Complaining and Criticism on Social Media

Digitalization greatly affects how organizations and their stakeholders communicate and interact. In our research we analyze the challenges organizations face when communicating with empowered consumers who voice their criticism on social media. When this criticism is voiced directly to the company on their social network sites, companies need to effectively deal with it in order to restore trust and satisfaction. Critical issues that elicit emotional outrage in many can turn into an online firestorm, which has the potential to severely harm the reputation of an organization. Our research also addresses organizations’ handling of harmful content on their online platforms. Curbing harmful online communication that threatens the dignity and safety of the attacked target is a social responsibility of organizations that operate online forums and networking sites.

 

Online Complaining and Complaint Management

Individuals increasingly turn to the internet to share their opinions, thoughts and feelings about positive brand experiences with other consumers. But they also use social media platforms such as Facebook brand pages, online discussion forums and micro-blogs as an alternative complaint channel to inform companies (and others) about perceived corporate misconduct and experienced service failures. In our research, we analyze the effects of negative electronic word-of-mouth (NeWOM) on observers (e.g., potential customers) as well as the effects of companies' online complaint handling on complainants and bystanders. Here, we investigate new ways how different recovery strategies and communicators affect complainants' and others' perceptions of the failure and reactions towards the involved brand. By incorporating research on persuasion, social influence and information processing, we add new academic knowledge to consumer decision making in the digitalized era.

Contact: Sabine Einwiller, Wolfgang Weitzl (former CCom member)

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Online Outrage and Firestorms

The networked information and communication environment has greatly enhanced the capacity of individuals to be active and critical participants in the public sphere. Collective outrage and protest are frequently voiced online and can take the form of an online firestorm, which has been defined as a "sudden discharge of large quantities of messages containing negative word-of-mouth and complaint behavior against a person, company, or group in social media networks" (Pfeffer, Zorbach, & Carley 2014: 118). In our research we have analyzed how online firestorms are covered by journalists, who thereby amplify the outcry by elevating it onto a mainstream communication platform. We have found that journalists mainly address firestorms that address perceived discrimination and moral misconduct aiming at societal change and thus focus on the rectification attempts of an aroused public. Our further research examines the side of those who participate in online firestorms by focusing on the motives of individuals to get involved in such online outrage.

Contact: Sabine Einwiller

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