This document discusses the evolving norms for organizations and public figures in managing criticism on social media, highlighting the necessity of engaging with stakeholders rather than remaining silent. It provides several case studies of how different brands, including Walmart, Coca-Cola, and McDonald's, have addressed criticism through direct responses or strategic initiatives to reshape public perception. The document emphasizes the importance of maintaining decorum and correcting inaccuracies while adapting communication strategies to maintain a positive public image.

1. On Responding
photo: petesimon on flickr

2. Being present on social media, listening to people’s conversations and feedback, and engaging stakeholders in two-way communications…. these are among some of the new norms for organizations, brands and public figures today.
In this issue of the People’s Insights monthly briefs, we look at different ways brands, corporate communicators and public have chosen to respond to criticism on social media. The forms of criticism vary from stray comments, detailed blog posts, op-eds in the New York Times to angry voices on social media. The motivation to respond, though, seems consistent: silence would do more harm.
Here’s an overview of the examples featured in this report:
Responding to… Maintain Decorum
When you have a social media page or community, it’s sometimes a smart idea to ignore unconstructive, irrelevant comments. Other times, it’s necessary to respond to take control and maintain healthy environment.
•Frederike den Ottelander, MSLGROUP’s Head of Digital and Social in the Netherlands, shares the example of how Frans Timmermans, the First Vice-President of the EU Committee, manages his base of over 200,000 followers on Facebook like a ‘social media rockstar.’

3. Responding to… End Speculation
A silent firm is defined by others, as MSLGROUP’s Pascal Beucler says in The Reputation Complex.
•Adobe, Intel, Mercedes-Benzand prominent members of the gaming community learned this the hard way, when proponents of #gamergatecited their silence as support for the #gamergate movement. The speculation that followed prompted Adobe and Intel to release statements on the issue, and artists behind the comics Giant Bomb, Oglaf and Nedroid made their stance explicitly clear on their social media pages.
•Actress Renee Zellwegertoo felt pressured to release a statement, after her new look became a central point of discussion in the news and on social media. Her motive? To let people know she was happy with her look, and end the floods of conversation.
Responding to… Correct Inaccuracies
Once it’s online, it’s there forever. Even if it’s not necessarily accurate.
In two separate incidents earlier this year, senior executives at Walmart and Coca-Cola strongly countered online criticism that they felt was inaccurate, with lengthy comments and blog posts. This approach was effective in giving the alternative point of view exposure online. However, it can oscillate between promoting a fixed view and engaging in a constructive dialog.

4. •Walmart’s former VP of corporate comms David Tovar lashed back at criticism in a New York Times op-ed, by ‘correcting’ the original piece with a handwritten comments in red ink and posting it to the Walmart blog. A bold move that brought his argument to the limelight.
•Coca-Cola’s former director of digital comms and social media Ashley Brown responded to criticism in a Sparksheet blog post, sparking a deep and insightful conversation with the author and other content marketers over the course of four months.
Responding to… Change Perceptions
For brands that have poor reputations in certain areas, the best defense can be an offense.
•With its Our Food. Your Questions.program, McDonald’sis tackling criticism, rumors and questions about their food head-on. The program launched in Canada in 2012, in Australia in 2013 and was just launched in the United States in October 2014.
•The NFLtoo will have to take a long term approach to fix it’s brand image. After months of criticism about the way it investigated the domestic violence by footballer Ray Rice, the league recently announced several new initiatives to prevent and manage violence/abuse within the league.

5. Bonus: Responding to… Set the Tone
In times of crisis, the first response can set the tone for the company’s subsequent activity –and people’s reactions.
•The Drum has a great analysis on Richard Branson’s immediate response to the Virgin Galactic crash that took place on October 31st, check it out here.
We’d love to hear your take on these approaches. Do share your thoughts with us at @PeoplesLabon Twitter.
Nidhi Makhija-ChimnaniDirector, Research and Insights,MSLGROUP

6. •Frans Timmermans on Facebook
•Disengaging from #Gamergate
•Renee Zellweger responds
•Walmart’s Fact Check
•The Coca Cola Content Journey Debate
•McDonald’s Our food. Your questions.
•NFL’s shaky stand on Domestic Violence
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7. Frans Timmermans on Facebook
facebook.com/frans.timmermans

8. By Frederike den Ottelander, Head of Digital & Social, Netherlands, MSLGROUP
Largest fan base amongst members of the EU Commission
At the beginning of this month, Frans Timmermans nailed his application for First Vice-President at the EU committee by answering questions in five different languages.
Few people know that Timmermans is also a political social media rockstar on Facebook in the Netherlands. With over 200,000 followers, Timmermans, former Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, is by far the most followed politician on Facebook in the Netherlands.
Not exactly the 45 million fans that Barack Obama has… but compared to other Dutch politicians such as the Dutch Prime Minister and Timmermans’ new colleagues at the EU, Timmermans is a clear winner.
Top 5 Facebook accounts of the new EU Commission

9. Response & Reactions: What’s working for Timmermans?
The answer is the combination of the right choice of platform, understanding of the platform and the right mix of content.
1. Right choice of platform:most Dutch politicians are on Twitter, where they find political colleagues and ‘enemies,’ journalists and people interested in politics.
However, social media usage in the Netherlands show that only 21% of the 18+ Dutch population is on Twitter, whereas 73% of the 18+ population is active on Facebook. Facebook is a better platform for this audience.
2. Understanding of the platform:In November 2012, Timmermans took his personal Facebook account offline because he received aggressive comments in response to his political views. Timmermans had already been on Facebook for years. After a month, he decided that it was time to return despite his negative experience –but this time with a fan page instead of a personal account. He had learnt his lesson.
He still gets involved in discussions around political issues every now and then, but has clearly stated in his ‘About’ page that he expects people to be respectful to him and others. And when people do not do so, he addresses it head on.

10. A critic commented on the above post, saying “You have excellent music taste for a hypocritical and self-centered money-grubber.”Timmermans responded: “And for such a friendly looking lady, you have a pretty big mouth”
For example, on May 16th, he posted an update on his page that he was aware of a small group that was misbehaving in the comments section. He asked them to behave and reminded them about the implications if they refused to do so.
More recently, after he and his community got tired of an endless stream of negative comments, he decided to let them know that he had heard them. He picked up a negative comment and responded to it with a snarky comment of his own. This approach attracted 2,000 likes as well as national coverage on social media and marketing/communication blogs.

11. Sometimes, words cannot express how you feel
3. Right mix of content: Timmermans understands his audience. His content is a mix of news, insights, ‘what I am doing right now’ updates and last but not least, some personal content. As a multilingual politician, Timmermans understands not only the power of words, but also the power of images. For example, on the national day of mourning after the MH17 tragedy, Frans Timmermans chose to just post a picture.
Timmermans straightforward approach seems to be working well for his over 200,000 followers. For tips on maintaining a presence on social media, check out Frederike’s full post: Political Social Rockstars: Why Every Politician Should be on Facebook.

12. Disengaging from #Gamergate
thebullyprojectmural.com

13. Background: The two sides of #gamergate
Over the summer, some members of the gaming community rallied together to create the controversial #gamergate movement. The movement has two sides. One is about exposing the corruption within gaming journalismand demanding ethical practices (some journalists are ‘too close’ to game developers, they argue). The other side, which has arguably taken over #gamergate, is seemingly about silencing female critics, developers and gaming press that push for diversification of gaming culture.
#Gamergate got coverage in mainstream media following reports of harassment, abuse and hacking directed against female critics, leading to headlines like Massacre' threat forces Anita Sarkeesian to cancel university talkand Felicia Day's public details put online after she described Gamergate fears.
Controversy grew as members of #gamergate initiated an email campaign (“Operation Disrespectful Nod”) asking advertisers to pull ads from sites that carry these women’s articles and criticism against #gamergate. And –as other gamers and celebrities condemned the movement on social media (Gamergate Is Running Out of Heroes).
For full infographic, visit gamergate.me

14. digiday.com
Response: Disengage!
Brands targeted by the campaign, including Kraft, Verizon, Best Buy, Adobe, Intel, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, found themselves in a tough spot –should they meet consumer’s demands (as Intel put it) or stay away from the increasingly polarized debate?
AdAge’s Alex Kantrowitz votes for the latter, pointing outthat “those not responding are in better shape than those who have.” But this seems to be a result of these brands pulling ads without commenting on the larger issue.
Take the example of Intel. Around October 1, the brand gave in to demands to withdraw advertising from Gamasutra, but didn’t release a statement until October 3.

15. Top to bottom: Forbes, The Verge, The Verge, arts technica
By then, #gamergate opponents were furious with the move. In its statement, Intel had to clarify that it did not support any side, and offered a blanket apology for offending anyone.
Adobe’s initial action was just as confusing. The brand asked Gawker (a key target of #gamergate) to remove the Adobe logo from its footer and tweeted“We are not an advertiser w/ Gawker. We asked Gawker to remove our logo. Adobe stands against bullying.”It wasn’t clear which side Adobe was on –was it anti the bullying of gamers, or anti the bullying of the female victims? Adobe launched a statement soon after to clarify.
Mercedes-Benz and BMW too have withdrawn advertising on Gawker, but have not released statements online.

16. waxy.org
While brands are clearly refraining from picking sides, people named by #gamergate are speaking out. For instance, when blogger Andy Baio pointed outthat #gamergate proponents count their silence as support, three members of the gaming / comic industry immediately made it clear they did not support the movement.
Stay away! Or, take a stand?
Communicators are recommending brands stay away from what AdAge calls a “lose-lose situation.”
PRWeek’s Chris Daniels askedPR professionals what they thought and the answer remained the same: it’s “difficult for stakeholders to have a civil conversation about the issues.”

17. prweek.com
For several, this stems from a believe that the problem will ultimately go away. Daniels notes:
“Others who talked withPRWeekabout the issue suggest GamerGate will have little impact on the video game industry in the long run.”
But what if the movement is here to stay? And given the context of today’s communications landscape where brands like Dove and Virgin have benefited from taking a strong stand, is there an opportunity for brands to get involved?
Rohit Thawani, director of digital and social strategy at TBWAChiatDay seems to thinkso:
“Advertisers supporting stands are seeing greater returns. The era of running away from issues and problems are over.”

18. Renee Zellweger responds
mic.com

19. Background: A new look
Renee Zellweger made a comeback to the public spotlight with her appearance at the Elle Women in Hollywood Awards in October. Entertainment media and Twitter were filled with comments on her new look and speculation that Zellweger must have had some plastic surgery work. She simply looked “unrecognizable,” as The Daily Mail and Fox News shouted in headlines. Even the New York Times and Time magazine joined the bandwagon, commenting on her looks and on people’s reaction to it.
Overnight, the internet was filled with slideshows showing before and after photos and articles in which plastic surgeons explained what Zellweger could have had done. Writers and bloggers debated why her new look was such a hot topic of discussion. Others analyzed the impact of show business on aging actresses.
The debate raged on, did she / didn’t she?, looks good / looks awful, yay plastic surgery / nay plastic surgery, and a quick two days later, Zellweger decided to speak up, to get others to calm down.
Top news items the day after the Elle awards show

20. people.com
Response: I’m happy and thrilled that it shows
“It seems the folks who come digging around for some nefarious truth which doesn’t exist won’t get off my porch until I answer the door,” Zellweger said to People magazine, and then shared her views.
She deflected the attention away from her physical appearance to focus on happiness and health:
"I'm glad folks think I look different! I'm living a different, happy, more fulfilling life, and I'm thrilled that perhaps it shows.
“My friends say that I look peaceful. I am healthy. For a long time I wasn't doing such a good job with that. I took on a schedule that is not realistically sustainable and didn't allow for taking care of myself. Rather than stopping to recalibrate, I kept running until I was depleted and made bad choices about how to conceal the exhaustion. I was aware of the chaos and finally chose different things.”
And, she subtly reminded people that she should look different as she ages, but again, she’s happy.
“People don’t know me in my 40s. People don’t know me [as] healthy for a while. Perhaps I look different. Who doesn’t as they get older?! Ha. But I am different. I’m happy.”

21. Top to bottom: The Guardian, Buzzfeed, and Vanity Fair
Reactions: Dignified vs. hollow
Many people appreciated the way Zellweger handled the criticism and nastiness, calling it “dignified” and “brilliant." Others focused on the fact that she was happy, saying that’s all that mattered. Yet others found it ‘hollow’ that she chose not to comment on the rumors of plastic surgery.
But her statement did provide some closure and the conversations finally began to simmer down.

22. Walmart’s Fact Check
blog.walmart.com

23. Background: NYT calls Walmart a “drain on taxpayers”
Over the summer, New York Times contributor Timothy Egan wrote the opinion piece The Corporate Daddywhich painted a bleak economic future and criticized Walmart’s impact on the American economy. Egan’s argument:
“It’s a sad day when we have to look to corporations for education, health care and basic ways to boost the middle class….
“Walmart, the nation’s top private employer and the world’s largest public corporation, is a big part of the problem —and could be a big part of the solution.”
Egan then proceeded to point out the income gap between Walmart’s lowest and highest paid employees, call Walmart a “drain on taxpayers” and criticize the poor adoption of Walmart’s program to help employees pay for tuition.
nytimes.com

24. twitter.com/walmartnewsroom, blog.walmart.com
Response: Walmart’s VP of corp comms “fact checks” the article
The very next day, Walmart’s then VP of corporate communications David Tovar responded to the article, marking it up with his comments in a red pen and posting it to the Walmart blog.
“We had some fun with it,” he says in the blog post, and begins his response with a sarcastic note:
“Tim -Thanks for sharing your first draft. Below are a few thoughts to ensure something inaccurate doesn't get published. Hope this helps –WMT”

26. twitter.com/marketingprofs
They found the approach refreshing and indicative of the possibilities of a digital world, which provides corporate communicators with new ways to reach audiences. Others pointed out that Walmart’s response too should be subject to a fact check –several newssitesand organizationscomplied.
Some professionals and journalists felt the approach could be more constructive. PRWeek has a good round-up of PR professionals’ views here, best summarized in Salon contributor Ari Rabin-Havt’s comments: Walmart missed the opportunity to use the NYT column as a “moment for serious introspection”:
“Wal-Mart isn’t going away and any conversation about wages, manufacturing and the reliance on public benefits by the employees of America’s largest corporations is ultimately going to include its participation. This latest salvo seems to indicate it remains intent on making it as unproductive a conversation as possible.”

27. The Coca-Cola Content Journey debate
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sparksheet.com

28. Background: Is Coca-Cola’s corporate website worth the investment?
In the beginning of this year, social media manager Mark Higginson wrote an article for content marketing blog Sparksheet questioning the benefit of content marketing and citing the Coca-Cola Journey corporate websiteas an example. The corporate website had just completed its first year and was under some scrutiny from marketers who were trying to determine the impact of the initiative.
What’s different about Coca-Cola Journey? It’s more of a digital magazine with multiple posts a day on a broad range of Coca-Cola topics –recipes, #cokestyle, Coca-Cola’s initiatives in the start-up scene, happiness –and some non-Coca-Cola topics like Halloween. In short, a huge leap from the typical corporate website.
The new website is backed by a multi-million dollar investment and a proper newsroom. This caught Higginson’s attention and inspired him to ask –is it worth it for Coca-Cola? He analyzed 78 random blog posts, determined that number of social shares were in the hundreds and concluded that for a company that sells 1.8 billion beverages a day, the site does not offer a good return on investment. coca-colacompany.com

29. One of many comments Brown posted on Sparksheet
Response: Founder of the Journey presents a strong case
Ashley Brown, the founder of the website and Director of Digital Communications and Social Media at Coca-Cola at the time, wrote back two days later calling Higginson’s argument flawed.
Brown’s point of view: his team was happy with the number of social shares they received, and were more interested in “things like time spent on page, unique visitors, referrals, and more than a hundred other inputs” when evaluating the success of their site.

30. ashbrown.org
A deep, four month long conversation ensues
Sparksheet readers took advantage of the presence of both Higginson and Brown in the comments section and asked questions on both arguments. Since Sparksheet attracts a niche audience of content marketers, a healthy conversation followed with readers sharing their own view points and even tips for the Coca-Cola team on audience strategy and search performance.
Both Higginson and Brown responded to comments and the overall result was a much deeper picture of the behind-the-scenes evaluation at Coca-Cola and the lack of agreement within the content marketing industry on measuring success. In fact, the latter was a key reason for Brown to be so vocal about his experiences on Journey –it was a new concept for a corporate site and needed to be both explained and justified.
It’s also worth noting that both Brown and the Sparksheet team were committed to having a constructive conversation–they even invited each other to contribute to their respective blogs. Readers appreciated the continued discussion and joined in as many as four months later, proving not only the long-tail of online content but also the value of responding publicly online.

31. McDonald’s Our food. Your questions.
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mcdonalds.com

32. Background: Fielding doubts about McDonald’s food
People have been concerned about the quality of McDonald’s food for years now, due to questions raised by the documentary Super Size Me(2004), individual experiments to test if the food will rot like the Happy Meal Project, and more recently Jaimie Oliver’ campaignto make McDonald’s stop using pink slime in the United States (2012).
McDonald’s Canada was the first to launch Our Food. Your Questions. to prove that they used 100% pure beef and had never used pink slime. In 2012, they launched an online platforminviting people to send in questions about McDonald’s food.
McDonald’s Canada received 16,000 questions in its first four months and posted 10,000 answers in real-time. A question about the appearance of the food in ads even led to the creation of the video Behind the Scenes at a McDonald’s photo shootwhich has received 10 million views to date.
Following the successof the Canadian campaign in changing perspectives, it was re-created in Australia in 2013 with a similar platformshowing questions and answers, and video responses. In 2014, it was introduced in the U.S.

33. Watch: Is McDonald’s beef real?
Our Food. Your Questions. comes to the United States
For the U.S. edition, McDonald’s partnered with former host of TV show MythbustersGrant Imahara to create a series of webisodes.
People were invited to share their questions on social media, and Imahara would visit McDonald’s suppliers to find the answers. McDonald’s suppliers walk Imahara through the production process, answer his questions and then invite him to taste the food for himself.
In one of the webisodes, the person who asked the question was invited to join Imahara at a factory, and was featured in the video What are McRibs made of?

34. Reactions: Not yet enough
There seems to be strong interest in the U.S. campaign, with two of the longer webisodes about beef and McRibs receiving over 1.5 million views each. But the number of dislikes match the number of likes and the comments show that people aren’t yet convinced.
As Adweek’s Rebecca Cullers notes:
“What I most admire is that they're letting the comment feed on YouTube be just as brutal as it wants to be. And man, is it brutal.”
The comments are filled with cynical comments, with people still choosing to believe the ‘myths’ rather than a mythbuster hired by McDonald’s. It doesn’t help that the media is using the campaign to highlight bigger problems they want McDonald’s to focus on.
For instance, John Oliver made a parodyof the initial McDonald’s ad to highlight the low wages McDonald’s employees get paid. Time contributor Naomi Starkman wonderedabout the lack of questions around more relevant hard-hitting themes like antibiotic-use and cage-free eggs, arguing that McDonald’s competitors like Chipotle were winning market share because of better food practices.

35. Our Food. Your Questions. in: Canada,Australia,U.S.
McDonald’s will have to adapt its campaign to the U.S. audience to drive a real change in perceptions. It could start by analyzing the questions to identify what its customers care about most and analyzing their reactions to guide the next phase of the campaign.
McDonald’s could also take a leaf out of the Canadian and Australian book, and create a warmer repository of questions and answers on its website.

36. NFL’s shaky stance on Domestic Violence
nomore.org/nflplayerspsa

37. The first video released on tmz.com
Background: The Ray Rice debacle
In the beginning of the year, Baltimore Ravens footballer Ray Rice was arrested for assaulting his then fiancé in an elevator at a casino. That very week, entertainment channel TMZ released the video of Rice leaving the elevator, dragging his unconscious fiancé behind him.
The video led to public outrage, which was further fueled after a court agreed to drop charges against Rice if he enrolled in counselling, and after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced a suspension of only two games in July.

38. nj.com
People and players alike were furious that a player who was guilty of domestic violence would get a lighter sentence (two games) than a player who was guilty of substance abuse (in one case, a year-long suspension).
During Rice’s trial, a few other NFL players were accused or found guilty of domestic violence and child abuse, straining the image of the NFL further –especially when the media shared a USA Today databasewhich lists all 765 arrests of NFL players since 2000. 88 of 765 were for domestic violence.
The crisis reached a new peak in September when TMZ released a second video, showing the events that took place within the elevator – Rice punching his fiancé.
NFL’s Response
By the end of August, Goodell acknowledged that the league needed a stronger violence and abuse policy, and sent out a memoto the team owners admitting he didn’t handle the situation well.
But his stance on Rice didn’t change until TMZ released the second video in September. Hours after the video was released, Goodell announced an indefinite suspension for Rice and the Baltimore Ravens dropped him from the team.

39. The league also stepped up all their efforts to address the problem of violence, and announced several initiatives in September and October:
•External investigation into the Rice incident
•Partnership with organizations NO MORE, Futures without Violence and Coach for America
•A rehaul of the league’s Personal Conduct Policy, such that first time offenders of violence and abuse will receive a six game ban and repeat offenders a lifetime ban
•Hiring of female advisors to shape the league’s stance
•A 60 second PSA in which NFL Players say NO MORE, which aired during game time
•Donations to organizations that offer support to victims of abuse
•Policy to cater to victims
•Presentation of a 40 minute training videoon domestic violence to team owners, which will also be sent to high school and college football coaches nationwide

40. Current players @dougbaldwinjr, @anthonydavis76and @charliebatch16 share their views on Twitter
Reactions: Walk the Talk.
Reform won’t be easy for the NFL, which faces heat from two sides of this issue.
On the one hand, the public, media and other NFL players are demanding it to commit to a serious change in the way it handles cases of violence and abuse. They aren’t happy with the lack of concrete statements and actions on the issue (see John Olivier’s attack on Goodell on Last Week Tonight) and are standing up for change. Even current NFL players are criticizing the commissioner on Twitter openly.

41. bleacherreport.com
On the other hand, the NFL faces some resistance from the players union and guilty players on stricter penalties. For instance, Rice has appealed his indefinite suspension from the league saying that he was honest with Goodell from day one and shouldn’t have been punished ‘twice.’
The true test of the NFL’s new commitment will most likely come in November, when Goodell decides on next steps not just for Rice, but also for footballer Adrian Peterson, who just pleaded guilty to assaulting his four year old son.

42. People’s Insights is a collection of inspiring initiatives, insights and foresights shared by MSLGROUP’s SPRINTers –our global team of 100+ strategic planners, researchers and insights experts.
We feature the best of these initiatives as People’s Insights monthly briefs, and original insights and foresights –from our SPRINTers and other MSLGROUP experts -in our People’s Insights magazines. We share these reports on our social platforms and distribute them freely to inspire more engaging campaigns.
People’s Insights covers the latest trends in engagement on both consumer and corporate sides. Check out our latest magazine, The Future of Business Citizenship, for data and insights on how Millennials want businesses to be better active citizens.
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The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform helps organizations build and nurture public or private, web or mobile, hosted or white label communities around four pre-configured application areas: Expertise Request Network, Innovation Challenge Network, Research & Insights Network and Contest & Activation Network. Our community and gaming features encourage people to share rich content, vote/ comment on other people’s content and collaborate to find innovative solutions.
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