Social media can create major headaches in small business sales ...

February 27, 2013 in Sales and Marketing, Technology

In at time when poor customer reviews are more harmful than critic rips, recent national news stories prove entrepreneurs should take initiative to control their small business marketing strategy.

A new corporate venture feels the heat
Guy Fieri, the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives host, had enough negative press when Pete Wells of The New York Times destroyed the personality?s new Times Square restaurant?in a November 2012 review. Four months later, Fast Company reports Guy?s American Kitchen & Bar is the laughing-stock of the internet thanks to a highly visible joke?he and his management team could have prevented. The source says a programmer in New York, who Gawker?identifies as Bryan Mytko, bought a domain name brandishing the exact name of the restaurant ? the official site is located at guysamerican.com ? and took the public defacing of the business to new heights through social media sharing.

Gawker?s?analysis of the fake menu shows initial disappointment by the restaurants customers?as it turns out most of the menu items, including ?The ?Hobo Lobo Bordello Slam Jam? Appetizer? and ?Football: The Meal,? are uncredited jokes the URL address owner lifted from various Twitter accounts. For business purposes though, entrepreneurs should be wary of the massive reach one bad review can make when put into the hands of a sprawling online network.

The Times piece on Fieri?s restaurant shows even the pros can be brutal. Of course they have reason if service is truly poor, but business owners have more incentive than ever with such unpredictability?in the media to make excellent small business sales and product quality priorities long before a grand opening.

Social media creates a new breed of critic
Today, everyone is a critic with potentially crushing influence based solely on an individual?s ability to connect with others?rather than?demonstrate?professional input, and PC World suggests it can take a single one-star rating to tank a business? progress. One New York dentist told the source that?s all it took for appointment inquiries to fall from 10 to 15 daily to less than five. These types of results are real, PC World insists, but entrepreneurs can benefit from taking their small business marketing tips for managing social media review sites.

Business owners should let their clients know they can make a difference in the company?s success by sharing their thoughts online, the source reports. While organizations should stay away from posting fake positive reviews, like those Chik-Fil-A was accused of creating on Facebook following the CEO?s controversial gay marriage statements, PC World states they should take caution one step further by avoiding situations where only positive reviews are pushed for. Honesty, the source claims, is the best way to bring a business? social review impact into positive territory, even if it means taking average or good ratings over excellent ones.

If many naysayers have piped up about a business with not-so-nice things to say, another option entrepreneurs have is to reach out directly to those critics, according to the source. On Yelp, for instance, any reviewer is reachable by private message, and executives can also choose to respond publicly for the online world to see. The source warns posting openly can be tricky, but as long as business owners communicate calmly, avoid defensive language and never get into long chains of arguments, they should be safe to share their thoughts on a negative review.

The tech magazine notes some businesses have found great success by turning jokes on themselves. One pizza shop, the source says, slapped a negative but humorous review on t-shirts and continued work as employees rocked them as uniforms. A recovery like this may be difficult for Fieri, but approaching even the most scathing reviews lightly, and with a positive attitude, can help small business owners take back their company?s image successfully.

Source: http://buildmybiz.com/social-media-can-create-major-headaches-in-small-business-sales/