BlackBerry’s Social Media Reputation Score takes a dive
John Paul Fox,
Insight Executive,
Yomego
21st Oct 2011
In equal measure, the reach of social media provides both an opportunity and a challenge to global brands. RIM, the owner of BlackBerry,
is currently reeling from the impact of its global service outage last week, which came just months after its BBM service was accused of playing a part in galvanizing
violent riots across the UK, so we thought we’d take a look at the role social media played.
Social Media Reputation score
When we compiled our league table of the top 50 brands in social media in
February, BlackBerry ranked as the 4th highest scoring brand in the world, falling only slightly behind Google, Apple and eBay. Yet, if the same table was
to be produced today, BlackBerry’s score would fall dramatically, not even featuring as a top 20 brand.
Before
After
The role of BBM in the UK riots
BlackBerry’s reputation began to decline in August, something which we discussed in a previous blog (http://blog.yomego.com/2011/08/did-social-media-predict-riot.html)
when its BBM messaging service was named as one of the two key channels used to plan the unrest that swept across the nation. However, BlackBerry’s
commitment to co-operate fully with the police to apprehend those responsible, meant that social conversation, generally speaking, remained positive
in sentiment. There were some detractors, however, who felt that BlackBerry shouldn’t willingly hand over individuals personal details to Police.
The global service outage
This month’s major service outage affected BlackBerry users across the globe, leading to a 23.75 point drop in satisfaction score. Celebrities such as
Lord Alan Sugar and Piers Morgan, took to social media platforms to vent their anger. Most of the negative sentiment originated from Twitter, with users
expressing their discontent at both the service outage and the poor handling of the situation from the company. Twitter users felt angry that there had
been no official statement or visibility of senior members of staff at all for what they felt was an unacceptable period of time.
With no official statement, the floor was left open for affected users to speculate on what BlackBerry would do next. The prevailing assumption was
that no compensation would be offered, and the brands satisfaction score continued to plummet. When the CEO finally responded, BlackBerry’s offer of
$100 worth of free premium apps and a month of free technical support to corporate consumers was widely met with dissatisfaction, and even ridicule. Trust in the
brand had fallen so low that a widespread rumour began to circulate, suggesting that this effort was merely a covert marketing ploy to drive traffic to the app store.
The Aftermath
On the 13th of October, service began to return to normal and the tone of the conversation changed. Social conversation and media coverage looked more
at the impact on individuals. One such story
highlighted the extent to which traffic accidents had dropped in Dubai and Abu Dhabi (20% and 40% respectively), and was shared and discussed across a
wide range of social platforms. Humour also became prevalent across channels, with users sharing jokes relating to this corporate disaster.
With an astonishing 80% decrease in share price recorded over the last 3 years, accompanied by the poor handling of the recent global service outage,
investors are calling for the board of
directors to consider a range of strategic options, with many crying out for the sale or split up of RIM. This highlights the power that online word
of mouth possesses, and with Mckinsey and Co estimating that two thirds of the US economy is
driven by word of mouth, it is an area that is too influential for brands to ignore. An appropriate crisis management strategy would have helped
to alleviate the effect that the outage has had on BlackBerry’s reputation. If the organisation had appeared completely transparent and open with
its consumers, brand confidence would have remained high throughout the resolution process.
What do you think the future holds for this multi-national corporation?