7 Small Business Social Media Disasters
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You’ve likely seen how well some large companies, like Taco Bell, can handle social media. They understand how to interact with their customers and even how to take a negative comment and turn it back around as a positive joke. Similarly, you might remember some really insensitive or just generally negative responses from large companies that has damaged their reputation online. Of course, these companies are big enough that they can deal with some bad social media attention. On the other hand, smaller businesses need to be much more careful about what they post if they want to avoid the chopping block.
1. Amy’s Baking Company
After being featured on Gordon Ramsey’s show, “Kitchen Nightmares,” this bakery in Scottsdale, Arizona decided to go on a pretty serious rant. Though they blamed hackers for the incident, there are definitely some inconsistencies with their story and this type of behavior simply can’t ever end well for a business.
And this trend continued….
2. Spearmint Rhino (Melbourne Australia)
Since the company now operates in about 20 locations, it could hardly be considered small as a whole. However, this mistake was made specifically by the Australia location, which brought about some bad press. It might have been fine, except the baby picture they were using would have meant they had a 14-year-old on staff. Though this may be excusable for some businesses, it is not for a gentleman’s club.
3. London Luton Airport
Though they have since deleted their post, a post following a Chicago airplane crash said: “Because we are such a super airport… this is what we prevent you from when it snows… Weeeee :)” What they failed to consider is that a child died in that plane crash. Though it might not have destroyed their business, it definitely was not a smart move.
4. Pigalle
Located in Boston, this restaurant showed that it could not take criticism very well. If this had come from one of its employees, it would have been bad enough. After getting a bad review on Facebook and responding from the official restaurant account, this spelled bad news.
5. Ninja City
Hailing from Cleveland with an Asian fusion restaurant, this owner might have been alright if he just accepted a one-star Yelp review. Instead, he berated the customer, calling him weak, and insulted his girlfriend as well. He insisted that the customer never come back and in the process, he lost more than a handful of other customers.
6. Thai Noodles, Etc. House
Apparently, restaurant owners are not very good at managing their social media accounts. This restaurant showed off its issues after the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012. Apparently, that shooting was not very significant and the owner didn’t care about white kids dying. Instead, he thought people should worry more about missiles launched at schools in Gaza. Sure, there should be some worldly sympathy, but that doesn’t excuse this sort of behavior. To make matters worse, he responded to criticism by hunkering down even more and sticking to his guns. You can’t really see a picture of the incident anymore because his Facebook page has since been deleted.
Are there any other small business social media disasters you have witnessed? How do you think a company can recover from these sorts of disasters? Share your stories in the comments below!
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