Flame war management handling crises in the social media age

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Buyer-supplier collaboration When recession takes hold, there’s safety in numbers Merging the real and virtual world Why, and how, companies should define their digital strategy Volume 7 │ Issue 3 Providing insight and analysis for business professionals This article is an extract from Performance, Volume 7, Issue 3, August 2015. The full journal is available at ey.com/performance Author Holger Kayser Executive Director, Advisory Services — Performance Improvement, EY, Germany Stephan Salmann Partner, Advisory Services — Performance Improvement, EY, Germany Christian Bartels Senior Consultant, Advisory Services — Performance Improvement, EY, Germany 55
Buyer-supplier collaboration When recession takes hold, there’s safety in numbers Merging the real and virtual world Why, and how, companies should define their digital strategy Volume 7 │ Issue 3 Providing insight and analysis for business professionals This article is an extract from Performance, Volume 7, Issue 3, August 2015. The full journal is available at ey.com/performance Flame war management: handling crises in the social media age While social crises can be instigated by other parties, more commonly they stem from the organization itself. flame war is a chorus of outrage on the internet. A relatively large number of critical comments are directed at individuals, institutions, products or brands. At least some of these comments deviate from the original topic and are aggressive, insulting, menacing or attacks of another form. 1 Apart from companies and individuals, political parties and other public entities can also be affected. It is irrelevant whether the target of the outcry is active on social media. In fact, the refusal of those parties, who can potentially be affected, to be active in the social network environment further fans the flames. The basic phenomenon is nothing new. Well before the internet, cries of protest have been forcefully and effectively made. The difference is that, in the present day, Web 2.0 combined with social media act as catalysts leading to a situation where even the most mundane of topics can receive a high level of attention. The tighter the participants’ network is, the greater the speed and reach of the wave of protest. Users of social networks display the feared substitution of cognitive effects with network effects: a “like” is quick to post; the critical assessment of a topic takes longer, particularly with emotionally loaded topics. 2 What are the common causes? While social crises can be instigated by other parties, more commonly they stem from the organization itself: for example, inappropriate behavior of employees, negative customer experiences, inadequate care of customers and influencers, violation of ethical principles, along with apparent injustices and inappropriate reactions. 3 Flame wars that have been initiated with a strategic background, such as attacks on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or deliberate falsifications, can cause major damage due to their systematic nature. The six phases of a flame war crisis The normalized course of a crisis (see Figure 1) is divided into six phases: 1. Calm 2. Breeze 3. Strong breeze 4. Storm 5. Hurricane 6. Post-critical phase Seventy percent of all social media crises have their source either in a Tweet (53%) or Facebook post (17%). 4 Dependent on the reach and reputation of the author, the language used, the credibility, the potential for emotionalism or the relevance of the content, networked users will seize on an article and retweet it. Phase 1 (calm) develops to phase 2 (breeze). Dependent on the level of outrage, the topic will be seized upon by other media such as Facebook, blogs and other social networks — gale force (phase 3) has been reached. If the affected parties are active on social media, they will be informed about current developments. The crisis becomes a storm when classic or online media pick up the topic. 56 Volume 7 │ Issue 3
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Flame war management handling crises in the social media age

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