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Leveraging Consumer Brand Storytelling and Marketing
Tactics in Issues and Reputation-Based Scenarios.
Stephan Merkens, Managing Director, Teneo Strategy

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In the past, many businesses could almost completely control perception of their brands. Ad agencies
could craft brand narratives and release content in the form of campaigns and media releases to
audiences. For those in the audience who had objections to the campaign, the brand or the business had
limited opportunities to share their views or mobilize like-minded consumers and faced daunting
hurdles (e.g. Time, effort, cost) if they wanted to do so.
Today, with the rise of digital media and an abundance of social platforms, companies are no longer the
only custodians of their brands. People now have the ability to communicate their thoughts and feelings
quickly, cheaply and globally. User Generated content and the rise of digital influence means that more
and more people form an opinion of a business or brand by conversations initiated by others on digital
channels. More importantly, conversation-starters are often influencers who opinions are trusted and
valued by those that follow them.
One doesn’t have to look very far back to see examples of just how powerful social media can be in
shaping perception around a movement and in some cases seriously damaging a brand.
President Obama’s 2008 campaign used social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter to
engage in active conversation with its target audience – young voters—the conversation became a
means for millions of Americans to vent their frustration with the policies then president, President
George W. Bush, playing a deciding role in returning the Democrats to power. In this case, President
Obama’s campaign team correctly identified influencers who could carry their message to a broader
populace with dramatic results.
Social media played a defining role in both the ousting of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and
the imminent overthrow of Mubarak during the Arab Spring. Networks formed online were crucial in
organizing a core group of activists, specifically in Egypt. Civil society leaders in Arab countries
emphasized the role of "the internet, mobile phones, and social media" in the protests. Additionally,
digital media has been used by Arabs to exercise freedom of speech and as a space for civic
engagement. Throughout the uprising, we also saw the emergence of Twitter as a primary source of
news for protesters, who used hashtags to help others with similar interests focus on news specific to
them.
Brands have also had their share of run ins with social media:
In 2005, A Dell customer and influential blogger named Jeff Jarvis posted his frustration about Dells
customer service and warranty policy to his blog. Dell chose to ignore Jarvis’ complaint and did not
reach out to Jarvis or any of his readers. His widely circulated criticism of the company led hundreds of
readers to leave comments about their own experiences with Dell. Because of the large number of
readers, the article gained notoriety and the boost in readership promoted the “Dell Hell” article to a
top position in Google Search. Dell finally reworked its social media monitoring process in 2007 but the
stories stayed with the brand for many years after the incident.
In 2009 Oil Company Trafigura tried, through legal injunction, to stop a number of UK media outlets
from reporting on the results of a parliamentary inquiry into the dumping of toxic materials in Africa. A

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Guardian reporter, Alan Rusbridger tweeted out a cryptic message to his followers who in turn followed
online clues to dissect the story and post relevant links out to others. The links were subsequently
picked up by a number of prominent Twitter influencers including actor Stephen Fry and his 830,000
fans. The resulting backlash forced Trafigura to stop legal proceedings and admit culpability.
In 2015 SeaWorld held their #AskSeaWorld hashtag campaign in an attempt to rehabilitate their image
after the release of Blackfish, a 2013 documentary that put a focus on captive killer whales. The brand
encouraged users to ask questions about whale care, but just like almost every other time a brand opens
its platform up for its audience, the campaign didn’t go as expected and Sea World was hit with a storm
of tweets about the controversy. To make things worse, SeaWorld brought even more negative
attention to itself by insulting the users who posted.
And these examples are not isolated cases. Every day, more and more brands are realizing that Social
Media has the power to change perception entirely.
One person can now have the power to mobilize and entire online community. Established brands who
at one time had control over the conversation can now face existential crises because of conversations
occurring on digital media and the rise of influencers who are actively working to undermine the work
businesses put in to carefully curate their brands.
In response, many large brands have initiated social media strategies in an effort to engage and manage
online conversations, but even though many have large social followings (not all of whom are fans with
positive perceptions of the company) the numbers are dwarfed by the sheer numbers of individuals that
have a potential to be detractors in social media in the event of a crisis. Just look at how many people
engage on social media
• Facebook: 684 million active users
• Twitter: 500 million tweets daily
• Pinterest: 70 million pins daily
• Instagram: 75 million daily active users
Furthermore, detractors are also adept at leveraging the power of social platforms to share messages
quickly. These detractors also exploit an enthusiasm gap. Rarely do fans take the time out of their day to
create engaging content to show their brand love; but because detractors are often those whose
livelihoods depend on furthering their influencers and followers, they do have the time to craft content
that can be quickly and easily consumed and shared, which in turn gets their message out to the largest
audience possible. The speed in which these detractors can move poses serious issues for a company in
crisis. While a company can craft a carefully worded statement that’s given to traditional media outlets,
how do you respond to curious consumers who are interacting with the company on social? While there
might be a response tree in place to respond to a media inquiry how do you handle these detractors?
Which ones – if any – do you engage with? How do you control this detractor-led online conversation?
While a traditional outlet might publish a company’s statement and move on, the detractors could
continue their assault and those individuals important to the business may begin to ask more and more
questions and will expect answers, and not silence, from the company. The only way for brands to hope
to compete is to adapt digital marketing tactics and add them to their crisis management toolbox.
Digital marketing tactics have a lot to offer brands as they work through crises. Tactics that were once
considered solely meant for the marketing team, are now being leveraged to help communications

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teams deal with crisis and reputational risk. Throughout this paper, we will look at adapted tactics and
approaches taken from digital marketing that can assist those who are dealing with issues.
Digital Engagement Model
This model outlines a typical process for the creation of content on digital channels and is the backbone
for most digital marketing executions that concentrate on fan engagement. This model can also apply
equally to the creation, management and amplification of content in the event of a crisis. Ultimately in
both instances, it’s about understanding conversations, creating content for the most relevant
individuals and promoting that interaction, all to drive engagement and control perception.
Listen: Understanding the issues at hand
Marketing organizations have used social listening and analytics for a while now to analyze
conversations and adapt marketing content to take advantage of viewer’s emotional connection to a
brand. Communications organizations and agencies are also starting to realize that conversation analysis
can also help identify opportunities for businesses to engage in conversation and create content that
can be distributed proactively to offset negative perception. Many businesses forgo analysis of
conversations instead focusing on creating branded content that promotes self-serving stories. While
there is usually a small amount of engagement, the engagement is typically not sustained, nor is it highly
positive because it isn’t relevant to customers.
By examining conversations taking place on digital channels (inclusive of social media, blogs and
forums), we are able to not only capture unfiltered expressions of sentiment on any topic, but we can
also use digital tools to analyze a high volume of conversations at once. By collecting and analyzing this
data we can then map factors such as relevant conversation topics, conversation and brand sentiment
as well as the most relevant influencers within the conversation.

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Create: Telling the right story with the right content
During a crisis situation, it’s often very difficult to break through the sheer volume of coverage and
conversation around a particular incident. The venerable press release, while still a necessary evil of
crisis, is only one part of an effective approach that must also now include creating “snackable”
shareable content suitable for social engagement.
The term “snackable” content refers to not only the size or amount of information being offered, but
also its ease of consumption and its shareability. Snackable content can be consumed on its own or act
as a teaser for richer “meals” that a user can consume over time if their interest is peaked.
Take for example, a pharmaceutical or automotive brand that is dealing with a product recall or negative
influencer activity. The natural approach would be to point to a study and research to help offset
negative publicity and support their products. This approach rarely proves effective - Studies by their
nature tend to provide a lot of very long-form product-specific information which can be daunting even
for the most engaged reader. They can also be perceived as sponsored by the brand in question, often
leading to more controversy. This content is also not designed to be consumed through digital channels
which have, by design, limited content capacity.
To take a page out of the detractor playbook, individuals who are looking to mobilize groups of followers
on social media typically produce highly visual content that presents messages in an easily consumable
format that people are more likely to share.
In order for brands to counteract negative content with a counterpoint, they have to adopt similar
tactics for the creation of their own content. This doesn’t mean that the facts aren’t presented, only that
key facts and themes are presented in a very visual, and easily consumed, way that can link over to a
“meal”.
It is also imperative that brands look beyond owned content to satisfy the needs of their followers.
Curated content, or content collected from outside sources and promoted, is equally as important and
allows brands to share information to outside sources that boost credibility. There are a number of third
party tools that allow social media teams to mine channels for appropriate content and request
permission for use. Those tools can give brands a host of content options to share with followers.

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Engage: Finding the voices that matter
In a managing reputation, creating the right mix of informative and engaging content that supports a
business’s point of view is definitely key to driving a company’s message in a crisis situation. But equally
important is finding outlets and individuals that the general public will deem trustworthy. Individuals
have far more trust of word of mouth communications than they do of established businesses.
In the past, we would have referred to the “1-9-90” rule which states that of all interactions on the web,
the 1 percent that actually control conversation and are able to create content that resonates with the
largest number of viewers (typically the 90%). With the abundance of social media platforms that
promote social sharing and content creation, that number of influencers continues to rise, but in order
to identify influencers, we still need to look at their associated measures of influence:
Reach
Reach is a measure of an entity’s ability to increase the audience size for a message.
Relevance
The influencers pertinence to the overall conversation and how often the influencer talks about
topics relevant to the conversation of interest.
Resonance
How deep along a person’s graph does the relevant content proliferate? This usually signifies a
good match between the kinds of following an entity has and the messages they put out.
Influencers are important because:
Influencers gain respect and build credibility.
Influencers set themselves apart from the competition.
Influencer content contributes to natural search results.
Because of their control of content, and the trust that they foster in individuals who engage with them,
influencers have a much greater chance of shaping perception of a particular issue and in turn altering
the outcome of a crisis situation for a business.
Amplify: Expanding your reach
As content is created and shared there are opportunities to shape how that content is
consumed. Again, as we look at any crisis situation, we realize that there will be both positive
and negative content being shared. There are a number of tactics that are typically used in
digital marketing that Can be leveraged to drive engagement with targeted audiences.
SEO
SEO or Search Engine Optimization can be accomplished easily and essentially makes content
easier to find through search engines. It’s a tactic that is often used by advertisers to drive brand
awareness. With SEO, content is optimized for search through proper tagging and through
promotion to trusted sites in the search engine network.

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An effective SEO program looks at search demand on any particular topic to determine the best
keywords with which to associate content. SEO can be then used to replace or suppress
offending content with proactive content sharing a different point of view. SEO relies on having
an abundance of content in multiple places to help drive search rankings – hence the need to
engage Influencers and partners to create and curate content on behalf of a Brand.
Syndication
Content Syndication allows brands to take previously published content and promote it to
media networks that have similar engagement targets as the brand being promoted. This is
extremely effective to drive proactive positive content. Content Syndication can also employ
demographic targeting to ensure that content is placed in easy view of a very specific audience.
Also, unlike SEO, content that is used in syndication can come from sources outside a network
and doesn’t require notification or attribution.
Paid Display
Finally, Content can be promoted through Paid media such as display advertising, advertorials,
sponsored content and social media banner ads to targeted audiences. It is important to note
that when buying paid media, businesses need to use analytics and insights to help identify
target audiences and content as well as relevant platforms for maximum engagement.
Ultimately, as people continue to engage in different ways digitally, the tactics that
communications practitioners will use to manage perception must adapt. We know that brand
image has for the most part become democratized because of digital media, so by
understanding and adapting the ways that content is created and shared within these new
media channels, we have a chance to influence the way our brands are perceived and respond
to negative situations in an informed way that can prevent social media meltdown.