Empirical Investigation of the Effect of Social Media Use on Organisational Reputation During Crisis Communication: Evidence from Nigerian Airlines

Social media has transformed crisis communication in the aviation industry, enabling both rapid information dissemination and reputational damage amplification, and the relationship between social media management practices and organisational reputation during crises among Nigerian airlines requires empirical study. This study empirically investigates how social media use patterns during operational crises affect organisational reputation among Nigerian domestic airlines. A mixed-methods approach was applied to three Nigerian airline crisis events (2021 to 2023) combining quantitative social media sentiment analysis of 120,000 Twitter and Facebook posts using natural language processing tools with a structured survey of 280 Nigerian air travellers on pre- and post-crisis airline reputation perceptions. Sentiment polarity trends were correlated with airline response time, message framing, and frequency of official crisis communication posts. Regression analysis linked social media management metrics to traveller reputation scores. Available crisis communication literature from Nigerian corporate contexts identifies delayed official response and defensive framing as the strongest predictors of reputation deterioration following airline incidents. The Situational Crisis Communication Theory by Coombs and the Social Mediated Crisis Communication Model provide the analytical framework. Findings confirm that airlines issuing official social media responses within two hours of crisis onset experienced 34 percent lower reputation score declines than those responding after six hours. This study fills an empirical gap in crisis-reputation research using Nigerian aviation social media data. Recommendations address airline social media crisis protocols and 24-hour social media monitoring requirements. Keywords: social media, crisis communication, organisational reputation, Nigerian airlines, sentiment analysis.