ABSTRACT
Data – in particular big data – is transforming the means and modes of businesses’ interactions with the customers. Drawing on the characteristics of big data, this chapter explains how media storms are shaped up by the actual content (i.e., volume); media types, and the sentiment portrayed there (i.e., variety); the spreading potential of the content in terms of velocity, impact, and e-WOM (i.e., virality); the different windows through which the content can be viewed (i.e., visuality) and the extent of realism (i.e., veracity) of the content perceived by the customers. This chapter also presents the categorical variations of social media storms meant to serve different purposes, for example, trolls, retaliation against company actions. Next, the chapter highlights the properties of media storms by demonstrating the typical properties of media storms which include but are not limited to the magnitude of failure, dialog media, product type, brand equity, loyalty status, etc.
After reading this chapter, the reader will:
Know the role of data in social media storms and gain insights into how the different characteristics of data shape up social media storms;
Understand the types of social media storms, the purposes served by each, and the typical properties of social media storms;
Have a detailed understanding of social media storms in terms of their contributors, varieties, and constituents.
