The following Bachelor thesis is meant to analyze if and how cancel culture and shitstorms online, especially on social media, can affect companies and how affected companies can recover from the outcomes.
For avid social media users online shitstorms, especially on the platform Twitter, can frequently be witnessed. It was therefore a very interesting topic to look further into, to be able to understand what can trigger a shitstorm and what the consequences for companies could look like.
This thesis is also supposed to answer if or how a company can recover from a shitstorm, if they were affected by one. Furthermore it is meant to show what effective measurements could look like and if shitstorms could even be prevented in the first place and if yes, how they could be prevented. To achieve that, the first step will be to take a closer look at what makes social media so important to businesses. For that, an insight on the most important social media apps and websites will be given. After that, the dangers of social media to companies will be analyzed. The thesis will then continue by showing what makes shitstorms and cancel culture dangerous to a company. To achieve that, possible triggers of a shitstorm will be analyzed, as well as what phases a shitstorm has and what possible outcomes could look like.
Furthermore, a closer look will be taken at how consumers react to shitstorms by analyzing the results of a self made survey. The survey was made to understand, if and how consumers let shitstorms influence their buying decisions and if they would stop buying a certain product or brand if they were involved in a shitstorm. Following that, three companies, Nestlé, Amazon and Nike, which have already been at the center of a shitstorm, will be analyzed as case studies. To analyze the companies, a closer look will be taken at the reasons for these shitstorms, how each company was affected in terms of image and revenue and how they handled the situation. Furthermore, it will be explained if shitstorms could be prevented in the first place and how to successfully manage and recover from a shitstorm when affected by one. For this, a best practice example will be given in chapter 6.
Table of Content
List of abbreviations
List of figures
1 Introduction
1.1 Definition cancel culture
1.2 Definitionshitstorm
1.3 Definition social media
1.4 Definitioninfluencer
2 The importance of social media
2.1 Top social media platforms
2.2 What makes social media important?
2.3 Customer engagement and Reputation management
2.4 Customers as influencers
2.5 What makes social media dangerous to a company?
3 Cancel culture and shitstorms
3.1 Types and Characteristics of a shitstorm
3.2 Causes of a shitstorm
3.3 Phases and Duration of a shitstorm
3.4 What makes shitstorms dangerous?
3.5 Possible outcomes of a Shitstorm
3.6 Cancel culture - the toxic side of social media
4 Survey
4.1 Methodolgy
4.2 Participants
4.3 Results
4.4 Conclusion Survey Results
5 Case Studies
5.1 Nestle
5.1.1 What caused theshitstorm?
5.1.2 What were the outcomes?
5.1.3 How didthey react?
5.1.4 ConclusionNestle
5.2 Nike
5.2.1 What caused theshitstorm?
5.2.2 What were the outcomes?
5.2.3 How didthey react?
5.2.4 ConclusionNike
5.3 Amazon
5.3.1 What caused theshitstorm?
5.3.2 What were the outcomes?
5.3.3 How didthey react?
5.3.4 ConclusionAmazon
5.4 ConclusionCaseStudies
6 Crisis plan - When the shitstorm strikes
6.1 How to deal with a shitstorm
6.2 How to recover from a shitstorm
6.3 Best practice example: Burger King
6.4 Can shitstorms be avoided?
7 Conclusion
Attachment
Table of Sources
List of abbreviations
Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten
List of figures
Figure 1: Most popular social networks worldwide as of July 2020
Figure 2: This is what happens in an internet minute, 2019
Figure 3: Humor Oder Frechheit?
Figure 4: Origin of survey participants
Figure 5: Can shitstorm affect the attractiveness of a company?
Figure 6: Did you ever cancel or boycott a company?
Figure 7: How likely is it that you would cancel or boycott a company?
Figure 8: Nestle company logo
Figure 9: Nestle Marken: Diese Produkte gehoren zum Unternehmen
Figure 10: Umsatz des Nestle Konzerns Weltweit seit 2005
Figure 11: Nike company logo
Figure 12: Colin Kaepernickfootball protests
Figure 13: The power of purpose: Nike and Colin Kaepernick
Figure 14: Nike stock price reaches all time high
Figure 15: Nikes US sales by product category since 2007
Figure 16: Amazon company logo
Figure 17: Annual net revenue of Amazon from 2004 to 2019
Figure 18: Burger King company logo
[The figures (8,9,11,12,13,16,18) have been removed by the editors for copyright reasons.]
1. Introduction
The following Bachelor thesis is meant to analyze if and how cancel culture and shitstorms online, especially on social media, can affect companies and how affected companies can recover from the outcomes.
For avid social media users online shitstorms, especially on the platform Twitter, can frequently be witnessed. It was therefore a very interesting topic to look further into, to be able to understand what can trigger a shitstorm and what the consequences for companies could look like.
This thesis is also supposed to answer if or how a company can recover from a shitstorm, if they were affected by one. Furthermore it is meant to show what effective measurements could look like and if shitstorms could even be prevented in the first place and if yes, how they could be prevented. To achieve that, the first step will be to take a closer look at what makes social media so important to businesses. For that, an insight on the most important social media apps and websites will be given. After that, the dangers of social media to companies will be analyzed. The thesis will then continue by showing what makes shitstorms and cancel culture dangerous to a company. To achieve that, possible triggers of a shitstorm will be analyzed, as well as what phases a shitstorm has and what possible outcomes could look like.
Furthermore, a closer look will be taken at how consumers react to shitstorms by analyzing the results of a self made survey. The survey was made to understand, if and how consumers let shitstorms influence their buying decisions and if they would stop buying a certain product or brand if they were involved in a shitstorm. Following that, three companies, Nestle, Amazon and Nike, which have already been at the center of a shitstorm, will be analyzed as case studies. To analyze the companies, a closer look will be taken at the reasons for these shitstorms, how each company was affected in terms of image and revenue and how they handled the situation. Furthermore, it will be explained if shitstorms could be prevented in the first place and how to successfully manage and recover from a shitstorm when affected by one. For this, a best practice example will be given in chapter 6.
1.1 Definitioncancelculture
While “Cancel Culture” is more of a slang word, and therefore does not have an official definition, it can be described as a form of online shaming. To cancel someone means, that a person, brand or company gets boycotted and shamed online after saying or doing something offensive, discriminating or overall something people disagree with.1
1.2 Definitionshitstorm
When it comes to shitstorms, it is important to differentiate between criticism and an actual shitstorm. During a shitstorm, people are usually disagreeing or even arguing with each other over a specific topic.2 The word “shitstorm” could also be described as a “storm” of outrage, a disaster of controversy surrounding a scandal that often comes with insults and disagreement.3 And there lies the most important factor of a shitstorm. The insults. While criticism is often communicated in a more objectively way, shitstorms are usually triggered by negative emotions. And when filled with negative emotions, people tend to lash out more vocally. Another feature of shitstorms is that it is never just a handful of people “attacking” a company or person online, because that could easily go unnoticed. For a shitstorm, multiple people have to verbally “attack” the company or person, so that everyone on social media hears or reads about it sooner or later.4
1.3 Definition social media
Social media platforms are internet websites and computer programs, like apps, where people around the world can communicate, post and share things online using a computer or mobile device, such as mobile phones and tablets.5 Examples for popular social media websites and apps can be found in chapter 2.1.
1.4 Definition influencer
The word “influencer” originates from the verb “to influence”, which means to have an impact on someone or something. Influencers are people that have a wide reach and amount of followers on social media and share postings about specific topics, often paid advertisements for brands, with theirfollowers.6
2. The importance of social media
Social media makes it easier and faster for people to connect all over the world. That also includes brands and customers. Many brands these days use social media to promote their brand or product and to engage with customers. An important factor about social media is that everyone can see what has been posted and what has been commented. That means, that if someone makes a comment about a company, e.g. on Twitter, many people can and will see it, which makes it even more important for the brand to react the right way if that comment is not positive.
2.1 Top social media platforms
Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten
Figure 1: Most popular social networks worldwide as of July 2020, ranked by number of active users (in millions) Source: statista.com
In figure 1 we can see the most popular and most used social media platforms worldwide. The numbers show us the active users of each platform in millions. Facebook is the most used app with about 2.6 billion active users worldwide. With a world population of approximately 7.8 billion that means about 33% people worldwide actively use Facebook. Around two billion people worldwide actively use Youtube and WhatsApp and approximately 1.3 billion use the Facebook messenger. Instagram is actively used by about 1 billion people, Snapchat by 397 million and Twitter by 326 million users. It is interesting to note that even though Twitter appears to be one of the lesser used social media platforms, it is one of the platforms where shitstorms can most often be witnessed alongside Facebook.7 Another popular platform in the figure is WeChat, which is a messenger app mostly used in China, which also offers other features such as a mobile payment option, ordering food and making doctor’s appointments.8
Since social media apps clearly have a very wide reach, it would be very efficient for a company or brand to use the most popular social media platforms to ensure a successful engagement and communication with customers but also to promote the company, brand or product.
2.2 What makes social media so important?
If we take a look at how many people use social media worldwide, it becomes very clear why it is so important in today’s times. About 3.2 billion people are on social media which is about 42% of the world population.9
Social media has become an important factor in our daily lives, whether we use it to stay in touch with other people or to complain online about a product, service or brand. The average social media user is signed up to five networks and spends about one hour on social media daily.10 According to a Bitkom Research, 38% of people said that they cannot imagine a life without social media.11 Since social media has become such an important part in our everyday lives, it only makes sense for companies to also use it to their advantage. In 2019, 94% of companies around the world used Facebook, 73% used IG and 59% used Twitter.12 Social media can help companies manage their own online reputation and publish their own content.13 Furthermore, through a good social media presence a company can improve their SEO which makes it easier for people to find them in search engines. Social media also makes it easier to engage with customers, find out what they want and need and react to that. Another advantage of a strong social media presence is the ability to improve brand awareness and to reach new target groups through different platforms.14 By improving brand awareness, SEO and reaching new customers and target groups, a company can increase their sales and build or improve brand loyalty.15
It is very likely that customers will contact a company on social media if they need assistance or want to share their experience, regardless if it is good or bad. If a company offers their social media accounts as a form of customer service, they should respond quickly and personal and not with standardized or pre-written replies. Some companies also have and use social media accounts specifically for the purpose of customer service since it is easier and faster to respond through tweets or direct messages than through e-mail forms. For example, a company might have a “regular” Twitter account and a second account specifically for customer service. A fast and easy customer service can increase the satisfaction of customers. But there are more uses to social media than just customer service and promoting your company, brand, product or service. Social media content should be engaging and informal to customers. On social media, people often want to feel as if they are part of a community. A company can achieve that by using their social media accounts to post fun and light content but also personal content, for example by giving the customers a look behind the scenes.16
In figure 2 can be seen what happens on social media worldwide in 60 seconds. About one million people worldwide log into Facebook in one minute. 87,500 users send a tweet and 347,222 people scroll through Instagram. Furthermore, about 41.6 million messages are sent through messenger apps like WhatsApp and Facebook messenger each minute.
This shows the wide reach of social media worldwide. Within just 60 seconds, a company can reach millions of people around the world by using social media accounts. It is therefore important for a company to make active use of social media to promote their product, service or brand and to be competitive.
Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten
Figure 2: This is what happens in an internet minute, 2019 Source: Julie Atherton, Social Media Strategy p.7, figure 1.1
2.3 Customer engagement and Reputation management
As a company operating in times of social media it is important to always plan and be prepared for the unexpected. Social media can often be very unpredictable, which is why a good crisis and reputation plan is a necessity. A company’s reputation can depend on many factors, such as how they do business and how they engage with customers. But it is also important how the company presents itself. For example, do they seem authentic and trustworthy?17 A crisis can always be an opportunity for a company to learn, grow and improve themselves, because if they do well during a crisis they can prove to their customers that they are honest and trustworthy.18 In times of social media, negative comments, criticism and shitstorms are almost inevitable. A company’s reaction is therefore the most important factor that determines if the backlash is going to hurt their image and reputation or not. Before posting anything on social media, whether it is a new ad, video or statement, a company should ask itself at least three important questions:
- How does this make us look?
- Can it be misunderstood or misleading?
- Could it be offensive or insulting to anyone?
Social media can make it easier to connect with customers and build a relationship with them. With social media, you can engage with customers faster and you can react to bad or good comments. Customer engagement is therefore an important factor to build customer relationships and customer loyalty.19
By using social media platforms, companies can communicate with customers on a more personal level and make them feel special by offering exclusive promotions and benefits to followers only, which can help you maintain followers and also win new followers. Engaging with customers on a personal level can also improve the overall customer service, since social media platforms allow you to respond fast to messages and comments. Social media gives your company a “face”, which can also improve your company image, because many people prefer to do business with a company that feels familiar. Building a relationship with customers is important, because a good relationship makes them feel valued and cared for, which makes them more loyal to your brand. Customers that are happy with a company are also more likely to share their posts, which means the company can benefit from free marketing. Through social media engagement, companies can also save money, because it is cheaper than traditional marketing like mail advertisements. When using social media platforms to communicate with customers, a company should try to use several platforms, like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, instead of just one.20
On social media it is important to always use an appropriate way to engage with customers. For example if a customer is leaving a negative comment about the company on Facebook, the company should respond to this on their Facebook account, and not on Twitter. If a customer does not state themselves whether they are satisfied with the company’s response or not, they should make sure to follow up and ask. When company’s get “attacked” it is important to not get too defensive, because social media makes it hard to read between the lines and tones are difficult to judge through written words. It is therefore important to appear neutral or even positive, but not defensive or negative, when responding to a negative comment on social media and always stick to the facts. Because being too defensive or appearing negative can often be understood as being sarcastic and this could give customers the feeling that they are being disrespected and not taken seriously.21
An example on how not to react to criticism is the German mail service DHL.
Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten
Die einzige ScheiBe hier, ist Ihr Rumgeheule! "Voraussichtlich" (wie es nachweislich von uns angegeben und im Standardversand ublich ist) als "feste Daten" wahrzunehmen, grenzt schon sehr an Realitatsverlust. Und jetzt zuriick zu Mami an die Brust! ASI #wann?
Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten
Figure 3: Humor Oder Frechheit? (Source: Pahrmann (2020): p. 276 figure 7-12)
When a customer expressed their frustration on Twitter about their mail being delayed, DHL replied in the worst possible way. Instead of apologizing for the delay or offering help, the employee was insulting and disrespectful towards the customer. The customers issue was not taken seriously and they also did not provide a solution. A reaction like DHL’s could often be the triggering point for a shitstorm.22
Since shitstorms are not something companies can usually predict, it is important to act fast when affected. Many companies monitor their brand and company names on social media with specific tools, which I will discuss further in chapter 6, to be able to react quickly to negative comments. The users of social media are very powerful, everyone can leave a negative comment on social media and many use the internet as a way to pillory. Therefore social media has definitely affected the corporate communication and reputation management of companies worldwide.
2.4 Customers as influencers
Customers can also act as “influencers” for other potential customers by sharing their experience with a company, brand, product or service. People that are considered your equal have a stronger influence when recommending something, which can help with building confidence and trust in said brand or company.23 Word of mouth, and especially online word of mouth, plays a big role for consumers when making purchases. 90% of customers rely on online word of mouth rather than e.g. search engines as a source for making purchase decisions. For companies, online word of mouth can be a blessing or a curse. This is due to the fact that negative word of mouth is weighted more heavily by customers than positive word of mouth. According to a study by the White House of Consumer affairs, unhappy customers will very likely not do business with the company again. When customers have a personal connection to a company, brand or product and they have a negative experience with them, they are more likely to share their negative experience by word of mouth, while positive word of mouth tends to be shared when the personal connection is low.24 On websites like Amazon, customers can influence other buyers by giving bought product a review and a rating. The rating can be given by giving a product between one and five stars. If a person is for example looking for a laptop on Amazon, they can compare reviews and ratings. Customers will tend to buy products with good reviews and ratings, rather than products that have negative reviews and bad ratings. Other examples are websites like “Trustpilot”, where online shops can be rated based on experience with their trustworthiness.25
It is important for a company to understand that customers, especially unhappy ones, are more likely to share their negative experience on social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook.26
2.5 What makes social media dangerous to a company?
“Content is fire. Social media is gasoline. ” - Jay Baer, author
What makes social media dangerous to a company is the factor that it is easy for anyone to publish own content online, whether it’s a good or a bad review and whether it is a Facebook posting or a tweet. On social media, and overall on the internet, it can be difficult to understand tones through written words, which can quickly lead to misunderstandings. Overall can be said, that people tend to talk more about bad publicity than they talk about good publicity.27 On the internet, and especially on social media, this can be difficult because “the internet does not forget”. Once a company has said or done anything online, it is there to stay, even if they delete it. If they say something offensive on Twitter for example, a Twitter user could take a screenshot, meaning they take a picture of their phone or tablet screen28, and could then share it on social media. Even if a company then proceeds to delete the original posting from their own Twitter account, they cannot delete other users’ postings about it. A company should therefore be careful with what they post online and check with a team, if the posting could in anyway cause negative attention from people.
Another risk is that a company might not be able to understand the potential of social media and not use it effectively. This could for example happen if the marketing team lacks policies, guidance and training. It is therefore important to have a marketing team that is trained and prepared for social media, that they know the tools and the risks and what to look out for. Other dangers could include legal risks, such as copyright issues or the risk of getting hacked and having your company’s or your customers’ private information publicly shared.29
3. Cancel culture and shitstorms
Shitstorms and cancel culture have become a popular phenomenon on social media, especially on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Following, a deeper insight on what defines shitstorms and cancel culture will be given, as well as possible triggers that can lead to the outbreak of a shitstorm and insight on how they often work and proceed.
3.1 Types and characteristics
There are a few characteristics that define and form a shitstorm, including the fast spreading of the shitstorm with a lot of negative comments in a short span of time. The negative comments and criticism can often be insulting and mocking.30 Another characteristic of a shitstorm is, that it spreads so quickly because many people will “jump on the bandwagon”, even if they do not have a “direct attachment” to the problem or situation.31
3.2 Triggers and causes
A shitstorm is often provoked when one person is communicating their frustration with a company, brand, product or service and others join in.32
The frustration is often triggered when a customer feels like a company has violated ethical or moral standards, for example when they publish or say something offensive, hurtful or something that can easily be misunderstood as insensitive. This could include a company supporting or sponsoring a controversial topic, the manipulation of survey results or for example VW’s emissions scandal, where they manipulated the official limits for car emissions.33 Other reasons that could cause a shitstorm could be unprofessionalism of a company or misleading statements. Overall can be said, that not listening to customers and not taking them seriously can easily start a shitstorm.34 A social media shitstorm’s origin is in 53% of the time a tweet or in 17% of the time a post on Facebook.35
3.3 Typical phases and duration
The average consumer or online user has a short memory, which is why shitstorms can potentially be short-lived and easily forgotten. Therefore, not every shitstorm will get a company into serious trouble with long-lived consequences.36 But even if consumers have a short memory, a company should never ignore upset customers.37
A typical shitstorm has different phases. Following, I will analyze the three classic phases: the pre-phase, the acute-phase and the post-phase.
The pre-phase starts before the actual shitstorm. During this time a company might not notice any differences, the comments and overall engagement seems neutral. It is described as a phase that starts about a week up to a month prior to the outbreak of the actual shitstorm.
The acute-phase is the phase where the shitstorm hits a company. A company will experience a lot of negative comments, posts, etc about a specific topic. Depending on the weight of the shitstorm, it might be very difficult to control due to a high amount of engagement.
[...]
1 Vgl. Tholl, Max (2019): Cancel Culture: wie der Kulturbetrieb diskriminierende Kunstler boykottiert, tagesspiegel.de
2 Vgl. Cambridge Dictionary (2020), Definition Shitstorm
3 Vgl. Duden (2020), Definition Shitstorm
4 Vgl. Pfluger, Gero (2018): Shitstorm Bedeutung und richtige Reaktion gegen Hetze in Social Media, focus.de
5 Vgl. Cambridge Dictionary (2020), Definition Social Media
6 Vgl. Wirtschaftslexikon Gabler (2020), Definition Influencer
7Vgl. o.V. (o.J.): Unternehmen auf Twitter: Achtung Shitstorm, focus.de
8 Vgl. wechat.com
9Vgl. Kreutzer, Ralf (2020): B2B-Online-Marketing und Social Media, SpringerGablerVerlag, p.1
10 Vgl. Gronau, Corinna (2017): Shitstorm als Social-Media-Phanomen, Science Factory Verlag, p.1
11 Vgl. bitkom.org
12 Vgl. Gronau (2017): p.7
13 Vgl. Pahrmann, Corina (2020): Social Media Marketing: Praxishandbuch furTwitter, Facebook, Instagram & Co, O’Reilly Verlag, p.25
14 Vgl. Pahrmann (2020): p. 52f.
15 Vgl. Atherton, Julie (2020): Social Media Strategy: A practical guide to social media marketing and customer engagement, KoganPage Verlag, p.29
16 Vgl. Newman, Daniel (2015): Many Brands Still Have No Idea How To Use Social Media, forbes.com
17 Vgl. Atherton (2020): p. 183ff
18 Vgl. Atherton (2020): p. 187ff
19 Vgl. Pahrmann (2020): p. 22
20 Vgl. Socialnomics.net
21 Vgl. Amendola, Jodi (2019): How social media can make or break your business’s reputation, forbes.com
22 Vgl. Pahrmann (2020): p. 276f.
23 Vgl. Atherton (2020): p.175
24Vgl. Tuten, Tracy & Solomon, Michael (2018): Social Media Marketing, Sage Verlag, p.90f
25 Vgl. Trustpilot.com
26 Vgl. Frickel, Claudia (2015):_Shitstorm im Online-Netzwerk: Facebook-Wutwelle trifft McDonald’s, focus.de
27 Vgl. Pahrmann (2020): p.27
28 Vgl. Duden: Definition Screenshot
29 Vgl. accenture.com
30 Vgl. Steinke (2018): p.190
31 Vgl. Fiederer, Susanne (2017): Effiziente Krisenkommunikation - transparent und authentisch, SpringerGabler Verlag, p.18
32 Vgl. Steinke, Lorenz (2018): Kommunizieren in der Krise, SpringerGablerVerlag, p.190
33 Vgl. o.V. (2020): Urteil zum VW-Abgasskandal: Geschadigte durfen in Heimat klagen, handelsblatt.com
34 Vgl. Steinke (2018): p.193ff
35 Vgl. Fiederer(2017): p. 19
36 Vgl. Richter, Elke (2013): Der Verbraucher hat ein kurzes Gedachtnis, ovb-online.de
37 Vgl. Steinke (2018): p. 202
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