been tested for its
durability by our staff members, we also have the plan to replace all the old glass panels
on each and every floor by these new balustrade glasses to additionally ensure our
clients’ safety while shopping in New Yaohan as well.

New Yaohan would also like to ensure that we have been working to find the suitable
compensations and have been communicating to all the victims and to all those affected
by the incident accordingly. 

Once again, New Yaohan would like to sincerely apologise for the incident to the victims
and to our clients. Thank you for your trust and support to New Yaohan. We ensure that
situations such as this shall never happen again.”

2. Youtube:
 According to our research of the most used social media in Macau, youtube is one
of the most popular video sharing platforms currently used. 73% of Macanese people
appear to be using Youtube daily. Furthermore, video sharing platforms have its
advantages: videos can be however short or long as one may want, filled with contents
such as a video with a voice over. Although with small followers, New Yaohan has its
own youtube channel which can be promoted and used. Videos could be made
showcasing how New Yaohan is now re-innovating/fixing the glass panels and also check
the safety of other equipment/facilities, guards being trained to check for facilities’
safety, showing happy clients/getting their testimony about New Yaohan. Furthermore,
with Youtube, New Yaohan can record themselves performing an act of goodwill to show
the public of the organisations’ special care towards the situation of the crisis and would
like to stay in the public’s good graces (such as hospital donations, etc.) Youtube is very
useful because the company can also see the number of likes and dislikes/comments from
the public (great interaction with the public and great for public’s response analysis).

Additionally, Youtube may be very advantageous to distribute informations as 

External stakeholder: Mainland Chinese public

1. Weibo

We understand that Youtube and Facebook are not as used in the mainland but
Weibo is due to the Great Firewall. Weibo is an application for microblogging. Within
Weibo, one may distribute information by sharing. Interestingly, Weibo is similar to
Twitter in the aspect that information can be distributed from one source to many users.
According to Statistica, Weibo is reported to have 582 million active users monthly
(June, 2022). New Yaohan can greatly use Weibo’s number as its advantage to distribute
information. But furthermore, statements can be shared in Weibo and may be deemed to
be a more tangible piece of evidence that New Yaohan is doing everything as it could to
better the situation as writings seem like a more “tangible” way to distribute information.
In order to keep the consistency of the updates (for after the crisis), New Yaohan can post
the same statement for the Macau public and for the Mainland Chinese Public.

External stakeholder: Customers

WeChat official:

For the customers, we believe that WeChat officials shall be used. WeChat officially
is a platform where if you follow a brand or a company, the company can push
notifications about updates or promotions to its customers. Furthermore, WeChat official
can be seen as more “connected” for the brand to reach out towards its audiences while
also keeping these customers in touch about the situation as well.

Internal stakeholder/e.g. staff: WeChat/Whatsapp

In order to boost the international stakeholders’ trust/morale towards the company,

we must not forget about them. For our international stakeholders, we believe that
WeChat or Whatsapp might be the most useful in order to specifical communicate to
them. Internal stakeholders may be staff and if there is (for example) other updates such
as a staff debriefing to analyse how the team handles the crisis or how the media covered
the crisis, apps such as WeChat and Whatsapp can be very useful to send in concise
messages. Messages regarding additional staff debriefing may be: 

“As of 8 November, 2022, 16:50 pm. New Yaohan is currently having a staff debriefing
regarding the glass panel situation. We would like to reassure our family that we are 
working together very diligently to right the wrongs and to analyse any factors and
possibilities which have led to the broken glass panels. We sincerely hope that this
message will reach all of our family to remind everyone to work together through this
tough time. Together, we are strong. Thank you everyone for your hard work.”