Is Instagram Now 'the Best Crisis PR' Tool?

The idea is that celebrities in crisis mode are turning to Instagram, rather than more traditional press outlets, to let the public know that they’re ON IT and they GET IT. No biggie.

O’Connor’s key example is Beyoncé, who first responded to the we’re-already-sick-of-this Jay Z elevator story not by issuing a press release or scheduling an interview but simply posting a bunch of pics of herself with both her husband and her sister, Solange.

She even posted an image of herself with Rihanna, the subject of various rumors regarding the reason for the fight.

Here’s another snap of the sisters looking quite happy together.

O’Connor’s argument holds that Instagram is both more intimate and, in its way, more credible than “traditional PR” because it allows public personalities to acknowledge their own foibles while feeling “more genuine than a press...