I watched a rerun of one of Gordon Ramsey’s cooking show the other night which made me grin just a tad.

Chef Gordon Ramsay did a Kitchen Nightmares show with a restaurant in which the owners refused to take any direction whatsoever from the chef. (So why did they ask him to help out I wonder)..

That might not have been so bad, but they were caught on camera stealing their employees’ tips, screeching at customers and lying about their food. (They also claimed to make their dinners and desserts fresh, but apparently they purchased most of the food from other sources.)

Naturally criticism of the couple’s practices and their restaurant ran high on social media sites such as Reddit and Facebook, to which the owners responded with all-capped histrionics and name calling. They later claimed their social sites had been hacked, but then proceeded to again use the all-caps to name call and threaten. Talk about distinguishing yourself lol.

Not exactly their finest hour, and probably the death knell for their business.

If you get hit with negative comments on social media, remember this:
The world is watching, and once you put something out there into cyber space, not even the delete button will allow to you to completely take it back because more often than not it’s copied and pasted by those who love to share stuff.

Lessons Learned:
Whilst the world got a huge laugh at Amy’s Baking Company of Scottsdale, Arizona, all you business people everywhere take note:

Do NOT react with anger when you are criticized on social media. I repeat never ever react with anger because it will just come back and bite you on the bum with a vengeance..

Watch it here, it’s a car crash where Gordon went back, it includes the best bits from the original.

I’ve watched it a couple of times, It’s that bad it’s good. (If that makes sense)…


    8 replies to "Oops. What NOT To Do On Social Media…"

    • Glenn Shepherd

      Hi Kim,

      Absolutely spot-on! I know exactly the type of thing to which you’re referring and it screams of unprofessionalism.

      It is precisely this kind of behaviour that almost made me quit the IM space before I’d even got started. Back then, it was more behaviour on forums (or, should I say, one particular, well-known IM forum) more than social media, but the behaviour of some shocked and disgusted me.

      The thing is, these days people are so used to venting their spleens and airing their dirty laundry on social media every day. Just with the Internet in general having played such a big part of life for at least the last 20 years, people are very used to open discussion and sharing of opinions quickly, easily and conveniently.

      Along with that, come the knee-jerk reactions, the ill-thought responses, the plain stupid and even outright bullying.

      I have a saying: online business is a business – NOT a school playground.

      Yet, all too often we see people, even well-respected and supposed ‘big’ names in the industry, resorting to unprofessional, playground-style behaviour.

      “Whaaaaa! She hit me! So I hit her back!”

      “Whaaa-whaaa! I don’t like the way he looked at me!”

      “Whaaa! He stuck his tongue out at me, so I threw mud at him!”

      “She started it!!!”

      Etc, etc…

      How sad it is to see grown adults behaving in precisely the same manner.

      The really unfortunate thing is that many of the people behaving like this are people’s teachers, their coaches, their mentors. Their students see them reacting that way so they assume that it’s okay.

      It is NOT okay.

      Of course, we all have the right to defend ourselves, we all have the right to express ourselves and we all have the right to voice our opinions. But when it comes to our businesses, we need to be very careful as to the manner in which we do this.

      There are those who stubbonly think, “My business, my rules. If anyone else doesn’t like it, well tough. They’re not the ones I want as customers”. Well that’s all fine and good and they have the right to think that way. And they’re correct – it is their business and they can do what they want. But it’s a very short-sighted and potentially self-destructive stance to take.

      They call it “polarizing”.

      I call it naive.

      Of course we all want to polarize people, but there’s a right and a wrong way to go about it. Behaving like a spoiled brat isn’t the way to do it.

      Fortunately for me, I didn’t allow the bad behaviour of some to put me off permanently. I did, for a number of months, question whether I wanted to get into this space and during that time, sadly, my mum fell ill and later passed away. But after this I came back to the IM scene and was determined to make it work.

      Not only was I determined to make it work, but I was determined to stand out as someone who would always stand up for what I believe in and for what is right.

      I wanted to be someone who would always stand my ground, no matter what. If the people who want to behave like school children don’t like that, then that’s their beef.

      I firmly believe that if you put other people first and always treat your customers well, then you will get the rewards for that. After all, why would you want to treat your customers like dirt? I can never get my head around that one…

      For me, I’ve come to the conclusion that although the Internet provides a much more level playing field than ever before for starting a business, the cold, hard truth of the matter is that some people are just not cut out to run a business.

      That brings to mind another saying I have: making money online and online business are not necessarily the same thing.

      You can be making money online, but that doesn’t automatically mean that you are cut out for business. It’s as you said in your post, reacting with anger will come back to bite you in the bum with a vengeance. The same goes for any kind of wrong behaviour.

      You may get away with it for a while, even for a number of years, but there’s only so long you can keep it up before it backfires.

      Thanks for the great post, Kim. I’ve shared it on my social media channels and will also send it out to my list, as this is a very important post that needs to be read. 🙂

      »Glenn«
      Glenn Shepherd recently posted…The Number 1 Reason Why You Don’t Have a Problem Getting TrafficMy Profile

      • kimstanderline

        Hi Glen
        You sound like my sort of chap. (Liked your blog btw).

        Would you by any chance be referring to the warrior forum? If so it was a fantastic place to be back in the wild west days, it was more like a members club where some of the biggest names in IM hung out. But it started to degenerate, I stopped posting and reading in there years ago because it got so bad and folks were just so darn unpleasant..

    • The Great Gordino

      Great point Kim,
      It rarely ends well, as last word syndrome inevitably kicks in, and it looks terrible for 3rd parties (potential customers) – ouch! 😉
      The Great Gordino recently posted…Passion Profits – Can You Really Make Money Online While You Sleep..?My Profile

      • kimstanderline

        Too true Gordon
        BTW I was watching your FB live attempts yesterday, how did it go

        • The Great Gordino

          I’d go with ‘interesting’!
          It kept disconnecting me, freezing and going out of synhc video and audio. I really would prefer not to do it, not because of the ‘live’ aspect which I enjoy, but the tech drawbacks.

          However, it *did* get some engagement, and FB loves it, so I’ll try some more 😉
          Have you tried them?
          The Great Gordino recently posted…Passion Profits – Can You Really Make Money Online While You Sleep..?My Profile

          • kimstanderline

            Hmm, I think I have a face I’d sooner keep for radio, but then I don’t really like hearing myself speak either so I’m a tad stuck. We haven’t all got posh accents like you lol

    • Richard Smith

      As always Kim. You’ve called this right.

      The issues with polarizing and audience are that you should do just that, not argue with them.

      Meawwhile of course, we don’t hear from you enough.

      Richard
      Richard Smith recently posted…Lead Generation and time management are all connected you know…My Profile

      • kimstanderline

        Aww thanks Richard
        Lots of stuff going on offline. Been really busy with the nursey job and foodbank stuff.

        Picking it all up again though now. (That’s what I like about IM)..

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