Social Media Suicide

When it comes to managing social media reputation, no one failed harder than Applebee’s did in 2013. At the time, the restaurant fired one of its employees for posting a receipt from a customer who crossed out the included gratuity and wrote, “I give God 10% why do you get 18?” The company cited the employee’s contract as well as privacy issues as grounds for the termination.

Applebee’s posted an apology to the guest on their Facebook page, making no mention of said employee.

Social media users raised their imaginary pitchforks in defense of the waitress, pointing out that other receipts—which were positive—had been posted to Facebook before. Then, disaster struck.

Someone who had full reigns to the Applebee’s Facebook page began responding to each and every negative comment in the middle of the night. To make matters worse, the responses were copy and pasted, further angering users. Then, Applebee’s did the unholiest thing in social media networking: they began hiding and deleting negative comments as well as blocking users. Which—surprise!—spawned twice as many negative actions. R.L. Stellar (whom I wholeheartedly credit all screenshots to from his amazing photo essay) cited about 20,000 comments overnight, most of them negative. Confused Applebee’s Facebook Manager then decided to post an essay-length comment to the original status update. 

But wait, it gets better. Applebee’s then starts posting that same comment over and over again, tagging people who have commented something negative. Users did not respond kindly. As the night goes on, Confused Applebee’s Facebook Manager resorts to tagging people and arguing with them. Sigh.

Morning arrives, and the company posts one more status update thanking fans for “the chance to explain.”

As a social media manager, you cannot deflect incidents like this. Additionally, it’s impossible to ignore that people were extremely angry about the termination of the employee. Regardless of company policy, Applebee’s should’ve stepped up to save face.

In that situation, I would’ve contacted my PR director and/or crisis manager. You should never be making decisions on your own in the middle of the night… (AKA step away from the keyboard). Second, an official apology should’ve been drafted, specifically addressing the employee termination. The apology should be posted once and only once. Things will eventually blow over and people will move on to the next disaster. Third, reassess the company policy and perhaps reinstate employee with some sort of ceremony thanking her for all her hard work and awarding her with an all-expenses paid vacation. Crisis. Averted.