Do You Know How To Avoid Social Media Crisis?

The role of social media in branding, marketing, and business continuity has grown, and so has its power. In a digital era, social media is a robust tool that can either improve or tarnish a company’s brand image. Notably, deceptive and false statements made on social media could spread within a few hours to completely derail a brand of its intended message. Also, a crisis could emerge when a sound marketing strategy is misunderstood. Oh Polly, a women’s fashion company, recently set up a social media competition for NHS workers. The prize for the winner would be a care package, an outfit, and an invitation for an online party. A student nurse from Glasgow won the competition, but her shift clashed with the scheduled online party. Consequently, the brand withdrew her prize.

The nurse took it to social media, where she expressed her dissatisfaction via Twitter. Her post went viral, getting more than sixty thousand reactions and four thousand retweets. The brand image was tarnished, and some users vowed not to shop with the company again. The brand responded to her post by giving their apologies and promised to send the outfit. I think their reaction was timely, and it prevented further damage to the brand’s reputation. Noteworthy, the swift response shows the importance of consistent social media listening tactics.

I am confident that the situation could have been avoided. Although the terms and conditions of the competition demanded that the winner attend the virtual event, the target audience was front line workers. With the COVID-19 pandemic, most frontline workers are busy attending to patients and minimizing the spread of the virus. Therefore, the brand could have consulted with the winner before scheduling the virtual event, to accommodate the ones on long shifts.