The Effect of Social Media in Crisis Management and a Study on Reputation Management: The Case of Eyüp Sabir Tuncer

Yiğit Açıkgöz F.

Anemon Muş Alparslan Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, vol.14, no.1, pp.268-293, 2026 (TRDizin)

Abstract

Crises can quickly damage the reputation of brands and consumer trust; social media stands out as a critical tool that shapes perception by strengthening these effects. This study aims to examine the reputational crisis of Eyüp Sabri Tuncer brand, which emerged with the allegations that some of its products were recalled in European Union countries, in the light of consumer reactions on the X platform. In particular, it investigates how the recall allegations shape consumer perception through social media and to what extent the communication strategies adopted within the framework of Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) protect customer loyalty and brand reputation. The data set consists of 300 user comments compiled from the X platform with API-supported manual and automated methods between 1 January-31 December 2024; duplicate, off-topic and emoji-only content was eliminated in the pre-processing stage. Sentiment analysis was classified according to polarity and subjectivity metrics using TextBlob library in Python environment; topic modelling was performed with Latent Dirichlet Allocation (α=0.1; β=0.01) on three topic axes and the coherency score of the model was verified as 0.42. The findings show that 51% of the comments are positive, 31% are negative and 18% are neutral. While transparency and quick information strengthened customer loyalty, security concerns and lack of information fuelled negative perceptions. The study deepens the applicability of SCCT to the social media environment and provides concrete recommendations for communication professionals to develop strategies that focus on transparency, speed and consistency during a crisis.