Centre of gravity: Shitstorm

What is that?
Shitstorm – a storm of criticism, a wave of merciless, sometimes disgusting outrage that spreads online at lightning speed in the wake of a (supposed) misstep or a „misinterpretation“ and which you find yourself almost unprotected against. Direct networking in the online world not only conveys news, but also emotions – and amplifies them.

Sometimes they are also Online Firestorms or in particular Collaborative Brand Attacksas far as they concern a company label or an organisation.

The focus of criticism is usually companies or public figures, but often also other organisations and private individuals who have (allegedly) done something wrong and are now being judged on the digital marketplace.

Shitstorms, especially in the online world, follow their own rules and dynamics, but have a few things in common with conflicts: Misunderstandings, emotional outrage and the resulting reactions correspond in every detail to the phenomena that we can also observe in conflicts.

Introduction to the topic

• A first Overview of the topic there is here.
• Here is one Study on shitstorms (in English). Link
• Digression: Hate speech on the Internet. Link

What to do if an emergency occurs?

• What to do in the event of a shitstorm? How can I protect my trade mark? Link
• Entrepreneurial Shitstorm Resilience – Shitstorm as an opportunity. Link
• Customers out of control – Strategies for customer advisors. Link
• Shitstorm and crisis PR – Questions and answers. Link
• Shitstorm in the context of the Golden Circle by S. Synek. Link
• Shitstorm simulator. Link

Prevention

• One insurance against shitstorms. Link
• Continuous Social media monitoring system. Link
• Shitstorm management explained using an example. Link

Shitstorm – examples

• The 10 most famous shitstorms. Link
• Heinecken – Sometimes brighter is better. Link
• True fruits – Bad publicity is publicity at all. Link