Social Media Crisis Management: Dove and Chase Bank
If there are two things that are always true about the internet are that whatever is posted on the internet stays, there forever and that the internet moves content extremely fast. By combining these two qualities, it is easy to see that falling into a social media crisis is almost too easy. Any organization around the world is vulnerable to fall into a social media crisis, and, at that point, the only thing one can do is respond. According to that response, the organization will come out of the crisis or sink deeper into it.
Since this risk is very real, the importance of having a crisis management plan cannot be underestimated. When a crisis breaks out, there is no time. One must have the steps laid out so that they can be put into practice immediately. Time is of essence is crisis management. Being prepared for a crisis can help an organization minimize the impact.
To be ready for what type of crisis could break out, an organization should first of all conduct a risk assessment plan covering all scenarios. Once the risk assessment is complete, the key elements of a crisis plan must be identified. Here the team can proceed to laying out a crisis management plan by developing, creating, and practicing. In the development stage, the following are determined within the organization: who responds, tone of response, response examples, chain of command for each one. As stated previously, there is no time to figure this out when the crisis is already on its way, however, if each of these are included in the crisis management plan, it can be executed effectively and timely. In the creation stage, the team should come up with a pre-approved statement to be used when the issue first arises. It is important to respond to a crisis very quickly, however, all data must be analyzed before making a specific statement, therefore, this holding statement is to advise the public that the issue has been noted, and it is being investigated to correct it. In the practice stage, one must make sure that the team is ready to execute the plan as it is laid out by conducting running drills and if any fails are identified, correct them.
Two organizations that demonstrate the utility of a crisis management plan are Dove and Chase Bank. Both of these organizations have experienced the consequences of the social media audience’s misinterpretation of the intended message. Dove has made mistakes along this line more than once. The first crisis snowballed after Dove posted an ad for Dove body wash which showed a black woman removing her top to reveal a white woman.
In a short amount of time, the post got shared by more than 10 thousand people. 44.55 percent of mentions had negative sentiment for this ad as it was interpreted as a racist ad.
It gave the audience that impression so much that more than 12,000 mentioned Dove with a variant of the word “racist.”
On Twitter, the hashtag #BoycottDove began trending. The social media audience interpreted the ad as a before and after and that the white woman was the best version between the two. In response, Dove removed the ad and stated, “The short video was intended to convey that Dove body wash is for every woman and be a celebration of diversity, but we got it wrong,” Dove also apologized and said that they had, “missed the mark in representing women of color thoughtfully.” The social media buzz died down shortly after.
Even though this incident may not have had a big influence on Dove’s short-term sales, the story lasted enough for Dove’s reputation to be affected in the long term. Dove declined to say how the ad was produced and approved. It said it was “re-evaluating our internal processes for creating and approving content.” Even though their crisis management was standardly executed, a mistake had been made in the risk assessment step before the ad was even released.
Chase Bank tried to be relatable and use a sarcastic and joking tone to appeal to the younger generation. The “Monday Motivation” post backfired as what was intended to push people to be fiscally responsible was interpreted as “poor-shaming.” Many people including Senator Elizabeth Warren chimed into the Twitter storm.
Some pointed out how Chase Bank itself does not help its customers be financially successful due to high fees.
Chase Bank tried to keep their cool during the crisis and answer in a similar tone. They quickly deleted the post and made a new Twitter post to nonchalantly address the issue. The organization posted to its 365,000 Twitter followers, “Our #MondayMotivation is to get better at #MondayMotivation tweets,” they added, “Thanks for the feedback Twitter world.” For how the public received and responded to the post, this response was not appropriate.
Even though Dove’s mistake was significantly more impactful as there were insulting visuals that were produced and then posted, Dove’s response demonstrated that they took their mistake seriously. Chase Bank’s response seems like a way to shut the Twitter public up about the mistake without apologizing to anyone who had been offended. In social media crisis management, organizations must keep in mind that even though the issue may not seem big to you, it is for someone else and that is to always be taken seriously.
