Brands walk a tightrope as cyber bullies get vocal
Ola stared down an abusive customer while Amazon played the silent game; how must brands fight online trolls without sullying their reputations?
At a time when online conversations have turned into a bruising sport, brands find themselves in the line of fire almost daily, their reputations dragged to the boxing ring as customers clash over political affiliations, religious beliefs and personal biases. The most recent imbroglio involved two big brands Ola and Amazon, both known for their active social engagement strategies. While Ola reacted swiftly with a strong comment against its online aggressors, Amazon took the silent route, indicating that there is perhaps no single way to deal with online bullies. But the question that many are asking is: Is it time for one?
Ola rallied against a bigoted comment by a customer who cancelled a ride with a driver because he was a Muslim. Abhishek Mishra, who calls himself a ‘ Hindutva thinker’ tweeted “I don’t want to give my money to jihadi people.” Mishra, incidentally, has an impressive roster of followers that includes union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Rajyavardhan Rathore, and Narendra Singh Tomar. He said that he was raising his voice for Hindu drivers, who are also discriminated on the basis of religion.
Amazon was targeted by a set of abusive trolls over the use of actor Swara Bhaskar for its ongoing campaign around the Indian Premier League (IPL). Bhaskar had been subjected to violent rage online for highlighting the fact that a child had been raped inside a ‘ devisthan’ (temple). Faced with a barrage of tweets and posts where consumers threatened to boycott the platform, Amazon stopped pushing her endorsement on its social media feed, probably wary of a backlash that another e-commerce player (Snapdeal) had faced over comments made by then ambassador Aamir Khan over religious intolerance in the country.
Amazon and Ola have reacted very differently but both refused to respond to questions. The question still is: What must brands watch out for as they don their social media greasepaint?
Alienating customers vs risking reputations
There is a balance that brands have to strike; should they turn aggressive against bullies and end up turning customers away or should they back down and run the risk of ruining their reputations. To be fair, the choices are not bound by extremes, but given the nature of online conversations, it is always a slippery slope.
Ola had a choice and brand strategist and founder of Brand-Building.com, Ambi Parameswaran feels it took a fairly well thought out stance. Ola said it did not discriminate driver partners or customers on the basis of caste, gender, religion or creed. It however did not ban Mishra from its platform urging users to treat each other with respect. Independent communications consultant Karthik Srinivasan says it was easy for Ola to take a stand as it was merely going by the Constitution. It might have alienated a certain group but they took a chance and he adds: “It’s quite ironical that we are celebrating Ola for stating what is there in the Constitution.”
Amazon, on the other hand was hasty, it could have waited
for the news cycle to slow down Parameswaran said. “It was one of their brand ambassadors saying something which was politically insensitive so they could have handled it by asking her to clarify her tweet,” Parameswaran said.
Taking a stand vs staying neutral
“Brands are and must be neutral entities. They do not have a gender, religion or political affiliation. And they must not have one, never mind what the temptation,” said Harish Bijoor, founder of Bijoor Consults.
The problem however is that they may not have the choice to do that any longer. Social media behavior is such that it imputes values to silence as much as it does to a vocal rejoinder, it demands an explanation. “In such an environment, brands need to expect flak for their actions, whether good or bad. Brands need to be able to discern through the science of analytics as to what is real, what is motivated, and what is totally anecdotal,” Bijoor added.
Data lets brands pick up issues that need to be addressed. It sets the agenda out clearly and if there is any one code that the new age enforces upon brands say experts, it is to listen to the numbers.
Not always can brands find a clear answer even from their analytics teams and in such cases, a brand must stay away from religion and politics altogether, or it needs to develop the spine to stand tall and defend views and opinions said Bijoor.
The Ola reaction, for instance, went down well because it was measured and strong even when Twitter refused to take down Mishra’s tweet saying that it could not spot “any violations of the Twitter rules”. However, the same post was removed by Facebook as it did not follow the company’s community standards.
In the case of Amazon and Swara Bhaskar, the situaation was more complex. But Amazon, by not sticking up for its ambassador, critics said, ended up damaging its reputation. Also Amazon had to face a counter attack from a larger group of people that demanded an explanation for deleting Bhaskar’s tweet. This group too dangled the sword of boycott over its head.
Staying silent is not an option any longer, “Amazon is being pushed on both sides with boycott threats,” said Srinivasan. Companies must know that there are two sets of customers. “If you take a stand, you will alienate one or the other. You need to take a call on that,” said Bijoor.
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