How Marketing Managers Sense and Seize Social Media Storms

Social media storm (SMS) is usually framed as a crisis situation. However, new research suggests that SMS entails a promotive perspective which can empower some direct and indirect stakeholders namely customers, firms and society. To complement such new findings, and to understand the pathways of marketing managers to sense and seize SMS, this paper surveys the cognitive, affective, and behavioral perspective of SMS to generate novel insights around the domain of marketing management, consumer behavior and technology. A preliminary communication of the results of study on the sample of 226 companies showed that managers are expressing mixed feelings about SMS, but it makes them curious about people's thoughts, and they are prone to open a dialog with upset customers. Since silencing the storm and changing people's minds are preferred actions towards the storm, many managers hesitate to see SMS as an opportunity. Those contradictions call for further research on the alternative approaches to SMS in the area of marketing management.