When social media goes awry, a traditional approach might help.

Everyone was horrified by the senseless act of violence and terror that shook Boston during this year’s annual marathon.

The following day, people throughout America and beyond stood as one mourning the loss of three innocent people, and encouraged first responders and the security forces as they pledged to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

People and businesses took to social media to show their support, Facebook was awash with the Boston Red Sox logo and #Boston trended on Twitter for days following the attack.

People will let you know they want to dislike your post.

Companies posted their condolences and sent their thoughts and prayers to Bostonians. One health food company made an epic mistake by suggesting their customers show solidarity with Boston, by trying a heart healthy New England breakfast to get through the sad day. That mistake will make it into the textbooks and educate those curious how not to use social media during a crisis.

When employing a social media strategist or company, make sure that they understand or have a back ground in Public Relations. Social media experts often overlook PR practitioners thinking their approach and practices are too old school. However, social media experts should work closely with traditional PR practitioners to create a comprehensive audience centered approach for crisis management.

A PR practitioner possesses a keen sense of awareness about an organization’s target audience and is capable of not only maintaining but also improving its public relationships. Practitioners enhance engagement by creating effective dialogues with a company’s customers or clients. Public Relations experts understand, react, and oftentimes anticipate customer’s needs, requirements and concerns.

Social media are components of a detailed PR strategy. It is the PR practitioners’ methodology, expertise and skill set that elevate an organization’s use of social media platforms. Great social media practitioners will employ proper PR skill sets, the self-styled social media guru/expert/ninja/butterfly is simply shouting in the wilderness, hoping someone is listening.

There are countless examples of cringe worthy social media mistakes, due to a gap in opening hours, stores encouraged its customers to stay safe at home and shop online during Hurricane Sandy; or a popular fast food restaurant encouraging its customers to elaborate why they love it which resulted in customers publicly reliving horror stories of gastroenteritis and poor service.

The good news: Any good PR practitioner would identify from the outset the aforementioned were bad ideas and the pitfalls of those messages. The bad news: too many companies don’t recognize the positive synergy that results from PR and social media experts working together, creating powerful campaigns.