Social media rules the world, just ask Applebee’s.
Real time connection and conversations with friends, family, celebrities, companies, and even the pope dominate online activity, but their impacts are not limited to the internet; it’s not Vegas, afterall–what happens there doesn’t stay there. So although social media provides great opportunities for brands to meet their consumers, doing social media wrong can be costly. The most recent corporate social media victims include Go Daddy and (you guessed it) Applebee’s, who we will be covering for today’s two for Tuesday.
Go Daddy’s Supper Bowl Blunder
Well, if you havn’t heard, Go Daddy’s a bad kisser. After Go Daddy (who bought air time for the first commercial break during this year’s Super Bowl) unveiled their new commercial “The Kiss,” the Twittosphere responded with their displeasure in seconds. After viewers saw the extremely loud (and rather revolting) kiss, the hash tag #nodaddy began trending– no bueno, Go Daddy.
Fortunately for Go Daddy, people had other things to tweet about during the Super Bowl, such as other (well received ads), Beyonce and that football thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB3UTpt84mE
While Go Daddy may have two sides- sexy and smart- they both probably want to make money. Perhaps someone should have told Go Daddy when the two sides came together, it wasn’t too sexy or smart.
Applebee’s Facebook Fiasco
By Nicole Hernandez
So here’s the situation: a pastor, who was dining with a large party in a St. Louis, MO Applebee’s, showed her displeasure with being charged an 18% gratuity tip by writing, “I only give God 10%, why should I give you 18%?” The server showed the note (which was written on the recipt) to her coworker who, in turn snaps a photo… and loads it onto Facebook (here’s where the world comes into play.) Applebee’s fires the coworker (as she breached her contract’s social media policy); however, the restaurant chain left the social media world in dismay: the internet minds demanded the reason for her termination and petitioned for her rehire by beginning groups on Facebook and bombarding the companies Facebook and Twitter pages. However, (it seems) Applebee’s wasn’t too sure what to do with the negative PR as they deleted and hid comments, blocked users, left unclear and nowhere near concise comments, and called out social media users by name… at 2:00 AM. Obviously, the negative PR continued.
Now, I live and breathe social media and upon reading about the unfortunate situation that resulted in a social media out lash from thousands of people, I’m surprised Applebee’s social media ‘gurus’ (laugh here) seemed to lack common sense on how to approach this crisis.
If I were responsible for Applebee’s social media posts, I probably would have concluded that social media just wasn’t ‘my type of thing.’ I’ll answer the following ‘common sense’ questions that I only hoped Applebee’s considered as all the madness erupted:
- Should I have referenced the a social media policy (who doesn’t have one these days?): There probably wasn’t one.
- Did we think about one clear and concise response? Not really.
- Did we issue an update as soon as possible? No.
- Should we have posted a status update with our response to the situation instead of posting our comment only to have it buried with thousands more? Yes.
- Should we have tagged and responded to individual comments? No – kids, don’t try that at home.
- Should we have hid and/or deleted posts? No the damage has been done, screen shots have been made.
So remember folks, impressions- to say the least- matter. Think of social media like high school– you don’t want to be viewed as the bad kisser or the bad teacher.
Cover Photo Source: Bre Pettis via Flickr
Photo Source 1: Anthony92931 via Wikimedia Commons
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://wpmaster.sjadv.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Cassandra-Bremer-Our-Space-Photo-e1402061863316.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Cassandra is a Content Manager and Developer at SJG. She earned her BA from Fontbonne University in 2011. Outside the office, she enjoys an active, healthy and well-rounded lifestyle including reading, writing, running, golfing, watching films, listening to music, taking photographs, and consuming media and social media.[/author_info] [/author]
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://wpmaster.sjadv.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Nicole.png[/author_image] [author_info]Nicole Hernandez is the Social Media Manager at SJG. She’s a Chicagoan who graduated from DePaul University with a BA in Public Relations & Advertising and minor in Journalism. Nicole is known to her peers as being online all the time – while in her spare time you can find her taking footage on her phone as she’s rocking out at music festivals. She’s also training to be the new water girl at Chicago Bulls games (in her dreams). [/author_info] [/author]