"Southwest Airlines is covering its social media bases on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, Gowalla, and FourSquare," writes Gil Rudawsky of PR Daily.

"So when one of its planes slid off a runway at Chicago's Midway Airport on Tuesday, the scrappy, Dallas-based airline simply flipped its social media crisis communication switch to "on." No one was hurt, but photos of the plane sitting awkwardly in a grassy field made the news circuits."

As is crucial in a crisis, Southwest was quick to act and followed pre-approved crisis guidelines, which integrate both traditional and social media. Read more about their response in PR Daily here.

For more on creating a crisis plan, join us for our webinar on May 19, "Communicating in a Crisis."