Crisis management includes responding to a negative event that has occurred unexpectedly. In this regard, crisis management requires decisions to be made in a relatively short time frame. Generally, there are three elements of a crisis including a threat, a surprise and a short time frame for decision making. Dealing with a crisis can be challenging and organizations are required to have a crisis management plan to enable them to deal with the effects that unexpected negative events or situations may create. In particular, crisis communication is key to reassuring stakeholders and the public of their personal safety and the safety of their investments. A crisis can damage an organization's good reputation and create panic among the public. This study seeks to provide an in-depth insight into crisis communication and the role of social media in crisis communication. Role of Social Media in Crisis Communications With increased development of communications technology, crisis management has evolved to embrace social media and the Internet in general as a means of reaching out to the public and stakeholders. Previously, crisis communications managers relied on television, radio, and sirens to inform the public of an emergency event (TFCC, 2013). These communication channels were not always effective as they were time consuming and there was no way to verify whether everyone in the affected areas had received the emergency message. Today, however, social media represents an excellent tool for crisis communication, largely due to its popularity. Social media is not only popular among the public, but also among organizations and government bodies (TFCC, 2013). The use of social media to communicate in times of crisis or emergency allows the cri...... middle of paper ......cia, 2007). Conclusion In a time of crisis, the crisis management team faces many challenges, including but not limited to controlling or managing the crisis and communicating with the public and stakeholders. Crisis communication can adopt different channels but with the growth of information technology, social media is undoubtedly the most popular medium not only for the team but also for the stakeholders regarding the dissemination of information among them. Social media in this sense helps transmit information both spatially and in a timely manner, thus increasing efficiency and accuracy. However, social media can create rumors and mistakes that can create panic and/or damage an organization's reputation. In this context, a crisis management team must be able to establish strategies to manage rumors in the event of an emergency.