Misuse of Social Technology - Week 9 Activty

Organisations are always trying to make the most of social technologies these days and generally hey get the job done right. But if there are good things, there also bad things that can come from these tools. So which organisation 'misused' social technology?

Amy's Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro is an upscale full service Retail Patisserie as well as a full service European Bistro & Bar.

Restaurant owners Samy and Amy Bouzaglo were featured on an episode of Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares. They were soon dumped by Ramsey after being too difficult to work with. After airing, they received negative feedback through social media which appeared to had struck a nerve in the couple. They replied by using Facebook as a means to defend themselves against all the hateful comments. However, many of us understand that there are certain ways to deal with negative comments. The Bouzaglo's ended up pouring more oil on the fire as the comments kept piling on top of each other. It got to the point where the pair were uploading posts full of foul language and threats whilst trying to defend each other. Here is a link to their Facebook page.

From this,

To this,

Receiving bad feedback from a well known chef on national television is already bad for business. But to be provoked by hateful comments and to search and reply to these post with just as negative language only makes things worse. The couple then tried to defend themselves again by saying that they were hacked which only fueled readers to argue their point even further. The outburst on Facebook resulted in the downfall of the Bouzaglo's reputation and thus reduce the number of customers they would have. Reputation and ratings are the most important things to a restaurant. Having bad reputation on sites that are there to get your business brand out in the public and poor rating is the last thing any restaurant owner wants.

It is hard to say how much they actually lost but receiving a negative review would have only led  a decrease in customers. This could mean increased expenses via employee wages, produce and lane as they would not be hitting weekly or monthly targets. 

Restaurant owners like this can avoid misusing social technology by simply not using social technology as a means to vent out. The posts can also be removed from the main page to avoid further commenting and communication between the owners and users. Professionalism should always be shown. Education is another way to avoid misuse of social technology as it provides awareness and experience for different situations [1].

So has there ever been time where you regretted using social technology? Thanks for reading. Don't forget to head to my profile if you have any questions.

[1] Dundas Lawyers, "Legal risks of social networking for business". [Online]. Available: http://www.dundaslawyers.com.au/legal-risks-of-social-networking-for-business/. [Accessed: September 9, 2014]