Managing the Escalating Consequences of Online Narratives

The Problem

It has been a norm for years for Public Sector organizations to use social intelligence to understand online narratives and their potential to impact the real world… especially in regard to radicalized groups, like ISIS.

Similar scenarios and needs have arisen for commercial brands in the past few years. As agenda-driven groups (called “factions”) figure out how to leverage similar tactics and web mechanics against brands, commercial brands must be able to better understand the trajectory and potential impact of a narrative and if and how it might translate to action and consequences (online and offline).

One Yonder customer, a prominent Food & Beverage brand, was dealing with a number of situations that they believed were being driven by online groups, but they did not have the ability to isolate who was driving them and why. The team was inhibited from being able to proactively develop a plan of action.

key scenarios they were consistently challenged with

Fake coupon campaigns related to social justice issues.

Store associates reported customers walking in with suspect coupons, with titles like “Free Reparation Drink.” The purpose of this online campaign started by fringe trolls was to humiliate the store associate for refusing to accept the coupon and hope to video an awkward reaction. This is a challenging situation for both the store associate and the brand. The communications and marketing teams needed better visibility into fake coupons being developed and distributed online so they can proactively plan how to handle them across all stores.

Groups organizing online to drive action offline.

Online groups talking about organizing to take offline action (ie. vandalism, protests) pose a challenge for security reasons, but also in being prepared for related questions that often come from the press. More often than not, the plans to protest only stay online and don’t materialize into action. It is more likely that the press gets wind of a planned protest or boycott and wants to report on it. The brand needed insights to stay ahead of the curve, understand what percentage of the planned protest conversation is authentic, and who are the groups driving the narrative so they can be prepared to answer press questions or requests.

The Solution

The first step the brand took was to analyze recent situations for each of these challenges. Using Yonder Incident Reports, they were able to better understand how each situation tended to evolve.

Regarding the fake coupon campaign, they could see the factions that originated the narrative. They learned that the factions were using the fake coupon campaign to hurt the brand and make a political stance about race. Basically, the factions were co-opting the brand’s popularity to further something they believed in and wanted to draw attention to.

As for the groups organizing offline action, the initial analysis primarily helped to understand the groups most often involved in these conversations. Knowing the “who” is a vital step in being able to prepare for the next event.

Then, the brand setup tailored Alerts in the Yonder solution that would proactively notify the brand’s team when conversations and narratives began to emerge, signaling that one of these situations may be developing and the team needed to prepare for questions from the press.

The Result

As alerts are provided, the team is now enabled to proactively scenario plan and have less “surprise” situations.

For example, the communications team can proactively inform store associates of fake coupons that may be brought into the store, and they can provide guidance on exactly how to handle the situation so that the customer relationship remains intact. The end result here is avoidance of negative social posts and press that can occur if the situation is not handled properly in store.

Additionally, as the press reach out regarding potential emerging situations at stores, the PR and Communications teams are empowered to speak to who is behind the narrative, as well as how authentic or manipulated it is. The team is given more time to prepare and are less often caught off guard or feeling sideswiped by press questions and outreach. Teams are better enabled to remain focused day-to-day and have increased clarity as to when they must spin up into costly (time and money) crisis mode, or not.