The Impact Of Social Media On Crisis Communication Strategies: A Study Of Corporate Responses To Public Backlash In Ghana

Abstract

This study examines how social media platforms have changed business crisis communication methods in Ghana in reaction to public backlash, focusing on cultural issues. Ghana's rapid social media adoption reached 7.40 million active users (21.5%) by January 2024, yet little is known about how organisations handle crisis communication in this unique digital-cultural milieu. The research analyses the evolution of crisis communication strategies after social media adoption, identifies effective communication methods for managing social media-originated crises, and examines how Ghanaian cultural factors affect crisis response strategy development and implementation. The study used a post-positivist quantitative research design to analyse 100 business crises from Ghana's major cities from 2020 to 2025. Maximum variation sampling was used to sample cases from banking/financial services (72%), telecommunications (12%), and consumer goods sectors. Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) and Image Repair Theory (IRT) were combined with Ghana's custom measurement indicators. WhatsApp's dominance (81% crisis genesis and major response platform) provides fundamentally different crisis dynamics than Western theories' public platform contexts. Despite accidental crises (82%) that SCCT suggests handling with less severe techniques, organisations consistently used rebuild strategies (83%) with outstanding success (85% satisfactory resolution, 43% enhanced reputation post-crisis). Cultural adaptation was the main efficacy factor, with 96% of organisations achieving moderate-to-good cultural-platform alignment through methodical integration of conventional authority structures, balanced language usage, and face-saving techniques. The study found that crisis communication effectiveness in Ghana depends on cultural-platform alignment rather than responsibility-strategy matching logic, contributing to theoretical decolonisation by showing how Western frameworks must be modified for diverse cultural contexts.