“This book is a brilliant piece of work that is a must-read for this era of exponential swells and dynamic change – not just for marketing and communication executives, but also for general managers and CEOs. The key insights are so timely: social media storms need to be reframed as regenerative opportunities rather than crises, and managing them will increasingly be part of everyday normal management practice!” “…This is the most strategic probe and thoughtfully useful analysis of social media storms that I have seen. It is one of these rare books that is able to take advantage of scholarly insights, illustrative examples, thoughtful sensemaking and mindset reconceptualizations – while simultaneously giving us practical ways to act as managers and leaders. The book gives us the why, the what, the how, and the what’s next of social media storms. The international team of authors brings examples and viewpoints with global implications and multiple perspectives that go beyond consumers and brands, but that also address societal issues and multiple stakeholder concerns. The treatment of reflective and resilient leadership of social media storms is invaluable, as are the sensemaking ways of managing stakeholder interactions. It is a most compelling narrative for this dynamic age.” Omar El Sawy, Stonier Chair in Business Administration, Professor of Information Systems, USC Marshall School of Business, USA “To never let a good crisis go to waste, you need to prepare. Guided by rigorous research, insightful cases, and actionable strategies, this book serves as a powerful guide to understand, prepare for, and weather the storm.” Christian Daugaard, Nordic Social Media Lead at Boston Consulting Group “This book is a must-read book for anyone who wants to be successful in business in the 21st Century. And it comes at a critical time. Although most people think they know about social media and consumer relations, it is painfully clear, that very few know enough about the rapidly changing consumer-company interac- tion landscape to avoid the serious pitfalls as well as benefit from the new opportunities that this aspect of business represents.” Torben Riise, MBA ExecuTeam & Kaizen Management Phoenix, Arizona, USA “An insightful and impressive analysis of social media storms. What should brand managers do when huge quantities of messages containing negative word-of- mouth circulate in social media? Read the book to understand the phenomenon and how to respond.” Ayşegül Özsomer, Professor of Marketing, Koç University, Turkey “This is a highly useful text and resource for dealing with the contemporary issue of social media storms. There is an excellent flow of contents in the book and several outstanding cases enhance the reader’s understanding of SMSs. The book is written in an engaging style and melds together scholarly research and on the ground experiences. In the new normal era of greater customer power and the added pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is an essential read for all managers of communications.” Alastair M. Morrison, Research Professor, University of Greenwich, UK “This is an important and timely book. It addresses a major digital age phenomenon – social media storms – that has vital implications for marketing practitioners and academics. Based on strong theoretical foundations, the authors demonstrate how managers and organizations should engage with stakeholders not only to weather social media storms, but also to take advantage of them and to strengthen customer engagement. The book is full of real-life examples and useful case studies. It should be an interesting read for everyone who wants to understand what social media storms are and how they should be managed.” Josko Brakus, Professor, University of Leeds, UK SOCIAL MEDIA STORMS This fascinating new book explores the benefits and dynamics of social media storms and identifies the possible opportunities that they present for further engagement with customers. It provides actionable managerial advice on planning for, measuring, and innovatively navigating social media storms. Based on a sound theoretical background and illustrated by vivid real-life examples and case studies throughout every chapter, this book combines thorough explanations of the elements of business decision-making, market interaction, consumer psychology, branding, and business communication. In comparison to the existing literature, the book departs from the classical, but insufficient crisis communication management approaches to suggest novel frameworks and tools for empowering businesses, consumers, and broader societies in the digital age. Social Media Storms: Empowering Leadership Beyond Crisis Management provides advanced undergraduate and postgraduate digital marketing, marketing communi- cations, strategy, and crisis management students with a comprehensive understanding of the social media storm phenomenon and helps marketing and communications professionals to leverage the opportunities that social media storms are bringing. Pernille Rydén is Dean of Education at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Muhammad Ismail Hossain is Professor of Marketing at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Efthymia Kottika is Assistant Professor at the Prague University of Economics and Business, Czech Republic. Vatroslav Škare is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, Croatia. SOCIAL MEDIA STORMS Empowering Leadership Beyond Crisis Management Pernille Rydén, Muhammad Ismail Hossain, Efthymia Kottika, and Vatroslav Škare First published 2022 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2022 Pernille Rydén, Muhammad Ismail Hossain, Efthymia Kottika, and Vatroslav Škare The right of Pernille Rydén, Muhammad Ismail Hossain, Efthymia Kottika, and Vatroslav Škare to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Rydén, Pernille, 1969- author. | Hossain, Muhammad Ismail, 1979-author. | Kottika, Efthymia, 1982- author. Title: Social media storms : empowering leadership beyond crisis management / Pernille Rydén, Muhammad Ismail Hossain, Efthymia Kottika, Vatroslav Škare. Description: New York : Routledge, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Subjects: LCSH: Social media‐‐Economic aspects. | Internet marketing. | Communication in management. Classification: LCC HM742 .R93 2021 (print) | LCC HM742 (ebook) | DDC 302.23/1‐‐dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021010672 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021010673 ISBN: 978-0-367-42530-2 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-42527-2 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-85329-7 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by MPS Limited, Dehradun CONTENTS Author biographies xi Acknowledgement xiii 1 Introduction 1 The concept of social media storms 1 A historical outline 2 The rise of eWord of mouth 3 Crisis communication 4 Crisis communication: why to communicate 5 Crisis communication: how to communicate 7 Emotional route 8 Rational route 8 Social media storm as an opportunity 10 Concluding discussion 11 Structure of the book 12 2 Understanding preconditions of social media storms 18 Do we really understand the properties of social media? 18 The emergence of new media 18 Defining social media 19 Features of social media platforms 20 Six major types of social media platforms 21 Switch of power between brands and consumers 24 Consumer power in the digital age 25 A new (dis)order 26 viii Contents Consumer empowerment/disempowerment paradox 27 Social motivation for change 28 Sustainability, social justice, and woke movement 29 The role of motivations and emotions in consumer behavior 31 The complexity of anger 33 Constructive and destructive nature of negative emotions 33 Anti-branding practices: Antecedents & consequences 34 Croatian Railways Passenger Transport case 36 The trigger for the social media storm 36 Analysis 37 Takeaways from the storm 39 Concluding discussion 39 3 Insights into social media storms 42 What is the role of data in social media storms? 42 Data and human life 43 Medium that generates data for humans 43 Impact of social big data on companies 45 Characteristics of data shaping up social media storms 47 Volume of the generated contents 48 Variety of media and sentiments reflected in the contents 49 Virality of the generated contents and their impacts 51 Visuality of the generated contents 52 Veracity of the contents 53 Categorical variations of social media storms 54 Trigger based variations of social media storms 55 Intention based variations of social media storms 56 Activities based variations of social media storms 57 Speed and duration based variations of social media storms 59 Location and participant based variations of social media storms 61 Constituents/Properties of social media storms 62 An issue that doesn’t seem to be right 62 Issue relevance 63 Support drawing power 63 Media relevance 64 Product scope 65 Brand loyalty and equity 66 Concluding discussion 66 Contents ix 4 Challenges of a changing marketing landscape 75 Challenge #1: Drop your traditional marketing management tools 75 Organizations function in large, interdependent ecosystems 76 Market control through planning efforts makes less sense 76 Social media reflect a whole new business paradigm 77 Challenge #2: Understanding and managing the social media runaway train 78 Challenge #3: Managing crisis triggered by consumer anger 80 Social media storms in an emotional coping perspective 82 Challenge #4: Managing individual and organization frames 83 5 Managerial framing of risks and opportunities 87 What is a mental frame? 87 Opportunity or threat? That depends on the manager’s framing 88 Managerial reflections 90 The origin of resistance and resilience 90 Resistance towards social media storms 92 Resistance rooted in managerial assumptions 93 Resilience towards social media storms 94 Telenor case 95 Risk impact assessment 98 The international mining corporation case 101 Concluding discussion 106 6 Reflective and resilient leadership of social media storms 111 The Copenhagen Zoo case 111 A reflective approach to media storms 112 What emotions does the social media storm evoke in you? 114 Managing emotions is also managing the social media storm 114 Value customer voice and emotion 116 The concept of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) 119 Practice value thinking 120 Resilient leaders – riders on the storm 121 Leadership involves sensemaking – sensemaking involves emotion 122 Reflective exercise: assess your thoughts, emotions, and responses 123 Concluding discussion 125