We have seen many brands fall under online attack campaigns where internet users or media outlets attack a certain brand or a public figure. This is one of the most dangerous crises for brands and it can’t be stopped!
What a brand can do in this situation is try to maintain its reputation and wait until the heat goes down and make a statement if it has to.
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In fact, in the past couple of days, we have witnessed a coordinated online attack campaign from media outlets targeting the famous Egyptian singer Amal Maher.
What happened to the singer is called “Collaborative Brand Attacks” (CBA). So, today we will tell you what CBA is and what happened with the famous singer.
CBA On Social Media
CBAs or Collaborative Brand Attacks is when a large number of internet users attack a brand on social media platforms. Usually, this attack happens when a brand fails to satisfy its customers, and sometimes this attack is coordinated.
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We will give you two examples of the coordinated and none coordinated one. A couple of weeks ago internet users attacked the telecom brand “We Telecom” for its bad internet service; it actually turned into an attack campaign as many people were attacking the brand on social media platforms.
As for the coordinated one, you can see it with what happened to Amal Maher.
It’s worth mentioning that collaborative brand attacks -when it’s done by the users- can have both positive and negative effects. The positive effect is that it can make the brand enhance its product or service and improve the whole brand and the negative effect is that it can completely destroy it.
The Online Attack On Amal Maher
Right after Amal Maher had held a successful concert in Al-Alamein, some famous media outlets claimed that the concert was an epic fail and she gave a low-quality performance.
The famous media outlets like Rotana channels and LBC claimed that the concert’s guests had left early due to the terrible performance and that the tickets were distributed for free!
آمال ماهر تخذل الجماهير وتقدم أداء في غاية السوء ليضطر متعهد الحفل لتوزيع التذاكر مجاناً https://t.co/qCcy3dwC9c#حفلة_آمال_ماهر pic.twitter.com/OvX9V0kEo4
— rotana (@rotana) July 29, 2022
آمال ماهر تخذل الجماهير وتقدم أداء في غاية السوء ليضطر متعهد الحفل لتوزيع التذاكر مجاناً https://t.co/aU7tGgmDo1#حفلة_آمال_ماهر pic.twitter.com/WUt9JUjcsF
— LBC (@LBC_TV) July 29, 2022
آمال ماهر تخذل الجماهير وتقدم أداء في غاية السوء ليضطر متعهد الحفل لتوزيع التذاكر مجاناً https://t.co/Qbrgey9yiw#حفلة_آمال_ماهر pic.twitter.com/cctLkdEgBF
— روتانا سينما (@RotanaCinemaTV) July 29, 2022
آمال ماهر تخذل الجماهير وتقدم أداء في غاية السوء ليضطر متعهد الحفل لتوزيع التذاكر مجاناً https://t.co/0wBdQFJmuM#حفلة_آمال_ماهر pic.twitter.com/BUusOcpQwq
— روتانا موسيقى (@RotanaMousicaTV) July 29, 2022
It was obvious that this was a coordinated attack campaign since all the media outlets wrote the exact same caption on their social media platforms! This drove Egyptians and Maher’s fans to respond aggressively and expose these media outlets.
How Egyptians Responded
Many Egyptians started collecting screenshots from the news and posted them on social media to show that this campaign is coordinated and not based on facts!
Some people also posted photos from the concert and video snippets to show the huge crowd and Maher’s successful performance and great voice while others attacked those media outlets in the comments exposing their lies, and that the news is coordinated.
سكريبت مهروش 😂😂😂
— asem mohammed (@3asoum) July 31, 2022
Shame on you LBC
— L🚫L🅰️ (@Soly01270) July 31, 2022
كيف يعني ؟
العادة يحرجو ع التذاكر وقت الحفلة ، واذا كان الاداء كويس تمشي كل التذاكر و اذا لا يوزعوها مجانا .
— سليمان 𐩪𐩡𐩺𐩣𐩱𐩬 𐩱𐩡𐩤𐩧𐩬𐩺 (@Sam_alqarni) July 31, 2022
خبر مدفوع الثمن
— سيد البيد (@ismaelrobaei1) July 31, 2022
هو انت حضرت الحلفه ي روتنا؟ 😂😂😂🙂
— Batool Alshmali (@AlshmaliBatool) July 31, 2022
معلش عارفين شعوركم.. باين عليكم جدا
أمال ماهر ابدعت و الجمهور ابدع ايضا
— nadia moniem (@NadiaMoniem) July 30, 2022
This response has led to the coordinated campaign to fire back and not achieve the goal it was created for. So, not all coordinated attacks succeed.
CBA Is Not New, Can It Be Stopped?
Well, you can’t stop people from writing on social media, right? But you can take actions to maintain your reputation and secure your business by setting brand reputation tracking tools and creating pre-prepared protocol/s to respond. Also, always remember to consult your PR advisor.
In some situations, sometimes the brand or the person under attack doesn’t need to respond as the people on the internet defend them just like what happened with the singer Amal Maher. People were aware that this is a coordinated attack campaign so they started to defend and the campaign received a huge backlash.
But what if the people didn’t respond, as brand what can you do?
Here’s how you can act.
First of all, you have to do detailed research on this attack and know if it is coordinated or stating the truth. If the attack is based on false information, you can use your social media platform to make a statement to prove that what is spreading is rumors and false information.
If it is correct, then tell your side of the story, promise your customers a product enhancement, and try to solve the problem with the angry customers.
Second, you have to act immediately; don’t spend too much time trying to comprehend what is going on! The fast response will show that your brand cares about its customers and actually listens to them, whether the attack is based on true information or not.
You can also use Talkwalker.com to help spot the negative comments on your brand.
One great lesson can be learned from this, which is forming a strong bond and gaining loyal customers or fans will save you from many possible crises.
