Table Of Content“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
