Brands in the time of social media backlash

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It's been a week since the Kunal Kamra-Arnab Goswami episode took place inside the Indigo flight. After Indigo airlines put out the No Fly ban on Kunal, complying to a tweet from the Minister of Aviation, there are a huge outcry about their decision on social media (Twitter). The strange part was, both the sides - users who were against the incident and for the incident were talking about not flying on Indigo. While the brand remained silent on their decision, it made me think, could the brand have done something different or handled it better. The thought also led to a larger question, when a brand takes a position, how can it defend itself, if there is an outcry or backlash on social media.

What (else) could Indigo have done differently?

Follow due process and procedure: The best thing that Indigo team could have done is putting out a message stating that they will follow due process as laid down by the government and law of the land and in the interim they are enforcing the no fly ban for a said period of few days or weeks. No one wants to argue with the law of the land and after a few days or weeks the public is bound to lose interest and would have latched on to the next trending thing on social media

Stay true to their brand values: Whenever a brand is in doubt, the best resort is stick to its core brand values. People love brands that stays true to themselves. In this instance, the brand could have gone ahead with the ban, but made it more about a brand statement than obliging to arbitrary request from the Minister. Example could be, we might be a low cost carrier, but we don't encourage cheap thrills in our flight, and hence the ban. The only downside is they should not have any precedent of any earlier instance when they did not stick to their brand value

Surprise the users!: Users generally expect a specific reaction from a brand on such instances. The idea is to take a path that they would not have thought about and surprise them. Most people are unsure how to react when they encounter an unpredictable response. I've haven't given a thought on what to do - but maybe a good idea would be sending across a box of chocolates to Arnab for being a 'good boy' and a seat facing the wall panel reserved for Kunal for being a 'bad boy'. The social media command team usually have a process for online reputation/crisis management that has various scenarios - if this, then that; but lateral thinking can help come up with other responses that will diffuse the situation.

Lastly, bury head in the sand: Sa(n)dly, this is the path most brands take. Keep quite and let the issue tide over. And this is exactly what Indigo did after their action. While it worked, it did nothing for the brand worthwhile

I'd say that when brands face such challenges on social media, it is best to look at these as hidden opportunities and try out something that might work positively for them.

As social media plays increasing role in people's lives, it will be harder for brands to keep all the people happy, all the time. At some point, their post or action will offend or alienate a part of their audience.. the brands need to have an action plan in place on how to address such eventualities. Some strategic directions for the same

Align your stakeholders (especially the employees): Give them the complete transparency and arm them with knowledge and information about the issue. Make them believe in your company's stance, and ask them to show support for the same online

Influencer Marketing: Have a list of influencers to whom you can reach out to and speak on the brand behalf

Distract: Put unexpected responses out in the domain that people will be unsure how to respond. As more content out on social media will be visual in nature, emoticons, GIFs, videos are best options. Images leave a lot for user interpretation and are stuff that gets shared easily. A simple facepalm emoticon, will go a long way that writing an apology in text.

Last but not least,

Avoidance: the time tested method of wait it out...Avoid any further responses and wait for the issue to die down.

Thanks!