Public Relations Review 41 (2015) 97102

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Public Relations Review

Reputations at risk: Engagement during social media crises

Larissa Ott 1 , Petra Theunissen
School of Communication Studies, Faculty of Design & Creative Technologies, Auckland University of Technology, Private Bag 92006,
Auckland 1142, New Zealand

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Research into social media and social networking sites has focused on its advantages for
Received 21 May 2014 organizationpublic relationships. Potential risks to corporate reputation have been largely
Received in revised form 5 September 2014 glossed over, but inappropriate strategies can create or fuel social media crises. This arti-
Accepted 30 October 2014
cle is based on an in-depth analysis of three multinational prot-making organizations
experiencing social media crises after 2010. It was found that each organization employed
Keywords: different engagement strategies with varied outcomes. Authenticity of voice and trans-
Social media
parency were crucial factors for success, whereas engaging indiscriminately with emotional
Crisis communication
individuals could potentially escalate an issue. The article offers strategies for engagement
Engagement
Emotion during social media crises.
Authenticity 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

As people spend more time on the Internet, managing reputation on social media becomes increasingly important for
public relations. The latest gures show that Internet users spend most of their time on social networks, and half of all social
media users said that at least once a month they had expressed complaints or concerns about brands or services on social
media (Nielsen, 2012).
Reputations are however notoriously difcult to manage because they comprise soft variables like perceptions of
credibility, reliability, accountability, trustworthiness and competence (Helm, Liehr-Gobbers, & Storck, 2011). Online, these
factors experience a new level of scrutiny: not only do users expect organizations to communicate honestly and openly,
but they have the means to search and uncover facts that organizations would prefer to hide (Greyser, 2009). It is also
becoming increasingly hard to recover from crises of reputation (Gaines-Ross, 2008; Grifn, 2008; Phillips & Young, 2009). A
seemingly innocuous event can unleash a storm of negativity (Wst & Kreutzer, 2012), and such negativity spreads directly
on corporate accounts that were established for promotional purposes.
When confronted with social media risks, organizations generally follow one of four strategies: absence, presence, atten-
dance and omnipresence (Aula, 2010). While the rst three span from complete absence on social media to awareness
and non-participative listening, the last strategy, omnipresence, comprises dialogic interaction. This is the strategy recom-
mended for successful online reputation management (Aula, 2010), building on the idea that social media have necessitated

Note: All material for the case studies can be publicly accessed on http://storify.com/LarissaOtt1/when-ngos-take-the-lead-facebook-unfriends-coal,
http://storify.com/LarissaOtt1/throwing-stones-in-a-glass-house-the-case-of-apple and http://storify.com/LarissaOtt1/jetstar.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +64 21 183 7080.
E-mail addresses: larissa.ott@me.com (L. Ott), petra.theunissen@aut.ac.nz (P. Theunissen).
1
Present address: Erlknig GmbH, Peter-Hurst-Str. 1b, D-38444 Wolfsburg, Germany. Tel.: +49 174 1936540.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2014.10.015
0363-8111/ 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
98 L. Ott, P. Theunissen / Public Relations Review 41 (2015) 97102

a shift from monologue to dialogue (Mersham, Theunissen, & Peart, 2009). The shift has heralded in an era of public relations
characterized by participation and transparency (Solis & Breakenridge, 2009).
Social media have also altered the parameters of crises through increased pace, scope and impact (Bridgeman, 2008),
enabling them to quickly become viral. The most viral emotion on the Internet is anger (Berger & Milkman, 2009; Fan, Zhao,
Chen, & Xu, 2013) which is less likely to subside because of the long tail effect (cf. Phillips & Young, 2009).
To illustrate the impact of negative emotion, practitioners Graf and Schwede (2012) developed what they colloquially
called a shitstorm social media scale using the Beaufort storm scale. The scale allows practitioners to assess the seriousness
of the situation by evaluating its emotional impact: the greater the emotional impact, the higher the risk.
This article discusses research ndings into social media crises, answering three key questions:

RQ1 How do social media contribute to the development of reputational crises?

RQ2 How does the risk of social media crises impact on organizations?
RQ3 How can they react to social media crises (i.e. communication strategies)?

First the research method is presented, followed by an analysis of three case studies before concluding with practical
suggestions for managing social media crises.

2. Research method and data collection

This research used a multiple case study approach. Although case studies are often perceived to provide insufcient sci-
entic rigor because of the alleged lack of generalizability (Ruddin, 2006), this research follows Flyvbjergs (2006) argument
that it is possible to generalize from a single caseas long as the case is carefully chosen. A case study is a detailed exami-
nation of a single example (Flyvbjerg, 2006, p. 220), and is an empirical enquiry particularly useful in answering how or
why research questions (Yin, 2009). It allows for naturalistic generalization where the responsibility for generalization
is shifted to the readers, ergo what they make of the ndings (Stake & Trumbull, 1982). In particular, the value of a case study
lies in its tendency towards falsication and is thus best suited to test theories (Eckstein, 2000; Flyvbjerg, 2006; Walton,
1992). If one detail does not t with the general proposition, the theory loses its validity. By the same logic, multiple case
studies are more likely to produce reliable and generalizable data, depending on the context of the research (Ruddin, 2006;
Yin, 2009).
To ensure that the chosen method met the standards of good social science research and in response to Cutlers (2004)
critique that most researchers of crisis communication fail to explain their methodological approach, Coombs (2007) Situ-
ational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) was applied. SCCT highlights the importance of negative emotions in crisis
situations. It also shares the belief with Image Restoration Theory that the right communication protects against further
negative reactions to a crisis (Coombs, 2007), and offers a framework to assess the reputational threat based on different
crisis clusters and stakeholders perceptions. Thus, it provides guidelines for crisis communication while taking into account
the organizations situation and publics emotions.
Three multinational prot-making organizations that had experienced a social media crisis were selected. The aim was
to identify similarities in seemingly distinct patterns of interaction. The rst case study involved Greenpeaces online attack
on Facebook while the second case study investigated the crisis that followed when restaurant chain Applebees red a
waitress. The third case study involved the low-budget airline Jetstar addressing poor service and an online attack on their
Facebook account.
Sources were found by conducting a Google search using relevant search terms (e.g. unfriend coal for the Greenpeace
campaign). On Facebook and Twitter, all posts were directly available on the organizations timeline. The data had to be
accessed manually because the application programming interface (API) of Facebook and Twitter allowed key word searches
only for the last seven days. While the duration of the unfriend coal campaign meant that the contents of the Facebook and
Twitter pages had to be scanned for the whole twenty months (February 2010October 2011), the focus for Jetstar could be
narrowed to between October and December 2012, and for Applebees from the 30 January 2013 to April 2013.
The information analyzed was public, although an issue with this form of data collection is that organizations can delete
or hide material previously posted in an attempt to inuence public opinion or hide unsuccessful communication strategies.
Thus, some data may not have been accessed. A solution was to watch out for user comments and blog sites that pointed
towards such behavior.
Due to the nature of social media, information is repeated or republished resulting in material being found through
aggregated data. Different sources such as blog posts, websites and posts on Facebook or Twitter were used to nd the
necessary information. The website StorifyTM served as a curation tool and a valuable case study database where users had
collected screenshots of online conversations. Text was added to connect and explain the material.
In analyzing the data, the focus rested on how the crises emerged, how each organization responded, and whether the
strategies proved to be successful. Subsequent comparison across cases showed similarities and differences, contributing
to a better understanding of social media crises. Explanation building was used to elucidate why certain approaches were
successful and others not.
 L. Ott, P. Theunissen / Public Relations Review 41 (2015) 97102 99

3. Results

3.1. Facebook and Greenpeace

From February 2010 to October 2011, the activist organization Greenpeace targeted Facebook as part of the Unfriend
coal campaign that aimed to increase the use of renewable energies in the IT industry. At the time, upcoming regulations
for carbon emissions in the USA made it more likely that data centers would have to consider future energy sources and
energy efciency. In communicating about their new data centers, Facebook focused on energy efciency (Heiliger, 2010)
but chose an energy provider that relied mainly on coal (Miller, 2010). In response, Greenpeace attacked Facebook via blog
posts, user messages on their Facebook pages and direct messages to Facebooks CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook itself had
various channels through which it could respond to its critics, including its main page, its blog and dedicated Facebook pages
for the two new data centers. In general, however, the posting policy on these pages was (and is) restricted. Direct public
posting was blocked and only commenting was enabled. On the Facebook blog, users were only able to like or share the blog
post which made direct feedback impossible. Thus, Facebooks general communication strategy was to use blogs and longer
posts for one-way communication. This approach is in contrast to the understood purpose of a blog as a means for two-way
communication and stakeholder engagement (cf. Solis & Breakenridge, 2009).
During the crisis, Facebook did not engage with its publics via social networking sites but rather focused its communication
efforts on Greenpeace as the cause of the attack through publishing occasional statements. The organization posted replies in
the comment section of two blog posts that had started the discussion (Schnitt, 2010; Weinstein, 2010), and Mark Zuckerberg
replied to one Facebook message of a Greenpeace supporter (Zuckerberg, September 16, 2010) which then went viral via
Greenpeaces Twitter account. The statements employed traditional crisis response strategies such as deny and justication,
attacking the accuser and persuasion (cf. Coombs, 2007).
Facebook did not engage in the discussion following these posts and thus was successful in not fuelling further negativity.
Instead they indirectly countered Greenpeaces efforts with regular posts about energy efciency on their pages and a
dedicated Green page. While the majority of user comments on these platforms referred to Greenpeaces Unfriend coal
campaign, Facebook never replied to these in the comment section.
However, despite Facebooks efforts, Greenpeaces campaign endured. In response, Facebook took corrective action by
focusing on renewable energy sources when planning their new data center in Sweden (Green on Facebook, 2011a). Even-
tually, Facebook collaborated with Greenpeace (Green on Facebook, 2011b) and increased its transparency by publishing
a website about its sustainability strategy (Facebook, 2012), sharing its carbon footprint and energy mix. This openness
seemed to protect Facebook from further criticism, despite Facebook hinting that its growth might impact negatively on
their carbon footprint.

3.2. Applebees

Another typical social media crisis was that of Applebees. In January 2013, a patron at a local Applebees franchise in the
USA crossed out the mandatory gratuity of 18% that applied to parties larger than eight persons and wrote on the receipt:
I give God 10%, why do you get 18? (Weber, 2013). A co-worker of the affected waitress posted the receipt online with
the patrons name visible. Although she later defended her actions stating that she had believed the patrons signature to
be illegible (Morran, 2013), she was red the next day for violating Applebees privacy policy. The news of her sacking
spread rapidly. Angry customers and online users attacked Applebees on its Facebook and Twitter accounts, arguing that
the crime did not justify the punishment. The issue was made worse when users discovered that the franchise themselves
had previously posted a picture on Facebook with a customers signature visible, thus violating the same policy for which
the waitress was red. When users pointed this out to Applebees, the photo was quickly deleted, leading to accusations of
hypocrisy.
Applebees reacted to the criticism by publishing a statement on Facebook that it valued customers privacy. This post
soon amassed more than 10,000 comments. However, negative comments were later hidden from Applebees Facebook
timeline and only reinstated after the organization was accused of employing censorship (Stollar, 2013). Another post that
followed up on the crisis was published among the comments but was soon buried under negativity. It was then re-posted
as a separate piece. Applebees self-proclaimed communication strategy was one of two-way communication and dialogue
(Weisbaum, 2013) and yet its spokesperson Dan Smith described the organizations response strategy as:
(Explaining) the situation in as clear terms as possible [. . .] and we fully understand that some people might not agree
with our position. Our simple goal here is to provide the public with facts. (Bhasin, 2013)
It was evident that their initial response strategy was not only reactive by informing and adjusting information, but
followed a traditional understanding of crisis communication: provide the facts clearly, accurately and persistently.
What followed next was what Dan Smith described as the engagement piece (Bhasin, 2013): attempting to answer as
many people as possible. An analysis of the responses showed that Applebees did not engage in dialogue, but rather tried
to persuade users to agree with their point of view. Worse, Applebees social media team relied on copying and pasting the
essential parts of the corporate statement which only enraged online users further and prompted them to also copy and
paste their denunciatory posts.
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Coombs (2007) Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) tted this case well. According to SCCT, a higher crisis
responsibility and a negative history prior to the crisis lead to higher emotional involvement and feelings of anger and
schadenfreude, which were clearly expressed in the online comments. In addition, SCCT links negative emotions and perceived
crisis responsibility with behavioral intentions, which could be found in the calls for boycott that emerged during the crisis.
The attacks only receded after Applebees stopped discussions with individual users and refrained from commenting
on the situation. It was evident that the franchises inability to recognize the seriousness of the initial issue and a awed
understanding of dialogue fanned the crisis.

3.3. Jetstar

Social networking sites establish a direct relationship between organizations and their customers, which was evident in
the case of the low-budget airline, Jetstar. If customers experience problems like delayed or cancelled ights or lost baggage,
they can complain on the organizations social media pages. Jetstars former social media manager Andrew Mathwin said
they handled about 10,000 requests per month and up to 1000 enquiries per day in the case of a crisis (iGo2 Group, 2011).
Mathwin added that they took special care to engage only in conversations when invited to do so or if they could be of help.
Because of the nature of the industry and Jetstars reputation as a cost-cutting service provider, it had to manage multiple
crises. One of these was the creation of a fake Jetstar Facebook account in November 2012 by an imposter who replied rudely
to customer enquiries (cf. Starke, 2012). Jetstar responded by publishing a general apology and contacting the affected
customers. Mostly, users seemed amused, and customers who had experienced problems were grateful for Jetstars quick
response.
During the same period, the airline also had to respond to the cancellation of several Christmas ights from Australia to
New Zealand, which forced customers to rebook with more expensive airlines or abandon their trips (cf. Garrett-Walker,
2012). Rather than respond publicly on its Facebook wall, Jetstar focused on replying to all affected passengers personally,
and to moving the communication from the page to private email or call center interaction. Unlike Facebook the airline had
(and still has) an open posting policy that allowed users to post directly. Posts from angry users who were not affected by
the ight cancellations were ignored, but not deleted. The same strategy was employed on Twitter.
Applying SCCT to this case, it was evident that Jetstar employed accommodative crisis response strategies (Coombs, 2007)
such as apologizing and compensating. Additionally, their community managers identied themselves with real names, and
engaged in personal, less formal conversations, which reduced attacks as it provided a human face. By engaging in two-
way communication with relevant customers in good time, Jetstar was able to move the conversation away from the social
media platforms and only used the latter to identify affected customers. These customers were offered refunds, alternative
ights or other solutions. This particular issue ebbed away after the 28 November 2012, but it did not resolve the recurring
problems of customer service and the airlines general poor reputation (Bradley, 2013).

4. Discussion

While dialogue is often recommended and almost all organizations claim to use it, the reality during social media crisis
communication differs signicantly. In the cases highlighted here, organizations often employed tactics of negotiation and
persuasion combined with traditional crisis response strategies like denial and justication rather than engaging in genuine
dialogue as outlined by Theunissen and Wan Noordin (2012).
It was evident that to whom and when the organization responded had a major impact on how the crisis evolved.
The example of Applebees demonstrated that replying directly and mechanically to individuals and critics can fuel crises.
Facebook, on the other hand, did not engage with its critics and although Greenpeaces campaign endured, Facebook faced
much less criticism and fewer emotional attacks than Applebees. Jetstar followed a more strategic and selective approach
whereby they ignored angry users who were not directly affected by the issue, but initiated conversations with customers
who needed help. This approach allowed the issue to be managed and prevented it from escalating.
Although it is part of dialogue to address the public as equals (Taylor, Kent, & White, 2001) most organizations did not
appear ready for this kind of openness. Generally organizations reverted to persuasion when faced with a crisis situation.
McAllisters (2012) analysis of the websites and social media pages of the worlds top 100 universities showed that this
phenomenon spans all kinds of institutions and organizations.
The three case studies discussed highlight an apparent gap between what public relations practitioners state should be
happening in relationship building and what is happening. This appears to stem from a misperception that interactivity
equals dialogue. Although interacting with stakeholders holds the potential for dialogue, these case studies show that the
latter does not automatically imply the former. More applicable are the notions of interactivity and responsiveness (cf.
Avidar, 2013). A response does not need to be interactive, i.e. encourage further conversation by adding information or
posing questions, but it should be responsive. Public relations practitioners should understand the differences between
interactivity, responsiveness and dialogue so that they can make a strategic decision when (and if) to engage publics.
Applebees attempt to respond to each online user was not only impractical, but unintentionally fuelled the crisis by
offering further fodder for disapproval. For instance, users criticized the wording of statements and felt affronted by some
corporate replies. Engaging in dialogue with angry online users who do not want to hear the organizations view is unlikely
to resolve a crisis.
 L. Ott, P. Theunissen / Public Relations Review 41 (2015) 97102 101

Ofcially worded statements are not always well received online and are often perceived as talking down. The Apple-
bees case study showed that listing the facts in an ofcial statement is not an effective form of information-sharing. Social
networking sites are similar to other social settings, and to be authentic, communication should match the setting and the
organizations usual style. While ofcial statements show that the organization takes the situation seriously, interpersonal
ways of communication are more appropriate. In Jetstars case individual engagement also became necessary because it
showed concern for the individual. Thus, managing online crisis communication moves from the traditional view that a CEO
or high-ranking person in the organization must act as spokesperson (cf. Gaines-Ross, 2008).
Highly accommodative strategies appear to be more successful than denial or diminishing strategiesespecially if they
are combined with actions that demonstrate the organization is listening to its critics. It is also important to react to the crisis
by posting status updates online and to engage with affected individuals. This will show commitment and transparency.
Genuine dialogue is not easily achieved during a social media crisis. Nevertheless, organizations should provide forums
for discussion. Controlling the discussion to the extent that offensive and abusive content will be deleted is acceptable only
if there is a clear policy. By relinquishing some control, organizations can allow loyal fans and supporters to defend them
in more authentic ways than corporate statements can. In contrast, attempts to manage reputation by deleting unfavorable
posts or blocking critics are likely to deteriorate trust and ignite anger. Such actions not only evoke notions of censorship
and raise suspicions that the organization has something to hide, but prevent any chance of learning the motives behind the
attacks.

5. Conclusion

The analysis of the three case studies showed effective and non-effective approaches to social media crises and compared
the response strategies with those suggested by the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) (Coombs, 2007).
A dialogical approach is only effective if the users are affected by the crisis. If they are not, attempting to engage as many
stakeholders as possible is likely to fuel anger. Risk to reputation is further heightened if organizations and public relations
confuse dialogue with persuasion.
The cases discussed showed that public Facebook and Twitter sites offered forums for angry online users to share their
points of views and vent their feelings. Anger spreads fast on these platforms and because organizations are perceived as
disembodied entities, they are more likely to become targets. Reputational risk is further increased because programming
algorithms favor posts with a high activity regardless whether such activity is positive or negative.
Thus, although social networking sites have been recognized as useful channels for relationship management (e.g. Grunig,
2009; Taylor et al., 2001), inappropriate or conventional strategies can ignite social media crises. Not only are organizations
well advised to employ a coherent crisis communication strategy and provide relevant information on their social networking
sites, but public relations practitioners need to understand the underlying principles of relationship-building and dialogue
in order to apply them effectively during a social media crisis.

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