A social media consultant tells us of his client – the owner of a small restaurant – who’s foray into social media wasn’t what you would call “positive.” It seems a customer of the eatery experienced some bad service at the place, and told his Twitter followers. I’ll let Media Badger tell you what happened next (the emphases are mine):
… Over the next 2 hours over 50 people within the city, and over 20 from outside, had engaged over this “discussion” with many relating their negative (and a some positive) experience with this restaurant. After the third “tweet” I started to follow the discussion, then started to track if it went elsewhere… It did. It hit Facebook and by 3PM that afternoon it had reached 3 bloggers within the city, whereupon several readers of those blogs also commented. The discussion ran to more general comparisons of bad gustatory experiences locally and other fine establishments were bashed as well. Yet the focus remained on this one particular establishment.
Our estimate of reach by 5PM that afternoon was about 4,000 eyeballs in Nova Scotia with 90% of them in the Halifax area. Now, we’re a highly connected city with 5 universities of international renown and a strong financial sector and economy. But we’re only about 400,000 people…
[The business owner]… noticed a 50% drop in business in that time period.
This story shows how Social Media has an impact at your local business whether you participate or not. Luckily, the client in this case was at least paying attention to what was being said, was able to address the shortfall in service, and he recovered.
Do you know what’s being said about your business? Contact me, and we’ll find out together.
