Title: Creating a crisis: an examination of a modern crisis on Twitter

Authors: Michael North

Addresses: School of Arts and Letters, Middle Georgia State University, Room 110F, 100 University Parkway, Macon, Georgia 31206, USA

Abstract: When a Twitter user exposed a marketing mishap by ASOS, the fashion retailer apologised ten minutes later, but failed to address the problem. Over the next few days, 108 user replies were tweeted in response to the ASOS apology tweet. Most of the user replies generated no engagement, but one reply went viral thereby bringing more attention to the ASOS crisis. This study focuses on the 108 user replies to reveal how Twitter users perceived the crisis communication. Important findings include verified users, users with a high number of followers, and users who reply immediately after the crisis response generate the most engagement. Managerial implications are presented based on the results.

Keywords: Twitter; crisis communication; marketing; public relations; social media; situational crisis communication theory; social-mediated crisis communication model.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEMR.2025.144749

International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, 2025 Vol.16 No.2, pp.198 - 217

Received: 02 Feb 2022
Accepted: 09 Jan 2023
Published online: 03 Mar 2025 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article