Uber Has Been in Hot Soup!

The use of social networks and the impressive adoption of digital marketing by businesses has caused some problems to arise in the brand-user relationship. Uber is an example of a social media brand crisis. The crisis occurred after President Trump announced a travel ban on Muslim-majority countries (Nguyen, 2019). To express their anger taxi drivers in New York City refused to provide services at JFK airport. At the same time, in its official social media accounts, Uber ran an ad campaign for its rides. Immediately after posting its ad, customers started complaining regarding the company’s bad timing. Customers accused the company of being associated with President Trump while on the other hand drivers accused the company of ignoring their grievances.

Uber responded by assuring its customers and employees that the issues would be looked into. Instead of solving the problem, the response raised more issues. To properly address the issue, Uber could have immediately responded to the allegations addressing all the issues raised. The PR team should have moved within very fast and distanced the CEO from the allegations of being connected to the President (Nguyen, 2019). This kind of response showed a lack of transparency and communication failure and as such doomed the company’s early attempts to address the concerns. This could have helped in maintaining the trust of customers and drivers. In the current digital world, it is the responsibility of the PR to ensure that a brand has a good digital crisis management plan. It is the responsibility of the Public Relations to ensure an adequate strategy is in place to solve the various criticisms that are generated in social media without getting out of control.

Reference

Nguyen, T (2019). Uber Wants to Redeem Itself. Does Public Even Care? Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/9/5/20849632/uber-public-relations-crisis-qanda