Brands Fundamental Need for Anti-Hate Policies
Nowadays, more and more brands find themselves in the middle of some sort of social media backlash issue. Even the biggest ones such as Dove, Pepsi or Nike. Whether backlash is the case of a mistake or the strategy of a brand, the hate they generate from their action is a fast-growing problem.
The speed which a social media backlash can occur is ginormous. No matter the cause of a backlash, it is crucial for brand owners to ensure they have a plan for dealing with negativity and hate.
The most striking social media backlash
There are various reasons that may provoke a social media backlash. Whether the backlash is a result of being bold and taking a stand, or it is a result of misjudgment, no one is immune to it.
Here are examples of the most striking social media backlash.
Social media backlash as a result of taking a stand:
NIKE — Colin Kaepernick campaign
By including Colin Kaepernick, a controversial former NFL star in the campaign, who decided to kneel during the national anthem, as a way to raise awareness of social justice issues spread throughout the NFL in 2016, launched Nike’s biggest social media backlash. Which resulted in hatred, negativity, bad publicity and ultimately with a boycott and burning of Nike products.
BUDWEISER — Immigrant Campaign: „Born The Hard Way“
When you interfere with two topics that do not go well together (hard-lifechanging topic such as politics and light-enjoyable topic as drinking beer), as a result, you get a lot of negative publicity and you create a resistance of the consumers towards your brand.
Social media backlash as a result of misjudgment:
DOVE — Facebook ad
The ad in which women take off their shirts to reveal a woman of a different race made a huge social media outburst after a dark-skinned woman transformed into a light-skinned woman. Although brand apologized and explained that they “missed the mark in representing women of color
thoughtfully.”, it resulted in viewing the brand as a racistic brand which does not celebrate diversity.
PEPSI — Kendall Jenner ad
After launching their ad with Kendall Jenner, in which she hands an ice cold can of Pepsi to a riot officer who is monitoring the march, Pepsi was accused of making a „light“ of a serious issue. Even though they made a statement which stated: “ Pepsi was trying to project a global a message of unity, peace, and understanding”, they had to apologize and remove the ad.
The main problem
Ignoring won’t solve the problem.
Almost all brands have a policy to just swipe their hate problems on social media under the carpet by deleting hateful posts. But brands shouldn’t just focus on silencing the haters, they should stand up for the represented issue. If they make a stand, they will show that it all about the actions for solving the issue itself, rather then about the ads. By standing up to online hate, the brand has a lot less to lose than ignoring it and hoping that it will go away.
When brands have previously arranged a plan for solving and responding to online hate, they are in a position to effectively respond to occurred issues. Also if the brand allows their community to speak in a more positive way it will result in helping the brand to gain strength are force those who are negative to leave.
How to stop online hate and social media backlash?
Create your own anti-hate policy. When you start to speak out and push against hate speech, many others will join you.
Creating your own anti-hate policy is the first step towards solving hatred gathered around your brand.
4 steps for creating your own anti-hate policy
- Use some relevant platform’ community guidelines as a basis for your own policy, such as Facebook‘s or Twitters. Which can help you to decide which types of language and behavior won’t be tolerated.
- You can add additional wording from your brand’s existing internal HR or operational policies.
- Ensure that your anti-hate policy is visible and accessible to all. This will show where your brand stands.
- Make it public! Publish it on your social media pages so everyone is aware of how they should behave.
In addition
Educate your page moderators how to respond to hateful comments and how to discourage hateful sentiments in all guises.
Respond to your comments, especially when you launch a campaign that contains a risk of triggering a backlash, monitor comment more closely. 15–30 minutes on the first day of the campaign, every two hours after one week of a campaign and then on a less frequent basis as time goes on.
Anyone reading your brands' anti-hate policy should be clear of what kind of space you want to create for your users.
Keep in mind!
By ignoring online hate and hoping it will go away, your brand has a lot more to lose than by standing up to it.
